posted 03-09-2004 06:55 AM         

Now for my question. We are continuing to get up in the middle of the night to take her out and the longest we have waited is about 5.5 hours. We are noticing that we are starting to wake her up when we come down to take her out. Is she ready to wait the whole night?

We read that because these puppies are so small, they must be taken out in the middle of the night. She is crate trained and does quite well in there. Any thoughts from the group? Is there a magic age or weight when she will likely be able to last the night? Or are we just being over protective of Maddie?

posted 03-09-2004 10:04 AM         

Taking her out late at night before you goto bed will also help her empty her bladder and should have a good nights sleep but will definatly need to go first thing when you get up.

posted 03-09-2004 02:57 PM         

It sounds like you are making great progress with your pup...good job!

I definitely agree with charmedagain, unless he is waking up and needing to go, I would just let him sleep through the night if he will. In the morning check to see if he has soiled his crate, if he did, then you will need to go back to taking him out in the middle of the night.

I know with my two shih-poos for about the first month after bringing them home they would wake up right around 3am needing to go outside, so I would take them out then it would be right back to bed. Like I said earlier, this lasted for about a month, then they were sleeping through the whole night without waking up and needing to go outside (YAY!!! ).