Hello everyone!

We have an awesome 6 month old boy who is just not sleeping through the night. He's maybe slept from 11 pm - 6 am a hand full of times since we got him at 9 weeks....and we're a little tired.

We typically stop giving him water a couple hours before bed time and take him out between 10:30-11. He sleeps in his "room" (aka a crate) and he starts barking/scratching on a bad night around 12:30 am and on a better night around 3:30 am. When we take him out he usually pees and poops so it seems like he really does have to go.

Have any of you had a similar problem? Any suggestions as to how we can get an uninterrupted night of sleep? Is this just puppies being puppies??

Thank you!!

ps...he's super cute....but the "host an image" button doesn't seem to be working for me.

Hi Sarah.................sadly I am going to say it is a puppy being a puppy. My gsd was the same way, ugh, I feel your pain. Every dog is different on holding their bladder and bowels. Is his poops solid? That would be my only question, if they are not it may be the food is not suitable for him. I imagine in a very short time he will be able to hold it thru the night. Even at a little over 2 years old my gsd girl has about a 9-10 hour capacity, which is a little short on what I thought an adult could hold it, but again they are all different. I think boys can be more difficult to train vs girls, so hang in there This too shall pass. My only suggestion besides the removing water a couple of hours before hand is to have a fairly good play session or walk shortly before last potty break and see if the exercise will help with pooping and peeing fully, in the winter it is easier to do a play session than in the summer, since you obviously want to ensure they are not on the dehydrated side. I imagine within a month he will be able to sleep thru the night, and I also use the command bed time, and potty before bed, and that also seemed to help some. Good luck!

*Sigh....That's better than something being horribly wrong or something that's totally unheard of!

His poops are reasonably solid. We just switched him (gradually) from a Purina Puppy Chow to Taste Of The Wild Puppy Pacific.

I hope you're right and all works itself out! Thank you!

For a 9 week old pup, I'd say it's pretty normal. For a 6 month old pup, I'm not going to say it's abnormal but I'm also thinking you may be  setting up a routine for him by getting up and letting him out. While he may be doing his business out there, I'm also wondering if he really could be holding it too until morning. My boys have always been able to hold it longer than my girls so that's where I'm wondering if you *might* be actually conditioning him to be let out so early. When you let him out, is there an urgency to him in relieving himself? If not, maybe try ignoring him for a little while longer each night. If I remember correctly, and it really hasn't been *that* long of a time ago, lol, my two (and my past huskies as well) were able to hold it through the night, at 6 months. However, I was also waking up at 5am for the most part, so first thing I did do, was let them out.

Sarah, I do agree with Jimmy to try and give it longer intervals each night and see if that helps. I also totally didn't mention that I would rule out a UTI with the vet, frequency in urination can be a symptom.

I dont think I saw it in your post. what time do you stop feeding him? IIRC - dogs digest their food in about 4 hours, so if you feed at around 8 or 9, they might have to get up and go sometime throughout the night.

Other than that, I can't be much help. Gabby was able to hold it through the night when she was 9 weeks old. Pretty much a miracle dog. Now I swear she can go 12-14 hours without going to the bathroom. Sometimes on weekends when I don't have to go to work in the morning, I don't let her out until she lets me know she needs to go. So she sometimes goes from midnight until almost noon.

Jealous of your *miracle* pup!!

We feed him dinner around 6 and usually stop giving him water around 8 or 9 so in theory he should be needing to go (completely) by the time we take him out again around 11.

I'm starting to think it's us conditioning him to want to get up in the middle of the night. My fiance can't bear to hear him whine and he breaks and gets up. Last night the 1st...and 3rd....time he started whining we told him to go back to bed and he settled after a min or two.

A couple months ago we were working on this and Mox ended up with a lot of diarrhea so I think we got paranoid about middle of the night poop-fest. The vet didn't find anything wrong after running tests so they put him on a fancy/expensive diet. Our trainer thinks it was actually just him losing teeth and his tum getting upset after swallowing blood. Now he's got a set of giant adult teeth and no soft serve poo. (sorry if tmi!)

Fiances, husbands...boyfriends. They all can derail training if they big softies and not able/willing to tolerate some temporary whining. I feel your pain. I have one of those. "I don't want him to feel trapped.." Dammit. He IS trapped. I trapped him for a reason...Sigh. Z'ev's crate training has become less rock solid

Happy Update!

We've gotten him to for the most part sleep through the night. He's barked or whined occasionally but we have told him to shoosh or we give him an ice cube (he loves them) and we turn up his fan and he settles back down.

Thank you all for the advice!

Awesome! Thanks for the update too!