night time house training, help

[paulnclaire2601]

hi, i am looking for some advice on house training at night. i am really struggling after havin my 2 pups for three weeks now as all through the day they go to the door and let me know when they want to go out, and we very rarely have a accident, the problems start at night, we try to only leave them for 5 hours over night and always let them out just before we go to bed but we always come down to a very messy floor and if anything it seems to be getting worse, is 5 hours still to long to leave them, they are 12 weeks old? i have tried training pads but the pups don't seem to understand what they are for and if we put them on them they stop doing anything. Some people have said try crate training but im not to keen. Can anyone help?

[KatieKoo]

You might want to try coming down every couple of hours at first to let them out until they can hold it a little longer, or why don't you look into crate training? We never had accidents at night apart from when B was ill, she never messed her crate, always cried to let us know she needed to go out... Good luck!!

[paulnclaire2601]

Thanxs for the reply, i'm not sure about crate training, its difficult to get advice when you have two, imost people just tell me im crazy havin 2 pups at the same time! m not sure if i would need to get a crate each or 1 to share and how long can i leave them in it?

[KatieKoo]

You can probably put both into the same crate if it's big enough, not sure, as we only had 1 pup, and you can leave them in over night as long as they have water and enough room to move, but if it's too big they can use the end away from what they consider their bed to pee, but you can get dividers, so you can make it bigger as they grow... You will have to let them out during the night for toilet breaks until they are older. We still use our crate, but now we leave the door open, and have since Bailey was about 1.

I'm sure there must me someone on here with more experience, we'll just have to wait for someone to come along.

[Juls]

12 weeks is still young and having 2 pups is probably going to take them a bit longer to get the hang of things. I would get up every 2 hours to let Benson out. Sometimes he went, sometimes he didn't but it only took maybe 3 weeks before he went through the night totally clean. And when you do let them out don't put a light on, don't make a fuss of them, just take them out in the garden, use your cue words, wait a couple of minutes and then take them back to their bed. If they go - great you get 2 hours more sleep. If they don't go, take them out an hour later.
I'd let Benson out and he wouldn't do a wee, and then I'd try an hour later to find he'd the whole works in his crate. Great!

It's totally exhausting but very soon they'll stop messing the floor and go outside. Once they do that you can then take them out every 3 hours, then 4, and then suddenly it'll be the whole night.

Best of luck.

[Chenko's mum]

Chenko has a crate, he is the first pup i've ever used this with and it is a godsend. He only took 3 weeks to get clean (quickest for me ever). Used to put a pad at one end of the crate at night, just in case. He's just over a year now and still has his crate, door is left open all day and closed at night or when we go out. Found out to my cost not to leave him loose when i'm out as he still likes to chew.