Sleeping Inside Overnight

[Ausmoz]

Emma has been sleeping outside in a kennel since we got her. We'd always planned to have her sleeping inside eventually, but after trialling one night and having a huge mess to clean up the next day, we decided to wait until she had at least some idea about toilet training. I don't know if she completely has the idea now, but it's been a while since she had an accident.

I feel guilty that she's been outside for even this long. She has blankets and pillows, but it's really cold, and she has a short coat.

My partner has 2 weeks of holidays at the end of the week, and it would be an ideal time to bring her inside. He can take her out during the night if she needs to go.

I know a crate generally makes toilet training easier, but we don't have the money to buy one at the moment. Apart from crate training, does anyone have any tips about moving her inside? I'd like to have her bed somewhere on our bedroom floor. We have wooden floor boards, so I was planning to set her up in the bedroom from the start and see how she goes.

Any advice?

[Missy]

we got one of those cheap $20 compost mesh enclosures from bunnings (thanx to dol) and set up a pen in the rumpus room for our babies when we dont want them having the run of the house. Perhaps you could get one of these and use it as a sleeping area for puppy that way you can contain where she is and save your home of doggy do.

If you dont want puppy doing their business in it you will have to section it off so it is not big enough for her to make a mess as dogs dont like to do their business where they sleep.

[cavNrott]

Emma has been sleeping outside in a kennel since we got her. We'd always planned to have her sleeping inside eventually, but after trialling one night and having a huge mess to clean up the next day, we decided to wait until she had at least some idea about toilet training. I don't know if she completely has the idea now, but it's been a while since she had an accident.

I feel guilty that she's been outside for even this long. She has blankets and pillows, but it's really cold, and she has a short coat.

My partner has 2 weeks of holidays at the end of the week, and it would be an ideal time to bring her inside. He can take her out during the night if she needs to go.

I know a crate generally makes toilet training easier, but we don't have the money to buy one at the moment. Apart from crate training, does anyone have any tips about moving her inside? I'd like to have her bed somewhere on our bedroom floor. We have wooden floor boards, so I was planning to set her up in the bedroom from the start and see how she goes.

Any advice?

I would have gone about it from the opposite angle. I would have had the pup inside right from the start in a confined area and taken her outside every hour to train her to toilet outside. You may have to toilet train her from scratch if she's been an outside dog all her life.

I agree with you that it's too cold to have a pup sleeping outside this weather but I doubt she's toilet trained herself if no one has shown her what's expected of her.

I dont know how old she is but they can hold on longer as they grow. Still, if she hasn't been house trained then she still won't know what to do until you teach her. Good luck.

[Guest Tiggy]

My dogs sleep in my room including the new pup. He hasn't had an accident in my room all week and he's only 10 weeks. I take him out to the toilet a few times during the night.

[Dogsfevr]

Yep unfortunately you have missed the crucial stage for toilet training & you may find your job to be much harder now.You may also be lucky & have a dog that learns quickly but you need to understand all she has been taught at present is shes outside & can toilet when ever without having to hang on.

" but after trialling one night and having a huge mess to clean up the next day, we decided to wait until she had at least some idea about toilet training."

what did you expect ??puppies mean accidients but training starts day 1 & the first accidient was your learning/teaching tool all that happened is you obviously found it inconvient so turfed her out without her understanding why.

Dogs dont toilet train themselves there like toddlers you show them the right & wrongs

I dare say no one got up to take her out either so the mess was human error not pups.

has the pup been allowed in the house during the day??

My advice would be to buy a baby gate & let her sleep in an area easy to clean up because there will be many accidients before success

[Poodle wrangler]

Sorry, how old is pup now?

Doggy door leading to a small, tiled laundry a possibility?

Dog coat?

If she's not toilet trained, she won't even know to let you know she has to go outside. Likely mess in bedroom .

Is she normally inside or outside when you're home?

A medium size crate is only about $120 (or less) new. I'd say it's worth it for the lack of mess.

[Ausmoz]

From a couple of the responses, I guess I might not have given enough detail.

Emma is now 18 weeks old. When we first got her from the Animal Welfare League she was 14 weeks old and hadn't been toilet trained at all. The first night it was pretty obvious that she hadn't even attempted to hold it. Yes it was a pain to clean up, but of course I didn't see it as something she had done wrong, just something that she obviously didn't know about.

We chose to leave her outside at night so that she never, or almost never, went to the toilet inside. We read that every mistake that gets made is a step in the wrong direction... Our reasoning at the time was that the whole thing would go more smoothly if we spent some time toilet training her during the day before we expected her to "automatically" hold it at night.

We've now had her for 4 weeks, and she's been inside whenever we've been there to watch her. It's not like she's been an "outside dog" that we have to start again with. We both work, so we leave her outside during the day where she has a lot to play with, and she is with us when we're home.

We take her out to go to the toilet, and we've had a lot of success with toilet training, to the point that she now sometimes heads to the back door by herself when she needs to go. There haven't been any accidents for at least two weeks.

I feel that now there is a good chance that if we keep her in overnight she will at least attempt to hold it until we take her for a toilet trip (which we are fully prepared to do).

I guess we could have gone about things differently, but she is our first dog, and although we read books first, the main message we got was "watch like a hawk and take them outside after sleeping, eating, playing and every 30-60 minutes", which is what we've been doing... But none of the books said anything about what to do when we're working, or at night, so we did what seemed to make sense at the time.

[Reddii]

We had our girl trained to stay on the deck out the back which is almost as good as inside, but when no 2 came along they decided that playing outiside was far better than sleeping so, we decided to crate train. CK was about 16 weeks at this point and was not TT to any great extent. For the first while it was about once a night (big ask for a 16week pup to hold all night when not trained), but now at 8 months he sleeps inside in his crate and never wakes us (having said that he will tonight for sure!)

BIG vote for crate training! The whole process from deciding to train to getting them to a point where they could be in the crates w/o making too much noise only took about 1.5 weeks and a bit of patience! Oh yeah - this was all part of the process of moving them inside as well.

Hope this helps

Tony R

[kamuzz]

BIG vote for crate training! The whole process from deciding to train to getting them to a point where they could be in the crates w/o making too much noise only took about 1.5 weeks and a bit of patience! Oh yeah - this was all part of the process of moving them inside as well.

Have to agree with this. We have just invested in a second crate after discovering that my GSD boy is crate trained but not house trained.

By that I mean he will sleep in his crate all night without making a sound, but if we leave him outside the crate then there is a mess in the morning. So both my GSDs sleep in crates now. Fortunately our ESS has enough sense as there is NO way we could fit in a third crate.

My dogs have always slept outside so this was new to me, and the crates have made it much easier. (Although the lounge did get a little chew - sorry Juice!)

[Teebs]

Ok, the first time she slept inside, did youget up and take her out? or expect her to hold it all night?

Both my dogs (one was 8 weeks when i got him, the other 4 months) i got up EVERY 2 hours, took them out, waited for them to go, and come back in.

The 4 month old didnt need every 2 hours, but I wanted to be safe then sorry.

I extended the time by 1 hour every week until they could hold it, if i found they had gone, i would go back to the time i was getting up before and do that for another week, then extend again.

I was buggered, but i now have 2 dogs that sleep with no accidents - they both know to wake me if they need out, kaos needs to pee most nights, but I rather her wake me then pee on the floor! At can hold for 16 hours (it was raining )

I suggest you do the same, your dog doesnt know what is needed and expected of her - Put her in bed, and set the alarm, keep an ear out for her moving, if you hear her get restless, take her out and wait till she pees, put her to bed. She will get the hang of it.

[Dogsfevr]

"It's not like she's been an "outside dog" that we have to start again with. "

Unfortunately she has in many ways ,shes outside when you work ,then inside for a few hrs then outside again all night,in terms of being an inside dogs she may spend 4-5hrs??.

In her life experience at 18 weeks she mainly been outside & not had the consistantancy of understanding hanging on & understanding her own fuctions & abilities so dont think that it will be easy .You truley need to start from the very start & work your way up.She nows has to be retrained to give signals & not realize she can wake up at 1,2 or 3 am & toilet at free will for which is her routine,you now need to train her to hang on & alert you.

"The first night it was pretty obvious that she hadn't even attempted to hold it." Not obvious just part of being a puppy you surely didnt expect the pup to hang on ?? especially when its in anew house & hasnt a clue what is expected of it.all it learnt was the firt night was comfy & cosy the second night its outside & why back to the routine she would have had at the welfare league.I am presuming the welfare league expelained about toilet training etc etc??

" We read that every mistake that gets made is a step in the wrong direction." yes but you have to realize that it wasnt a mistake simply a lack of not knowing.You cant punish a puppy for something it doesnt understand .

Mistakes are when the dog is trained ,accidients are what puppies do until they have a good routine & understand whats expected there only babies .

Edited July 4, 2007 by showdog

[Rebanne]

put her bed in a corner of the bedroom and set the alarm to get you up during the night. If you can manage to barricade her to her corner well and good, if not as you have bare boards you should hear her moving around. You do have to start at the beginning but because she is those few weeks older she should get it quicker purely because her bladder capacity is bigger. Yes there will be the odd accident but there shouldn't be heaps as long as you are vigilant.

[Ausmoz]

Thanks for the advice everyone We're going to try her inside tonight and see how it goes. My OH only has two days of work left before his holidays, so hopefully we'll get on top of things then - he'll be able to be with her almost constantly.

Fingers crossed