Hi everyone, I posted a couple weeks ago about our 1 year lab still peeing and pooing overnight. We have bought a crate and he's now very comfortable and familiar with it but we've not yet tried leaving him to sleep in there overnight locking the door. Could anyone advise if we should leave him overnight now or should we get up in night to let him out to toilet? I dont want him to start to get used to messing in his crate, but also don't want him to get used to us taking him out in the night?
I crated my puppy as did my son (we have a brother and sister). We started very early on and would leave them overnight. I would take mine out late as possible usually around 10 and then I'm a very early riser so would let her out at about 5am. (about 7 hrs) as she got older, sometimes id wait til she called me (some barks) and she did wait for 9 hours or so. I stopped all food and water after 6pm. she had no trouble going thru the night. on some rare occasions she would whine and i would go and let her out during the night. I think you have to try trial and error, and learn from your dogs cues. Mine is now 13 months and has free reign in the house all night, but if she gets an upset tummy, she does rarely soil inside. most of the time she will try to let me know in time to let her out. hope this helps.
Don't worry about your dog getting used to being let out to have a pee or poo during the night - that's unlikely to cause you problems in the long run. If you think your dog might 'need' to go, you should definitely get up and let him out during the night. The solution to that is to make sure your dog's routine is such he doesn't need to go - take him for a last late walk if he won't poo in the garden etc. things like that.
