Puppy Question - Murrieta,CA

I've been living with dogs for 30+ years now....never heard that one before!

I always follow the old wives' tale: "don't wake a sleeping dog". :)

Don't wake her up at night to go out. If she needs to go, she'll wake you up. My puppy is 12 weeks. We got her at 8 weeks. She has always slept all night.

No don't wake them up. Our puppy is currently 6 mo old, also lab/shep mix :)
Get a crate. You'll need somewhere to keep her when you are not home so she doesn't get into trouble. It just makes everyone happier. And don't do anything with her or let her do anything as a puppy that you wouldn't let her do as an adult - like sleep in you bed, get on your couch. I know lots of people do it, we don't. Trainers will tell you that it can make it harder to train your dog if you let them in your bed and on your furniture. It confuses the dog with the hierarchy of the pack. We have a two story house - our dogs crate is downstairs and we use it for when we are not home, but he has a nice bed in it and chooses to nap in there often during the day. It's his "room" :) He sleeps in our room, I have used a baby gate to create a little area in one corner by a dressar. I did this versus buying another crate. They also make tables to go over dog crates that look pretty good. We bought one off of Amazon.com. They are kinda pricey though. Try not to use the crate for punishment, just for times when you can't supervise the puppy and/or sleeping. Crates are good too because dogs won't usually potty where they sleep, so they don't usually potty in their crate. I would suggest getting a large size one and then using the divider that comes with them to make the interior space smaller while puppy is small. You want the space just a little bit bigger than what they need to turn around. If the space is too big, they will just potty in one corner and sleep in the rest! LOL! Feel free to message me with any more questions - we've just recently been thru all of it! If you can afford it, check into local puppy/obediance classes. I did a basic obedience with our puppy and it made a world of difference!

I WOULD NOT get her in the habit of getting up on or in your bed. Our shepherd puppy is only 7 months old and is the size of a large breed dog already. I can't imagine if he felt it was okay to get up on the bed with us. Your puppy is only going to be small for a VERY LITTLE while. Teach her how you want her to behave when she's big!

We have NEVER woken our dog up to go pee at night. He goes out about 1/2 hour before we go to bed and then he's in for the night. He has NEVER peed in the house overnight.

As for crate training, there is nothing to it other than to put the dog in the crate. The dog shouldn't pee/poop in the crate. Dogs don't pee/poop where they have to lay unless they absolutely have no other options. If the dog is not used to the crate, be prepared for some very noisy nights - crying and howling. Hopefully you're in a single family residence!

When I first got my pup (same age) I'd wake her up to pee. It was so difficult (she'd cry and make me carry her because she was too sleepy to walk) so I said "fine. We will see how long you can make it". She slept all night and never had accidents. I now subscribe to the same notion as a baby - never wake a sleeping puppy ;-)

Talk to your vet. There's your local expert right there - better than online writers.

Puppies have to learn bladder control, but they also have small bladders. So you have to take her out until she gets bigger as well as more self-controlled.

My husband and I raise pups for Canine Companions for Independence, so we do crate-train, but we also take them out at night. (We means I - my husband doesn't stoop to such a thing.) Just get yourself organized. Put your coat and your shoes out to have them handy. When you hear the puppy whine, slip into your shoes and your coat. Open the crate and attach the leash, which you also have handy, to the pup. Walk or carry Miss Puppy outside to the proper area and give her the command you want her to learn (we say, "Hurry!"). When she does what she needs to do, praise her, but give her a little more time, because she may need to do something else. Remember, she's a baby. She's a Dog of Very Little Brain. She gets distracted. She forgets what she went out there for. So give her another minute or two. Keep her on leash. When she's done, or you are, praise her, put her right back in her crate (which is also why you have her on leash - so she can't decide to stop and play at 2 a.m.), and give her a little bit of a treat to reward her for at least trying to do her best.

It could be that your pup bathroomed in the house because she thought she was done outside, too - and then once she came in she thought, "Oops!" She's a baby. You know how you change a baby and - what happens sixty seconds later.

If she sleeps until 6 a.m., that's great! Don't expect that as a regular thing yet. She may be getting the idea, or she may just have been particularly tired. But when she sleeps all night, take her right out when you get up because she's going to NEED to go!

I have read that some people take their puppies out even when they don't show the need to. I wouldn't. I get grouchy enough when I have to get up for a puppy. If Rover sleeps, I sleep!

I think crate training is super. Give her a treat (not a whole snack, just a taste) every time you put her in the crate. When it's nap time, you might drape a towel over the doorway so it will darken the crate and eliminate some distractions. Give her something she can safely chew upon as well. You want it to be a pleasant place for her to be. Don't keep her in the crate very long, and keep a good attitude - your dog learns from your tone of voice as well as from your commands. I don't punish my dog by crating - but sometimes, when Rover gets out of control, it's because he's strung out and needs a nap. So I keep my voice pleasant and say, "It's nap time for puppies!" - put Rover in with a tiny treat and let him go to sleep - and then go clean up the mess. You want Rover to look on his crate as his own wonderful special place - like Snoopy in PEANUTS, who had his own TV and pool table in his dog house. It needs to have pleasant associations.

Oh, and you need a crate for your pup that she can stand up, turn around, and lie comfortably stretched out in! If it's too small, she can't sleep well. Picture yourself sleeping in a box you have to keep curled up in - it's not restful. I bought a crate with the biggest inside dimensions that I could find. When the pup is too small for all that space, I fill up part of the space with empty corrugated boxes. You don't want to have such a huge amount of space that she can create a separate bathroom area for herself - you want just enough for her to stretch out in. She'll chew on the cardboard a bit, but a little won't hurt her. Take the boxes out as she gets bigger (which she'll do pretty quickly).

I never woke my puppies up in the night to pee. She isn't going to pee in her sleep.
Crate training is the best way to go.
Mama Nature tells them not to potty where they eat and sleep.
You want a crate that is just big enough for her to stand up and turn around in - not so big that she can sleep in one end and potty in the other. That's a mistake a lot of people make - they get too big a crate and then complain because the dog craps in it.
She eats and sleeps in her crate and she stays in it when you're not home. You want it to be her happy place, so put soft bedding and toys in it. Teach her a command that goes with it - we simply tell ours "Kennel." We use the same command for getting in the car. NEVER use confinement in the kennel as punishment.
Take her out first thing in the morning to potty. After she potties, feed her in her kennel, then take her out again in about 20 minutes.
Let her stay out with you while you're home, and take her out to potty every few hours.
Do NOT use pee pads. All that does is teach her that it's acceptable to pee in the house.
Once our dogs were fully potty trained, they were allowed to sleep in the bed with us if they wanted. They had the option of our bed or their kennel - sometimes they chose one, sometimes the other, sometimes they moved from one to the other during the night. It's all good.
Our dog's kennel door stays open when he isn't in it, and when he gets tired, he will go into his kennel on his own to nap. When he gets a new toy, he takes it to his kennel.

If you keep,letting her sleep in bed with you, you will never get her in a crate. You do not have to wake them up during night to go out.

No, you don't have to wake her up. It's like a baby... if they are sleeping, let them.
I do recommend crate training. It works great. I do NOT recommend letting puppy sleep in your bed. Read some books on dogs and see what all these "nice" things actually mean in the dog world. Sleeping in your bed is sensory overload for a dog... your bed probably is the one place in your house that has the most of your scent on it. It is like a drug high for some dogs.

ETA: something I've observed (really, just think about it).... dogs may not poop for every "potty" event, but they pee almost every time. Just like with humans--you may be regular and poop once a day, but I bet you don't pee just once a day, do you? Same with your puppy. If she poops, do NOT assume she is done, if she hasn't peed.
Use a command phrase for potty training also. I assume she is on a leash when you take her out... encourage her to walk in a circle (around you like a horse in a paddock) while giving the command (we use "hurry up") until she begins to squat. The INSTANT you see her begin to go, praise praise praise. In short order she will associate the command with the act and the praise she wants.
We used crate training with our GSD from the day we brought her home. She has never slept in our beds nor been allowed on the furniture. She is extremely well behaved in this regard, and never makes messes in the house. She is almost 9 yrs old and lived in 3 different homes with us. It has not been a problem anywhere--she knows that belongs OUTside. INSIDE is where the pack lives, and she is careful not to mess in our living space. Even throwing up, which will occasionally happen when they get a queasy tummy or get a bug. She tries her best to get outside for that, too.

The Monks of New Skete have some excellent books on dog training/care. I recommend giving them a read.
http://www.amazon.com/s?rh=n%3A886526&ie=UTF8&psr...

My puppy all-night trained really early too. If it "ain't" broke don't fix it! :)

I have a friend that house trained her dog to pee on those pee pads.
Her dog takes himself there, to pee.
Especially in bad weather, who can take their dog out for peeing/pooping?

Crate training is the best way to go. No waking, when puppy gets up you take her out, or you can set up a coral around her crate and place wee-wee pads down for her and place her on those so she understands it's potty time and thats where she should go. Pick an area that will be best suited for this, as the first place they go will usually be the place they always go. Good Luck!

My puppy sleeps with me or my daughter (she is 10 months old now) and she will let me know if she needs to go out. She has gotten me up a couple of times since we got her at 10 weeks old.

Puppies do have accidents up to a year of age so maybe check around when you first get up. Mine has gone on the tile floor in the bathroom twice. I figure I didn’t hear her or she tried to get my daughter up.

I would not wake the puppy up, this will train her to hold it or she will wake up to go.