How young is too young?

[lisa]

Never used the indoor training method. I just always thought it would send mixed messages and confuse them. It won't be too long before he will be able to hold it through the night.

[maiajay]

Gotcha'...
Thanks for the encouragement.
Maya

[windycanyon]

Never used the indoor training method. I just always thought it would send mixed messages and confuse them. It won't be too long before he will be able to hold it through the night.

I do w/ my litters very successfully (no confusion), otherwise I'd not be sleeping much at night! Like I said before though, my pups are trained to a potty area very early on, so the new owners CAN continue using the pellets in a baby pool (in an xpen or whatever) if they wish. Otherwise yes, just set that alarm! I just removed access to Tango's xpen and "potty pool" recently. She's 4.5 mos, but has rarely used it for the past several weeks though it was there if she needed at night. She otherwise slept in her crate, w/ the door left open to the pen.

[Bookwormbiker]

I think as far as holding it and sleeping through the night..all pups are different. Gracie was sleeping all night after a few weeks, Lola took a couple of months. Lola was in a crate, so if she began to whine or move around a lot, I took her out. I didn't make the middle of the night play time...I gave her a good girl when she did her business and brought her in and put her right back to bed. she would whine a few min and go too sleep. She did get up at 5 most mornings too for a while, but she sleeps until about 6:30 is now. It gets better soon, I promise.

We also use a crate for Duke. He was a little older when we brought him home, 10 weeks actually. We were also fortunate that he didn't wake us to go out until 5 am which was the time we normally get up on weekdays anyway. Now, at 5 and a half months, he will wake us at 6 am on weekends, but that's because the cats are active that early and seem to be taunting him. lol. The only time he cried in the crate at night was the first night. We knew he'd just been out to relieve himself so ignored him. He gave up after about 5 minutes and went to sleep. I'd never used a crate before but had heard that it worked because the dog doesn't want to soil his bed so decided to give it a try. Knock on wood, he seems to be housebroken. Now that I've said that, I'd better get off the computer and see what he's doing because he's awful quiet.

[lyvwire]

With my 7 week old lab we eliminate food and water 3-4 hours before bed. This helps with the repeated trips to go potty at night. He gets up twice 3-4 hours apart in the night and up for good at 5 am. Hope this helps