another Potty training question & pic

[mantine]

Grizzley is almost 5 months now and he is doing very well with house training, as long as I am paying attention to him he has no accidents in the house. But i have a question. We usually keep him locked up at night and he holds his #2 until we let him out in the morning but he will pee at least once. We keep newspaper down for him and thats where he goes, but I dont want him to keep thinking its ok to go, should I start not putting paper down at night a see if he holds it? Or is he still to young. He usually gets put away around midnight and let out at 6 am (even on weekends). We put him out before we put him away.

Grizzley - here is a pic of him:

http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x310/chrispax2007/?action=view&current=grizz1-1.jpg

[Fran27]

I don't like pads really, it can just confuse the dog about where he can and where he cannot go.

Can you try to push the newspaper closer and closer to the door, then put it outside, so he knows that's where he has to go?

[mantine]

Well, he knows to go outside, he will come to me and cry a little when he has to go, and I have slowly made the newspaper area smaller and smaller. But at night he doesn't cry to go out. I am wondering if he is old enough to hold it for 6-7 hours yet. Should I try it one night and see what happens?

[squirtsmom]

Well, our pup holds it all night. When do you pick up the food and water at night? We pick ours up at 7, and she doesn't get anything again until the morning. Maybe she is drinking too late at night to hold it. Just a thought.

[Ilyena]

My pup has held it all night since he was 3 months old (he's 4 months now). Never used any paper inside cause I didn't want to confuse him. I just took him out once a night the first month I had him, then he started holding it 6 hours and now holds it up to 8-9 hours. I didn't even have to limit food/water intake during the evenings. But I was probably quite lucky to get a pup so easy to housetrain as from what I had heard, I expected it to be much harder.

[dandandat]

We had a hard time training Sammy, for the nights we decided to up her crate in our room. That way even if she didn’t cry to go to the bath room one of us (read me) would hear her and wake up. We’d then take her out. As she got older and learned that outside was the preferable place to go I would try to push back an hour letting her go out until she lasted the whole night. Once we where confident she could hold it at night we no longer put her in the crate at night, but let her sleep at the foot of the bed.

[LuvsDogs]

I've had no problems toilet training my 2 dogs, both female, I've heard their easier. They both sleep/slept in a small lino covered room at night. I put them out before bed & Sooty, the younger one, was able to hold all night from 10 weeks old. It depends on the type of dog. I would follow the advice of the other posters, gradually move the smaller piece of paper until its under the door & eventually outside.

[mantine]

I was originally taking away his food but leaving him water at night but now I leave both. I just started leaving food with him a night and during the day when I am at work about a week ago and have noticed a big change in his behavior since then. He use to want to get up between 3:30am and 5am and not want to go back to bed which meant no sleep for me, with the food he's staying quiet until we get him out at 6am and he has been listening to commands better and not jumping up on me as much either.

[SisMorphine]

Personally I would be crating the dog, NOT free feeding at all, and not leaving water overnight. This is what I did with Teeny and she was holding it 8 hours by 4 months old, now at 7 months she can go 12 hours at night.

[girlbuffalo1]

Definitely should be able to hold it 6 hours--I would venture to say even 8--at 3-4 months Wrigley could hold it no problem for 8 hours. We never had papers or pads as an option though for him ever--so I'm not sure if that might cause problems. I would take everything out of crate (no bedding/papers) and make it as small as possible--and see how he does! Good luck!

[Denaluvscorgis]

I agree that training with pads or newspapers is not a great idea. I would suggest taking your pup out once in the middle of the night. I have a 4 year old Dacshund who always has to go out at least once a night. Some dogs aren't able to hold it all night, especially when they're still a puppy.

Griz is a lovely pup!!:)