Potty training a 2 month old. Am I being ambitious? Its just a pain having to give her a bath every morning when she sleeps in her own poop and pee. I was taking her out every couple hours all day, because i have a lot of free time now, but there is no way i can do it at night. So I block off a small section for her, with food and water and crate, and without fail every morning she is a mess. There is zero time schedule for her, it could be every 20 mins, or she could wait 6 hours, so its very difficult.

Tips?



Here she is after a long day of potty trips out into the heat! She knows what outside means, and spends the whole bathroom break trying to go back home haha. A 2 month old puppy that can find her way home from a mile away, just to find that air conditioning.

First off, she is two months old. She can only physically hold it for about 2 hours. So, yes... you are being quite ambitious to expect her to go all night without a potty break. Midnight bathroom breaks are all part of getting a puppy. I would figure out a way that waking up at night works for you because you're doing nothing but creating more work for yourself and UN-potty-training her every night. It doesn't matter how often you take her out during the day. Allowing her to go to the bathroom at night is sending her the complete opposite message.

So... what to do...

I would start by waking up every few hours at night to take her out. She needs at least one break in the middle of the night if not more.

Limit her water intake. Don't let her drink from 8:30pm to 8:30am. Make her last potty break around 9:30 or 10pm (adjust to your own schedule accordingly).

Be consistent. You can't expect her to learn that it's not okay to go inside if you're allowing her to do so at night because you can't wake up to take her.

You'll get there... and the night-time potty breaks don't last forever. You can eventually decrease their frequency and she will train her muscles and body to wait longer and longer.

At 2 months, you can't really expect your pup to make it through the night. Potty training a puppy requires several weeks of sleepless or very interrupted sleep nights. A good rule of thumb is 1 hour for each month of age...so at 2 months, she can probably hold it for about 2 hours. Don't expect miracles as it takes time to potty train.

When we got Demon and Dakota I had several weeks of very little sleep thanks to the little angels. It gets better, just be consistent.

Does she sleep in crate? if so what size it is? do you give her food and water over nite in the crate?

I used to set my alarm on my phone every 3 hours at night. Lose sleep? Yes. But in the grand scheme of things, it's a short amount of time dedicated to puppy training.

I used to set my alarm on my phone every 3 hours at night. Lose sleep? Yes. But in the grand scheme of things, it's a short amount of time dedicated to puppy training.

You said:

Jesse629 wrote:

So I block off a small section for her, with food and water and crate, and without fail every morning she is a mess.

Which makes me think that you are not shutting her in her crate at night. You will have much better success if you put her in her crate and shut the door. She'll be fine. Even if she likes her crate and sleeps in it, she will most likely go make a "bathroom" somewhere else in her area if that area allowed her is too big. Nighttime is for sleeping anyway.

Wake every couple of hours. Getting a puppy is the same as having a new born.

A 2 month old can hold it's bladder for abouyt 2 hours. 3 if you're lucky.

It'll just take a few weeks and you'll have her sleeping through the night.

Freya was waking every hour and a half for about 3 weeks, but now she sleeps through the night. It wont take long if you commit yourself to the task at hand.

yea stick to waking up every 2-3 hours, its work but god does it payoff quick when done consistently.
You'll thank yourself for it in the long run.

Just an FYI my vet told me that a puppy doesn't have full bladder control until ABOUT 16 weeks of age (that's 4 months old). So expecting your pup to hold it all night long is crazy. As stated above about every two to three hours is best. By 4 months you should start to see that she can hold it all night long. Well most nights anyway. Saphire is 5 months old and still occassionally wakes me to go in the middle of the night.