Hello,

I've been having trouble with Skylar waking up really early to go potty. She's about a year and a half old right now. Before, I had a set time which was 7am and it was going well for awhile until one night she started crying about 4am. Since then, I know she needs to go out when I hear her crying but its never at the same time.

I was feeding her at 9pm before it all started and tried pushing it back to 11pm which helped for only a couple of days. I even try playing with her before she sleeps to tire her out and still nothing. Any advice on what I could do to get her back to waking up at a set time again? I'm scared to leave her in her crate when she cries because she'll end up doing her business in there even though she knows already not too.

My Advice, nip this while you can! I wish i could tell you how but im having the same issues...

I am also looking for suggestions as it has been MONTHS since i have slept a full night... it does not matter what time they get dinner they are on a set bathroom time in the middle of the night.

Jack has been getting me up between 2am-4am every night and Sierra has been getting me up at 5:30am.
Part of me thinks Jack just hears stuff in the back yard and wants to go out but every time he does go potty of some form.
Sierra needs to poop and has proven if I am not fast enough the bedroom becomes the bathroom.
Ken sleeps through everything and making them sleep downstairs is not an option in my mind.

sorry i hijacked your thread!

I would try taking away their water bowl at a certain time. It all depends how late you stay up, I usually go to bed around 11pm and when my dog was a puppy I would remove her water around 7:30pm. Last potty break at 9-10pm. Never once had an issue with mine . Give it a try and once they adjust to a new potty schedule you can put the water bowl back overnight.

Not sure if this will be of help but dogs typically process their food much faster than a human. So with the late feeding, it may be that they are going through their food and it is time to come out. My suggestion would be to try to feed earlier and make sure they go both pee an poop right before they go to bed. I have always done this. One of the last things I do before I go to bed is take Gabby out and try to make sure she goes before bed. Although, Gabby does not typically wake up in the night unless she has diarrhea but that would be one thing I would try.

Jenn and Skylar - to reset their potty time, I would go back to square one, crate for the night, with divider, if necessary. Feed no later then 6 PM (transit time for dog gut, grossly, is 6 hours but can vary 4-10 hours) I would take away water, maybe 8 ish? Then take the dogs out around midnight, give them plenty of time, then crate for the night.

For the female with suddenly early pee time, have you checked for UTI?