Toileting Runs At Night

[Nushie]

Quick question regarding toileting at night. Jager is 10 months now and generally he is very good at night but over the past month or two he has been waking up at the same times to toilet. Around 4am to pee and around 5-5:30 to poo. I usually get up at 6:30 and it takes me a good 30-45mins to get back to sleep especially after the 5am run. I have tried standing around and waiting at the 4am run for him to poo but nothing happens.

He has a dog door to access the toilet during the day and when we are home so i am thinking that because he is able to go when he wants, he is waking up because it could have been a few hours that he went last before we went to bed.

Can anyone recommend anything? I like having him next to the bed at night and eventually he will be allowed to sleep where he likes but for the time being he just makes too much noise, so he sleeps in his crate.

I dont have a problem getting up during the night but if possible i would like to try and cut it down to one run considering it is one of each and he isnt peeing both times.

At one stage i was trying to teach him to toilet on command, but we never really got it. Is this what others do when their dogs are able to go whenever they need to?

Any suggestions on how to train it? Maybe i was going about it the wrong way?

Thanks guys

Edited January 18, 2011 by Nushie

[poodlefan]

What time do you feed him?

Do you take him outside to toilet before bed? I do this with one of mine last thing at night.

Edited January 18, 2011 by poodlefan

[Bundyburger]

Our two get taken out at 7 after their dinner (and if we don't they whinge the house down lol even if they've just gone) and then they get another loo break at 9pm before bed. They always go without fail. We also limit their water from dinner time. It's there, but if they start to drink heaps it's taken away (unless it's really hot). Bundy has slept through the night since 10 weeks. If Bundy wakes up whinging before it's time to get up, I wait a few minutes and he usually stops. If he's busting then he'll keep going, so then I get up to let him out. This only tends to happen when our routine changes... and our Kelpie is the same, he'll sleep through, except times like now, when it's been raining and he has stiches so we don't force him out in t he rain.. so he then wakes us up in the middle of the night to go out.

To teach Bundy to go to the toilet on command, when he was doing his business we'd just say "toilet". We also connected it with "toilet time" for when it's time for them to go outside. He just kinda worked it out on his own.

What have you changed that could possibly be getting him to do this?

[sheena]

As far as the poo time goes...I would be looking at what time you give him his evening meal. If he is wanting to poo at 5am then feed him an hour later in the evening. I would have thought at that age if he has wee'd just before YOUR bedtime then he should be able to hold onto it till a reasonable hour. My BC girl can hold onto hers for about 14 hours & still has access to what ever water she wants through the night. It has become a night time ritual...just before bedtime we go outside, she wees (sometimes on command, sometimes not) then when we come back inside she puts herself to bed. She gets fed around 8 to 8.30 at night & doesn't need to poo till about 7.30 am. Also with the poos it might depend on what you are feeding him...with some foods the dog does more poos then it would on another food. What do you feed him at night????

[Nushie]

Thanks for the responses.

I do take him out when i go to bed, but because he can come and go whenever he pleases he usually doesnt go when i take him out.

He gets fed at different times depending on when he goes for his run down the park. Morning are always the same at 6:30am for his evening meal if my OH has taken him to the park in the morning then he gets dinner around 6:30 if i take him in the afternoon he get it around 7:30-8 ish (gives him about 30-45mins to cool off and calm down after running mad at the park). He doesnt seem fussed by the difference in feeding. Maybe i should just feed him around 7:30 every night?

He gets fed Eukanuka 1/2 twice a day. Morning he gets it stuffed in a kong with some meat. Evening he just gets it in a bowl. He is only pooping twice a day - 5am and then usually again just before our afternoon walk around 5:30

"What have you changed that could possibly be getting him to do this?"

Thats a good point.... i have been on leave for the past month, that has probably totally screwed up the routine cause i would go to bed at different times anywhere from 9:30 until 3am (he would still get breakfast at the same time) but bedtime was totally stuffed.

That would make sense, we were in such a good routine and he would sleep from 11 when we went to bed and then wake up with my alarm at 6:30.

Still might try again with the toileting on command just in case. Cant hurt to know it.

[sheena]

I'd be trying to get him into a routine, feeding him at the same time every night..which would be the later time to suit all occasions. Maybe don't allow him to go outside for a couple of hours before bed, then when you do take him out he is more likely to do it in front of you & you can mark, praise & reward.

[Bundyburger]

I'd get him into a routine :D

I forgot to mention, with ours, after their post dinner toilet stop, they are shut in the house until the 'last call' before bed. This is to give them a chance to chill and unwind (as they go stupid) before bed.

[Nushie]

I think now that i am back at work our routine will get back to normal and i will change his evening meals to always be at 7:30.

I think will start locking him inside for the last few hours before going to bed too, hopefully that will encourage him to go prior to going to bed.

Cheers guys

[pmiller]

I know a lot of people have dog doors and their pups can go as they please. We never installed one, and our Cavvies just seem to know that when we let them outside, that we want them to do a wee. Mind you, they know the routine extremely well by now, and we have always used the command "hurry up" to get them to go. By 10 months, I'm pretty sure our male was able to hang on all night, from say 10pm to 6pm. At two and a bit now, both of them hang on from 7:30am to at least 4 or 5pm while I am at work. I don't know how they do it!!!!!

[Nushie]

I know a lot of people have dog doors and their pups can go as they please. We never installed one, and our Cavvies just seem to know that when we let them outside, that we want them to do a wee. Mind you, they know the routine extremely well by now, and we have always used the command "hurry up" to get them to go. By 10 months, I'm pretty sure our male was able to hang on all night, from say 10pm to 6pm. At two and a bit now, both of them hang on from 7:30am to at least 4 or 5pm while I am at work. I don't know how they do it!!!!!

He was sleeping through the night up until about a month ago when he started waking me up at 4 and then again at 5am.

So last night he wont up at 5am (didnt wake up at 4 this time) and he whimpered a little, which is when i usually get up and take him out, but i ignored it thinking that if he really needed to go he would continue, he didnt, after a a second or two of whimpering, he went back to sleep.

Maybe i am just too soft and he knows it :D