# When to stop the late night potty breaks?



## BrooklynBonnie (Jan 16, 2015)

I don't think he'll hold it for the full 8 hours. My pup is almost 5 months and she has been stuck at 6 hours for over a month now. She sleeps in a crate next to our bed usually and I am normally woken up by her moving around and whining about the 6 hour mark after bedtime. Much better than every 2 hours when we started, but hope she can make it 8 hours in the future.

Learned the hard way last night that she won't wake me up if she's not in her crate. My husband and I slept on the couch (old habit from college days) and Mochi slept between my legs most of the night. Well a little over 6 hours after we fell asleep, I got up to take her out and noticed a wet spot on the couch where she had been laying. Oops. Back into the crate/bed for sure tonight! And sticking to taking her out after 6 hours in bed too, unless I want to wash her towel everyday. I'm sure she'll eventually start sleeping longer, like everyone on here says.


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## emme (Mar 20, 2015)

BrooklynBonnie said:


> I don't think he'll hold it for the full 8 hours. My pup is almost 5 months and she has been stuck at 6 hours for over a month now. She sleeps in a crate next to our bed usually and I am normally woken up by her moving around and whining about the 6 hour mark after bedtime. Much better than every 2 hours when we started, but hope she can make it 8 hours in the future.
> 
> Learned the hard way last night that she won't wake me up if she's not in her crate. My husband and I slept on the couch (old habit from college days) and Mochi slept between my legs most of the night. Well a little over 6 hours after we fell asleep, I got up to take her out and noticed a wet spot on the couch where she had been laying. Oops. Back into the crate/bed for sure tonight! And sticking to taking her out after 6 hours in bed too, unless I want to wash her towel everyday. I'm sure she'll eventually start sleeping longer, like everyone on here says.


I love your signature. Need that to keep track of my guy's age!

He did sleep through 7 hours in his crate once but that was after an exhausting day trip around the city. Maybe I'll try working up to the entire night. He's still quite small (6lbs).


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## twyla (Apr 28, 2010)

the most the Miss Pia Maria makes is 6 some times 6 1/2 hours, she is almost 28 weeks old but I brought her home just two months ago and began housebreaking her. My girls are trained to pee-pads because last winter was looong.


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## BrooklynBonnie (Jan 16, 2015)

You can get an age ticker for your own signature by clicking on any of the ones you see in our messages. 

About the pup and sleeping: I'm letting her tell me when she is ready for longer nights. I started waiting another extra 30 or 60 seconds when she whined before I would get up and was able to nix the 4am trip she had me doing each early AM regardless of when we went to bed. At one point I thought she had been at 6 hours for too long (it's been 2 months now) so I thought I would try not getting up at all when she whined at the 6 hour mark, and let her go to 7 hours once, and she did wet her towel in the crate when I checked so I'm going back to 6hours. I figure she'll start sleeping longer on her own at night once she sleeps less during the day. Right now she sleeps most of the day except for our walk and about an hour when my husband comes home from work.


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## Scully (Sep 30, 2014)

try pushing the time you take him out later by 15 minutes for a couple days if hes still dry increase another 15 mins and continue. if he has soiled the crate at any point push it back 15 mins and stay at that for a while to get him used to it. That way you can gradually increase the time till you want to get up and know for sure if he can hold it.


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## emme (Mar 20, 2015)

BrooklynBonnie said:


> You can get an age ticker for your own signature by clicking on any of the ones you see in our messages.
> 
> About the pup and sleeping: I'm letting her tell me when she is ready for longer nights. I started waiting another extra 30 or 60 seconds when she whined before I would get up and was able to nix the 4am trip she had me doing each early AM regardless of when we went to bed. At one point I thought she had been at 6 hours for too long (it's been 2 months now) so I thought I would try not getting up at all when she whined at the 6 hour mark, and let her go to 7 hours once, and she did wet her towel in the crate when I checked so I'm going back to 6hours. I figure she'll start sleeping longer on her own at night once she sleeps less during the day. Right now she sleeps most of the day except for our walk and about an hour when my husband comes home from work.


That sounds quite tricky. Do you plan to keep her up during the day to get her to sleep at night?

Scully, 15 minute increments sound good (I've already managed an extra hour). We'll see where his limits are. He hasn't soiled his crate in weeks so here's to hoping we keep it this way!


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## FireStorm (Nov 9, 2013)

Is your puppy waking you up to go out, or are you getting up on your own to let him out? I have a Spoo, so I'm sure he can hold it a lot longer than a toy, but I only let him out at night if he asked when he was little. He never soiled his crate, but he did whine to go out if he needed to. He started sleeping through the night pretty young though.


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## emme (Mar 20, 2015)

FireStorm said:


> Is your puppy waking you up to go out, or are you getting up on your own to let him out? I have a Spoo, so I'm sure he can hold it a lot longer than a toy, but I only let him out at night if he asked when he was little. He never soiled his crate, but he did whine to go out if he needed to. He started sleeping through the night pretty young though.


We're getting up to let him out. Thing is, I'm not sure if he's vocal enough to wake us up. Will it set us back in potty/crate training if he has an accident inside?


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## BrooklynBonnie (Jan 16, 2015)

emme said:


> That sounds quite tricky. Do you plan to keep her up during the day to get her to sleep at night?


Puppies naturally sleep more than adult dogs. Mine just sleeps a LOT right now. As she grows, she'll start wanting to be awake more, at least from what I've read on this board. So I expect she'll be more tired at bedtime and able to stay asleep longer. I've also worked more on getting her tired during the day by taking her to a dog run to play for at least an hour every day this week instead of a boring walk. She did sleep an extra hour one night, but was back to 6 hours the next night. 

Also, it's not like she is up for the day at the 6 hour mark, I just take her out and then she goes back in her crate with a small special treat and sleeps again until it's time to get up for the day. (usually, lol)


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## BrooklynBonnie (Jan 16, 2015)

emme said:


> We're getting up to let him out. Thing is, I'm not sure if he's vocal enough to wake us up. Will it set us back in potty/crate training if he has an accident inside?



I was worried about the same with my pup. For the first month or so she was mum when she needed to go out during the day so we had a lot of pees in the house if I wasn't paying close enough attention. But for some reason, when she's in her crate even back then, she whines louder and louder and eventually barks when she needs to go out. I think it's (thankfully) the instinct to not wet her sleeping place which made her vocal in the crate.


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## Marcie (Aug 2, 2011)

My little GiGi is 6 years old. We go to bed between 8 and 9 p.m. and she wakes up around midnight to go out. But then my husband usually gets home around that time from work so she, Sasha and Kirby, the Pomeranian, get up to visit him, and once awake they have to potty. After they all come back to bed they will usually sleep until 6 a.m. and then all go out to potty. When I get home for lunch at 1:00 p.m., I let them all out to potty and then again when I get home at 5:30 and several times after that until bedtime. GiGi, Kirby and Cesar like being outside so they ask to go out a lot when I am home usually to go out sniff around and chase squirrels. I guess basically they are on a 4 hour schedule. 

I got GiGi when she was 4 years old as a breeder surrender at the Rescue and she never had good potty habits anyway. If she is in the house and nobody pays attention to her, she just squats and goes but most of the time she actually asks to go out. She seems to like to go on the cement patio more than on the grass. I guess old habits die hard. 

Sasha is 12 years old and will sleep through the night. In fact I have to get her up in the morning and make her go out to do her business. If she does have go out in the middle of the night for any reason, (like she hears my husband come in) she can wake the dead! What Sasha wants, Sasha gets!

Cesar is 9 years old and will ask to go out. He was really trained well by his previous owner. Kirby is 10 and could hold it forever! I let him out whenever he asks as well as the scheduled outings. It is GiGi, that is my little pee pod and I believe that is just because of her being a kennel dog.


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## emme (Mar 20, 2015)

As it turned out, our lil guy learned how to use a potty bell! We're still crating/taking him out early in the morning (5-6am) but hopefully he'll get trained enough to start sleeping out in his new bed at night. Thanks again, everyone!



Marcie said:


> My little GiGi is 6 years old. We go to bed between 8 and 9 p.m. and she wakes up around midnight to go out. But then my husband usually gets home around that time from work so she, Sasha and Kirby, the Pomeranian, get up to visit him, and once awake they have to potty. After they all come back to bed they will usually sleep until 6 a.m. and then all go out to potty. When I get home for lunch at 1:00 p.m., I let them all out to potty and then again when I get home at 5:30 and several times after that until bedtime. GiGi, Kirby and Cesar like being outside so they ask to go out a lot when I am home usually to go out sniff around and chase squirrels. I guess basically they are on a 4 hour schedule.
> 
> I got GiGi when she was 4 years old as a breeder surrender at the Rescue and she never had good potty habits anyway. If she is in the house and nobody pays attention to her, she just squats and goes but most of the time she actually asks to go out. She seems to like to go on the cement patio more than on the grass. I guess old habits die hard.
> 
> ...


Goodness, that is quite a diverse lot in the potty department! We have a similar day schedule to yours with 4-5 hour intervals being the goal. Hopefully consistency will bring us more convenient results. Amazing of you to be able to manage all of your little ones when I can barely keep up with one puppy :adore:


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