Hi, We have a beautiful 11week old black lab puppy called Poppy. She has gone to bed brilliantly from the first night settling down at about 9:30/10pm. She doesn’t cry during the night which I know is a huge huge bonus. She wakes anytime from 4:30 am and we leave her for about half an hour before going down to her. She sleeps in a pen in our lounge and luckily hasn’t soiled the puppy pads during the night so as soon as she goes in the garden she will do a wee and poo at this early hour. So she then has her kibble after this. We had wondered if it was hunger waking her but we are giving her the correct amount for her age. Should we not feed her this early? The breeder used to feed them at 6am. But Poppy seems to be waking earlier and earlier. This morning it was 4:20! Could it be that she just needs a wee etc? Any advice gratefully received.
Hi @Christiana welcome to the forum The amount of time a puppy can hold her bladder is around 1 hour for each moth of age. A little longer at night. A bit less during the day. You are expecting her to go too long at night. I suggest you take her out more frequently on lead to the same spot in the garden and reward when she urinates/defecates. I would not be using the pads because that is something you will need to eventually fade if she starts to use them. I wouldn't feed her at 4.30 unless you want to wake at that time "forever". Put her back to bed after the toilet breaks. Expect a bit of disruption because you have spent 3 weeks doing it one way. A change will have some attendant frustrations.
How do you know she is awake? I'm assuming she's making noise and barking or crying? If you wait 30mins and then go to her, you are reinforcing 30 minutes of noise by then giving her your attention and taking her out - and then even more hugely reinforcing her behaviour by feeding her. Of course you will have her waking earlier and earlier!!! Instead, the best approach with all puppies, is to have them in a box or crate by your bed and set your alarm for BEFORE THEY WAKE UP, taking the pup out to toilet then. That way you are not reinforcing any noise and you avoid the whole situation. You can then set your alarm for 30mins later each night until you are going through the night. During the day time you should be working on crate training with the crate in the day time location or location you really want it to be in. After about a week by your bed, your pup can then go in the day time location crate at night too, with you still getting up to take her out. Any noise which happens after you have taken her out to toilet, should be completely ignored. It is best (again) if the puppy is by your bed because then you will avoid any noise generated by separation anxiety - you are right there - and you will know that the noise is just attention-seeking or wanting to play or get out the crate or box and so can be safely ignored. Good, as Michael says, take them away and stop using them - you will only create toilet training problems for yourselves if you continue.
