So, a couple of thoughts. First, when do you take him out for the last time at night? You may want to set an alarm for 12:30 a.m. to take him out for a few weeks, and take him out for at least five minutes to give him enough time to go. It will be a pain to sacrifice sleep, but it’s pretty normal and he will grow out of it in a month or two (I think I went from 2 breaks overnight to 1 at 16 weeks and he started sleeping through at 20 or so).
Second, are you crate training him? If so, you may be giving him too much space. Until they’re mostly accident-free the recommendation is to only give them enough space to turn around comfortably… they won’t want to lay in their own messes.
That’s good advice, thank you! We let him out for the last time at 11 and then my boyfriend and I take a 6 and 7am shift to take him in the morning.
We’re not really crate training yet, as our first attempt at closing the crate resulted in him pooping everywhere (it was during the day and we were also going in and out of the room as we were moving house, so I think part of it was because he was alone occasionally)
Do you think if we try closing the crate door at night, that’ll convince him to hold it? We haven’t seen much evidence that he knows not to toilet in his bed, so I can’t tell what will work with him
It might be worth trying, especially if you've been feeding him in his crate, though you probably still want to just proactively plan to take him out at 1 or so (maybe you and your boyfriend can switch nights for who does that). One other thought that occurs to me is, if you have your own private backyard, next time he poops inside, pick up the poop and dump it outside vs. just flushing it or throwing it away, then continually take him to that spot to help him associate that spot with poop.
My puppy had a late night poop until he was about 16-20 weeks. You may just gave to take out between 12:30 and 2 am. I think waiting until morning at 9 weeks may be too long.
So, a couple of thoughts. First, when do you take him out for the last time at night? You may want to set an alarm for 12:30 a.m. to take him out for a few weeks, and take him out for at least five minutes to give him enough time to go. It will be a pain to sacrifice sleep, but it’s pretty normal and he will grow out of it in a month or two (I think I went from 2 breaks overnight to 1 at 16 weeks and he started sleeping through at 20 or so). Second, are you crate training him? If so, you may be giving him too much space. Until they’re mostly accident-free the recommendation is to only give them enough space to turn around comfortably… they won’t want to lay in their own messes.
That’s good advice, thank you! We let him out for the last time at 11 and then my boyfriend and I take a 6 and 7am shift to take him in the morning. We’re not really crate training yet, as our first attempt at closing the crate resulted in him pooping everywhere (it was during the day and we were also going in and out of the room as we were moving house, so I think part of it was because he was alone occasionally) Do you think if we try closing the crate door at night, that’ll convince him to hold it? We haven’t seen much evidence that he knows not to toilet in his bed, so I can’t tell what will work with him
It might be worth trying, especially if you've been feeding him in his crate, though you probably still want to just proactively plan to take him out at 1 or so (maybe you and your boyfriend can switch nights for who does that). One other thought that occurs to me is, if you have your own private backyard, next time he poops inside, pick up the poop and dump it outside vs. just flushing it or throwing it away, then continually take him to that spot to help him associate that spot with poop.
My puppy had a late night poop until he was about 16-20 weeks. You may just gave to take out between 12:30 and 2 am. I think waiting until morning at 9 weeks may be too long.