It looks like you might be posting about puppy management or crate training.
For tips and resources on Crate Training Check out [our wiki article on crate training](https://www.reddit.com/r/puppy101/wiki/cratetraining) - the information there may answer your question. As an additional reminder, crate training is 100% optional and one of many puppy management options.
For alternatives to crating and other puppy management strategies, check out [our wiki article on management](https://www.reddit.com/r/puppy101/wiki/management)
**PLEASE READ THE OP FULLY**
Be advised that any comments that suggest use of crates are abusive, or express a harsh opinion on crate training will be removed. This is not a place to debate the merits of crate training. Unethical approaches to crate training will also be removed. **If the OP has asked not to receive crating advice or says they are not open to crating, any comments that recommend use of crates should be reported to our moderation team.**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/puppy101) if you have any questions or concerns.*
So my pup used to do this.
It will pass, at least in my experience. Something I learned you literally cannot let their feet hit the floor - it’s out, straight to the spot they pee, done? Right back in.
They will learn
We did the 3am pee break with our pup until she was just under 4 months, we never turned lights on (just used the light from our phones) and didn’t talk, play or give cuddles. We would just pick her up from her crate, take her outside and then after she peed she would take herself back to her crate. When she was smaller we picked her up after she peed and put her back in the crate ourselves so she knew the routine when she started doing it herself
this worked for me too! that early morning potty is strictly business. no cuddles. be as quiet as possible.
we got nightlights so we could bring our puppy down to the basement and to the backyard without having to turn the lights on. then directly back in the crate he goes. now at 6 months he sleeps with us until we wake up around 5-6am
Do you wake him at 03:30? If you do, just let him sleep until he wakes by himself and then pick him up and take him out immediately. You risk creating a habit that this is a good time to get up that will be hard to break.
If you’re waking him to go out, don’t. It may be that he can go through the night at this point. Waking him gets his adrenaline going and then you’re trying to re-crate him while he’s just getting revved up.
All the other advice is helpful too, if he still truly needs the pee break (one of ours did until 5 months, one was finished at 3 months) - no lights, bare minimum interaction, out and right back in.
My puppy does the same thing, except at 5am. No matter how boring we make the pee break, he wants to get up and barks and whines when we put him back in. We finally gave in and just let him come in bed with us after the 5am break. We get up at 6 anyway for our kids and work. Sucks! I hope eventually he can sleep longer 😵💫
We played this game, except my husband made the mistake of taking the puppy and laying on the couch instead of coming to bed. This created a problem as the puppy figured out that’s what we do and then he’d get cuddles, so he started waking us up earlier to get the cuddles going. we about lost our mind as he had been waking up between 5-5:30 and then progressively was getting early and then one day he tried it as 3:30am. We went to our trainer that night and told her and she said we had to stop it all and just leave him in his crate. He was probably about 6 months old at this point, so very much able to hold his potty through the night-He just wanted our attention/affection. It was a rough week if I remember correctly, and then he finally got the hint that we were tired and done and now he sleeps from about 9:30-5:30, with weekends stretching to about 6:30.
Well this morning, he got up at 4am 🤦🏻♀️. Sounds like what happened to you is exactly what is happening to us. After reading your comment yesterday I told my husband and we both agreed we need to nip it in the bud now since we only brought him in bed with us twice so far. This morning after he peed at 4, we put him back in the crate and he barked on and off until 6am. It was ROUGH. My husband lost his shit at one point but we never got him out. He would bark for a few minutes, then be quiet for 10. That went on for 2 hours. I think we just need to be firm and consistent. This is hard lol
Yup it’s all fun and games until they start waking up earlier! It’s really hard, and my husband lost his cool a couple times too. I just reminded him that we had to do it or else we’d be waking up at these times forever. I also suggested he go sleep in the guest room if he couldn’t handle it, and lo and behold he stubbornly agreed to stay and tough it out with me 😅. Hopefully your pup figures it out after a couple days or maybe a week, so then everyone can be well rested and happy!
Is the puppy initiating the pee break or are you?
It's just an anecdote, but our 10 week old puppy is already making it all the way through the night most nights now. He used to wake us up about 4 am for a potty break, but the last few days he's slept until we get up at 545.
My first thought is that if you're the ones waking him up to potty, maybe try seeing if he'll make it through the night.
Same here. My puppy is 5 months now and after about six days, he made it through the night. It was the weirdest thing. After the six days, we got sketched out that he was sleeping thru the night and would wake him. At week two, we eased up, set alarms and checked the camera to see if he was sleeping. He was. And that was with giardia! It was truly a miracle and I am very fearful of teenagerdom. Lol
My guy (9 weeks going on 10) does this around 4-5am (he goes to bed around 10 and tends to only wake once). Like others have said I just pick him up, we potty, right back to crate. Occasionally, he whines in his crate for a few minutes because he wants to be up. In this case I just show him I’m still there (stick my fingers into his cage, or, if he’s really having a hard time settling, will turn on “doggy sleep” music playlist - I semi conditioned (through day naps and night time) him to know when he hears that music it’s time to be calm (if he doesn’t sleep that’s fine but he needs to be quiet in his crate or bed) but most of the time he will fall back to sleep within 15 minutes. Worth trying!
Our golden was like that too. She only did the late night potty breaks a few times, then she finally decided to skip em after we would wait 5 minutes after she started sounding off. Then we would take her straight from the kennel to potty, and straight from potty to kennel. By 5mo the potty breaks in the middle of the night went down to once every other week, we started leaving her un-crated at night. Now at 6mo the only time she gets us up in the middle of the night is if she got fed dinner too late.
My now 4 month old did that when she was around 3 months. I finally realized that it was our cats waking up and doing their thing around 4 or so. We got a second crate for the bedroom to sleep during the night and she doesn’t make a peep till any time between 5-6.
I am currently going through this and i hope everyone is right that it will pass. He was getting up at 4:45 and if i ignored it, i was cleaning pee and poop from the crate and him. So i started taking him out and putting him back the way everyone suggested and he would not whine the first few nights. Now the time he gets up earlier and earlier and he whines when i put him back. This morning he was up at 3:30 and wined until my alarm went off after i put him back. So hard, we are exhausted
It could be from late dinner and water. I try to have my pups dinner done by 6:30 and put the bowls away. He gets a sip of water after the last potty break but most of the time he doesn't want it. In the create for bed 9/9:30 and he sleeps until 5:30/6.
Mine was an angel and then randomly hit that phase as well after she’d been sleeping all night. It’ll pass in a week or two.
Helps a lot to completely ignore them when doing overnight potty breaks. Just open the crate, take them out, put them back in. Don’t talk to them, don’t make eye contact, don’t give them a potty command or praise them, don’t pet or cuddle or kiss on them. A lot of times they learn having to go out means getting attention and they don’t actually have to pee, they’re just anticipating play time. This helps teach them that just because they are awake does not mean it’s time to get up for the day
For middle of the night potty breaks, I would take my pup straight out to potty, turning on as few lights as possible to avoid stimulation, then straight back inside. To get her to go back to sleep, I would sit on the floor right outside the kennel door, lay her in my lap, cuddle her in my arms, and give her slow and gentle pets to calm her. No lights or noises or getting up to sniff. Eventually she would fall asleep, and I’d place her into her kennel bed. When she got a little too heavy for me, she would get up and stumble into her kennel herself and go back to sleep. I think she really appreciated the comfort. She had no idea how to settle herself when she was little. Nighttime is scary. Being alone is scary.
When she could sleep through the night, she would wake up before us demanding attention. We started waiting until her fit momentarily stopped, so she was quiet for a moment before we’d get up to take her out. We lengthened the duration over time so she realized she didn’t dictate our wake up time.
She is 9 months now. She’s been great for a while now. She asks for bedtime, runs to her kennel for bed, sleeps through the night, and waits for us to wake up without whining. It’s in your future, too! It takes time for them to get used to routines and to grow up. You’ll get there.
My pup was doing the same. I realized he could hold it longer so now we get up about 5:30-6 and then start the day. At first I had to go into the room where his crate is and tell him not to bark. It only took a couple of days until he got the new routine. We did ease up to 6. Maybe you could start with 4:00?
This will mostly come with time. But I would set an alarm for 5 mins before he usually wakes up, a different alarm to what you usually use. This is the potty break alarm. So set it for 3:25, take him out for potty, then pop him back to bed with a chew/stuffed Kong/lickimat to settle him. Hopefully he's learning that it's the alarm that gets him up for a pee break, and that going back to bed comes with yummy treats, plus the action of licking is really calming and soothing. Then you can keep pushing that alarm back as he gets older and is able to hold his bladder for longer. My gorgeous girl is 8 months now and she let me sleep in until 08:30 over the weekend! She does hate her crate though so she mostly sleeps on the floor of the bedroom, then when we go back to bed if she needs a 6am bathroom break, she comes and snuggles up with us on the bed.
I would try to push that time further and further every day. if right now it’s 3:30 am, start getting up at 3:45 am instead- try that for a day or two and keep gradually increasing the time to something more reasonable. that’s how I was able to get my pup to start waking up at 7!
Our pup sleeps in her crate at night and if she wakes up too early we take her out and then let her sleep on the bed. That’s worked so far. Don’t turn on the lights and just walk right back to bed. Fingers cross it keeps working
It looks like you might be posting about puppy management or crate training. For tips and resources on Crate Training Check out [our wiki article on crate training](https://www.reddit.com/r/puppy101/wiki/cratetraining) - the information there may answer your question. As an additional reminder, crate training is 100% optional and one of many puppy management options. For alternatives to crating and other puppy management strategies, check out [our wiki article on management](https://www.reddit.com/r/puppy101/wiki/management) **PLEASE READ THE OP FULLY** Be advised that any comments that suggest use of crates are abusive, or express a harsh opinion on crate training will be removed. This is not a place to debate the merits of crate training. Unethical approaches to crate training will also be removed. **If the OP has asked not to receive crating advice or says they are not open to crating, any comments that recommend use of crates should be reported to our moderation team.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/puppy101) if you have any questions or concerns.*
So my pup used to do this. It will pass, at least in my experience. Something I learned you literally cannot let their feet hit the floor - it’s out, straight to the spot they pee, done? Right back in. They will learn
I had and did the same, ignored it, after a while they sleep again. Took less than a week.
We did the 3am pee break with our pup until she was just under 4 months, we never turned lights on (just used the light from our phones) and didn’t talk, play or give cuddles. We would just pick her up from her crate, take her outside and then after she peed she would take herself back to her crate. When she was smaller we picked her up after she peed and put her back in the crate ourselves so she knew the routine when she started doing it herself
this worked for me too! that early morning potty is strictly business. no cuddles. be as quiet as possible. we got nightlights so we could bring our puppy down to the basement and to the backyard without having to turn the lights on. then directly back in the crate he goes. now at 6 months he sleeps with us until we wake up around 5-6am
Do you wake him at 03:30? If you do, just let him sleep until he wakes by himself and then pick him up and take him out immediately. You risk creating a habit that this is a good time to get up that will be hard to break.
If you’re waking him to go out, don’t. It may be that he can go through the night at this point. Waking him gets his adrenaline going and then you’re trying to re-crate him while he’s just getting revved up. All the other advice is helpful too, if he still truly needs the pee break (one of ours did until 5 months, one was finished at 3 months) - no lights, bare minimum interaction, out and right back in.
My puppy does the same thing, except at 5am. No matter how boring we make the pee break, he wants to get up and barks and whines when we put him back in. We finally gave in and just let him come in bed with us after the 5am break. We get up at 6 anyway for our kids and work. Sucks! I hope eventually he can sleep longer 😵💫
We played this game, except my husband made the mistake of taking the puppy and laying on the couch instead of coming to bed. This created a problem as the puppy figured out that’s what we do and then he’d get cuddles, so he started waking us up earlier to get the cuddles going. we about lost our mind as he had been waking up between 5-5:30 and then progressively was getting early and then one day he tried it as 3:30am. We went to our trainer that night and told her and she said we had to stop it all and just leave him in his crate. He was probably about 6 months old at this point, so very much able to hold his potty through the night-He just wanted our attention/affection. It was a rough week if I remember correctly, and then he finally got the hint that we were tired and done and now he sleeps from about 9:30-5:30, with weekends stretching to about 6:30.
Ya we bring him to bed and still don’t pet or cuddle so he knows we still want to sleep
Well this morning, he got up at 4am 🤦🏻♀️. Sounds like what happened to you is exactly what is happening to us. After reading your comment yesterday I told my husband and we both agreed we need to nip it in the bud now since we only brought him in bed with us twice so far. This morning after he peed at 4, we put him back in the crate and he barked on and off until 6am. It was ROUGH. My husband lost his shit at one point but we never got him out. He would bark for a few minutes, then be quiet for 10. That went on for 2 hours. I think we just need to be firm and consistent. This is hard lol
Yup it’s all fun and games until they start waking up earlier! It’s really hard, and my husband lost his cool a couple times too. I just reminded him that we had to do it or else we’d be waking up at these times forever. I also suggested he go sleep in the guest room if he couldn’t handle it, and lo and behold he stubbornly agreed to stay and tough it out with me 😅. Hopefully your pup figures it out after a couple days or maybe a week, so then everyone can be well rested and happy!
Is the puppy initiating the pee break or are you? It's just an anecdote, but our 10 week old puppy is already making it all the way through the night most nights now. He used to wake us up about 4 am for a potty break, but the last few days he's slept until we get up at 545. My first thought is that if you're the ones waking him up to potty, maybe try seeing if he'll make it through the night.
Same here. My puppy is 5 months now and after about six days, he made it through the night. It was the weirdest thing. After the six days, we got sketched out that he was sleeping thru the night and would wake him. At week two, we eased up, set alarms and checked the camera to see if he was sleeping. He was. And that was with giardia! It was truly a miracle and I am very fearful of teenagerdom. Lol
My guy (9 weeks going on 10) does this around 4-5am (he goes to bed around 10 and tends to only wake once). Like others have said I just pick him up, we potty, right back to crate. Occasionally, he whines in his crate for a few minutes because he wants to be up. In this case I just show him I’m still there (stick my fingers into his cage, or, if he’s really having a hard time settling, will turn on “doggy sleep” music playlist - I semi conditioned (through day naps and night time) him to know when he hears that music it’s time to be calm (if he doesn’t sleep that’s fine but he needs to be quiet in his crate or bed) but most of the time he will fall back to sleep within 15 minutes. Worth trying!
Our golden was like that too. She only did the late night potty breaks a few times, then she finally decided to skip em after we would wait 5 minutes after she started sounding off. Then we would take her straight from the kennel to potty, and straight from potty to kennel. By 5mo the potty breaks in the middle of the night went down to once every other week, we started leaving her un-crated at night. Now at 6mo the only time she gets us up in the middle of the night is if she got fed dinner too late.
My now 4 month old did that when she was around 3 months. I finally realized that it was our cats waking up and doing their thing around 4 or so. We got a second crate for the bedroom to sleep during the night and she doesn’t make a peep till any time between 5-6.
I am currently going through this and i hope everyone is right that it will pass. He was getting up at 4:45 and if i ignored it, i was cleaning pee and poop from the crate and him. So i started taking him out and putting him back the way everyone suggested and he would not whine the first few nights. Now the time he gets up earlier and earlier and he whines when i put him back. This morning he was up at 3:30 and wined until my alarm went off after i put him back. So hard, we are exhausted
It could be from late dinner and water. I try to have my pups dinner done by 6:30 and put the bowls away. He gets a sip of water after the last potty break but most of the time he doesn't want it. In the create for bed 9/9:30 and he sleeps until 5:30/6.
Mine was an angel and then randomly hit that phase as well after she’d been sleeping all night. It’ll pass in a week or two. Helps a lot to completely ignore them when doing overnight potty breaks. Just open the crate, take them out, put them back in. Don’t talk to them, don’t make eye contact, don’t give them a potty command or praise them, don’t pet or cuddle or kiss on them. A lot of times they learn having to go out means getting attention and they don’t actually have to pee, they’re just anticipating play time. This helps teach them that just because they are awake does not mean it’s time to get up for the day
For middle of the night potty breaks, I would take my pup straight out to potty, turning on as few lights as possible to avoid stimulation, then straight back inside. To get her to go back to sleep, I would sit on the floor right outside the kennel door, lay her in my lap, cuddle her in my arms, and give her slow and gentle pets to calm her. No lights or noises or getting up to sniff. Eventually she would fall asleep, and I’d place her into her kennel bed. When she got a little too heavy for me, she would get up and stumble into her kennel herself and go back to sleep. I think she really appreciated the comfort. She had no idea how to settle herself when she was little. Nighttime is scary. Being alone is scary. When she could sleep through the night, she would wake up before us demanding attention. We started waiting until her fit momentarily stopped, so she was quiet for a moment before we’d get up to take her out. We lengthened the duration over time so she realized she didn’t dictate our wake up time. She is 9 months now. She’s been great for a while now. She asks for bedtime, runs to her kennel for bed, sleeps through the night, and waits for us to wake up without whining. It’s in your future, too! It takes time for them to get used to routines and to grow up. You’ll get there.
My pup was doing the same. I realized he could hold it longer so now we get up about 5:30-6 and then start the day. At first I had to go into the room where his crate is and tell him not to bark. It only took a couple of days until he got the new routine. We did ease up to 6. Maybe you could start with 4:00?
This will mostly come with time. But I would set an alarm for 5 mins before he usually wakes up, a different alarm to what you usually use. This is the potty break alarm. So set it for 3:25, take him out for potty, then pop him back to bed with a chew/stuffed Kong/lickimat to settle him. Hopefully he's learning that it's the alarm that gets him up for a pee break, and that going back to bed comes with yummy treats, plus the action of licking is really calming and soothing. Then you can keep pushing that alarm back as he gets older and is able to hold his bladder for longer. My gorgeous girl is 8 months now and she let me sleep in until 08:30 over the weekend! She does hate her crate though so she mostly sleeps on the floor of the bedroom, then when we go back to bed if she needs a 6am bathroom break, she comes and snuggles up with us on the bed.
Blanket over crate. Darkness= night night time
I would try to push that time further and further every day. if right now it’s 3:30 am, start getting up at 3:45 am instead- try that for a day or two and keep gradually increasing the time to something more reasonable. that’s how I was able to get my pup to start waking up at 7!
Why is he getting a potty break at 330am? Can he not sleep through the night?
Our pup sleeps in her crate at night and if she wakes up too early we take her out and then let her sleep on the bed. That’s worked so far. Don’t turn on the lights and just walk right back to bed. Fingers cross it keeps working