# sleeping through the night



## Jchung88 (Apr 15, 2020)

Hi 
I need some advice on how to train my 18 weeks puppy to sleep through the night. Every night since we bought him home he's been getting up at least once. I work every day and frankly I'm a bit exhausted waking up in the middle of the night to take him outside to do his business. He does normally go back to sleep right away but the waking up in mid of night is killing me because I dont fall back to sleep right away and when I do fall back to sleep its only an hour before he wakes up and needs to go out again. He normallys whines and paws the crate and if i dont take him out within 5-10 mins, he'll pee in the crate. Currently i take him out at about 1030pm and his last meal is before 7pm. He would wake up between 2-3am and again at 6ish am. I figured that in the beginning this is normal but this been going on for about two months. He is not completely house train yet. I do have to take him outside every 1 hour to do his business and I crate him mostly throughout the night. My question is this normal? Anyone else have to deal with this? How long before he would actually sleep through the night? I would even be happy if he can sleep from 11pm - 6am. but that is not the case. Please help.


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## 31818 (Oct 29, 2014)

Jchung88 said:


> Hi
> I need some advice on how to train my 18 weeks puppy to sleep through the night. Every night since we bought him home he's been getting up at least once............................My question is this normal? Anyone else have to deal with this? How long before he would actually sleep through the night? I would even be happy if he can sleep from 11pm - 6am. but that is not the case. Please help.


In some cases this is normal. In my case, Ricky was around 15 MONTHS before he was reliably house broken.

I'm not an expert but I think you should feed him his last meal about 5 - 6PM. Put him to bed in his crate for the night no later than 8PM. Take him out to potty at 7PM, 7:30PM. and 8PM ( whether he goes or not). Give him 5 minutes to perform and then back in the house if not successful. If I were you, I would start going to bed around 9PM until he starts sleeping through the night. This will allow you to get your rest, but still get up in the middle of the night if you need to. Figure on getting up at 6AM for the day. Take him out immediately, give him 5 minutes to perform or else back in the house.

Ricky is now 6 y.o. I take him out around 7PM for the last time. He knows he needs to empty his bladder (and sometime his bowels) for the night. Often he will potty three times to get every last drop out of his bladder in that 5 minutes. He has slept through the night for years now and never an "accident" in his crate in that time. We get him up at 6-6:30AM and take him out immediately. He always has to potty and 80% of the time he will poop too. He works like a well oiled machine now.

Puppies are a lot like new babies. They are a lot of work in the beginning but the results are worth it.

Ricky's Popi


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Popi has given you some good suggestions for handling it. Every puppy is different. If he pees in his crate if you don’t take him out, he obviously really needs to go. So you really do need to allow him to relieve himself. 

There IS another option, if you are open to an indoor potty option and he knows how to use it. That is, instead of locking him in a crate at night, put his crate in an ex-pen (or attached to an ex-pen) with a litter box or other potty option that he knows how to use, and allow him to take care of his business on his own as needed. 

I have rheumatoid arthritis, and need more sleep than the average person. When Kodi was a puppy, my husband had not yet cone around to being the “dog lover” he is now, and Kodi was really my responsibility. Kodi was a very good puppy, and slept through the night, but he did need to potty early in the morning, and that was really wearing on me. So I set him up this way, with his crate and litter box, and... no more problem! He pottied himself, then put himself back to bed until someone came to get him in the morning!


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

That is a really tough situation. Mine woke up quite early in the morning, and he did wake up in the night for a couple of weeks after we brought him home, but it really did not last long. 

I imagine it really will not last much longer and he will be able to hold it through the night soon. At the very least, it wouldn’t be every single night. Normally I would suggest asking a friend to help you out for one night, just to give you a break, but that’s not possible in most places right now! 

Is there any way you can set a timer to take him out in the middle of the night so that you can at least plan it around your own sleep cycles instead of his? 

Is he going quickly when you take him out in the night, or is it taking him a long time to actually go? That would be something you could work on during the day that might help. 

It might also help to really exhaust him at bed time. I found that in addition to play time, really making him “think” was most effective at tiring him out. So maybe try to play basic skill games, teaching him “sit” and working on recall, right before bed. 

Don’t get discouraged, try to hang in there. It does take longer to potty train small dogs like Havanese, so you should definitely plan on potty training taking at least a year, if not a little more, before giving him freedom around your home. If you luck out and he’s potty trained before that throw a party! That being said, he should be able to hold it through the night very soon, and it won’t be this hard for an entire year! The amount of time between potty breaks will gradually stretch, and that will make it easier. It also helps a lot if you are able to teach him to “go potty” on command so that he goes immediately when you take him out. I think by 5-6 months, which is coming up pretty quickly for him, you will be past the hardest part and it will be much more manageable. I really think he could be sleeping through the night any day now, though.


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## Melissa Woods (Feb 21, 2019)

This actually does sound like a long time to make it through the night. I’d do what Karen suggested, with the indoor potty in an ex pen. We did this. But while Oliver took 6 months to potty train, he was sleeping through the night within a few days of coming home (we brought him home late, 11ish weeks) He always woke up EARLY, don’t get me wrong lol. Since he’s actually having accidents I would try not giving him water after 7 or so. Wake him up to go out before you go to bed, too. If he STILL can’t hold his bladder for 6-7 hours at night I’d have him checked at the vet.


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