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Originally Posted by rachelcb80  Thanks everyone for your replies. Sounds like it's possible my puppy can be totally potty trained one day.
I'm a little confused about bedtime though. I hear over and over that the crate only needs to be big enough for them to stand up and turn around in. No bigger. I understand the reasoning behind this (they won't potty in their bed) but 8 hours is to long for them to hold it at this point, isn't it? (8 weeks old) Aren't they likely to go at night regardless of how small the crate is because they just can't hold it anymore? I give him his last offering of food and water about 2 hours before bed but he still pees at night.
Also I'm a little confused as to where the potty pad fits in to it all. Is the potty pad an alternative to taking the puppy outside? If they go on the pad are they thinking that means they can go anywhere in the house or do they learn the pad is the only place inside they can go? Should I be using the potty pad for more than just night time?
Thanks again everyone! |
Since your puppy is 8 weeks old, he probably can't hold it all night. Also, having him in a big crate where he uses one area to sleep and pees on the other area during the night would not help. The best way to do it would be to get a smaller crate, and you'll have to wake up in the middle of the night to let him pee, once or twice a night. You wouldn't need to do this forever though, my Brownie is 3.5 month old and he can hold it until 6am =)
Once he behaves well and does not pee inside the crate anymore, you can probably just leave him in his open crate, and put the whole setup inside a playpen/x-pen. He'll go out and pee inside the pen area, but outside his crate.
And in case you are wondering, I don't really think there's any way around waking up in the middle to let him go potty. He's young, so you'll have to be responsible for his night-time potties =) Just like how you would make little kids and babies go for a wee during night
