okay so ive had my 9week old since he was 7wks and ever since i have put him in his crate and then set alarms, after a few days it ended up with him just crying and me going down to the kitchen and letting him out. This has become very very draining for me and i am always tired and in a mood now which isnt great. I spoke to my mum and she said she used newspaper for her pup and just moved it closer and closer to the door each day and she got a full nights sleep because the pup would just sleep, pee, cry for a bit and then sleep. And since he knew nobody was coming, he eventually after a few weeks was quiet.. so the reall question here is: should i move to puppy pads? Or will that dis-establish the toilet area? Will it take steps back in potty training? Thanks
Puppy pads usually just get shedded. I buy them as they are great for clearing up accidents, but I never leave them down. I have my pup in a pen and s/he wees at one end if s/he needs to, I just clear it up with Simple Solution in the morning. This doesn’t guarantee a night’s sleep ‘tho - two of mine shouted to let me know they’d weed then settled again after I’d cleared it up.
Still with a slight maniacal edge to it. You know how you quickly forget about all the bad stuff? Nope, not with this one. It's still as fresh as if it were yesterday
Our puppy provided his own alarms. We could hear him begin to rustle around downstairs when he was about to need out. The nice thing about this is he gradually extended his sleep times all by himself, something we might not have managed well by setting our own alarms. He went from out twice a night (in the dead of a very cold and snowy winter let me add) to later and later with each outing to only once a night to good all night by four and a half months.
My pup was in a crate with the door open so she could leave it to wee and poo on newspaper I put on the floor. It didn't delay her training. The crate was in the kitchen behind a baby gate.
I never used newspaper or puppy pads, personally I don't see any advantage. I took Hattie out regularly and Charlie when he came to us late at 9 months. Started from scratch with him x
We never used paper or puppy pads with any of our pups. I did not want to retrain them not to go in the house. We did crate training with both our Lab pups, and only had to get up once or twice at night for the first few weeks. It was not long before they could go through the night in their crate. It's been a while but I don't recall either of them messing in their crate very many times. By the time they were 12 or 14 weeks they were very dependable, but they also had access to the back yard through their dog door, as long as they weren't confined in the kitchen or in a puppy pen. My Malamute (many years ago) was more an outside dog at night, and was in the house with us, mostly when we were paying attention to him. We really never had to house train him, since he seemed to train himself.
I have done both. 1st dog with pads, second with crate training. The crate trained dog was clean and dry all night by 10 weeks (though with early morning wake-ups to start with), the pad trained dog at 16 weeks. My current pup would have played with and chewed the pads, as that is what his litter had done when the breeder used them, so it depends on the dog. If you have not used them yet it doesn't seem worth introducing them now when you may be close to him being able to last through the night. Personally I would not set an alarm during the night, but either sleep closer to the pup or get a baby monitor so that you know when he actually needs to go out. He may surprise you.
