A puppy will wake up to pee multiple times a night. If you adopt a young puppy, you’ll need to bring them outside to go potty multiple times every single night until they’re old enough to hold their bladders. This ability typically develops between four and six months.
In this article, I’ll discuss how often puppies need to pee at night, how to create a routine to avoid accidents inside, and how to potty train your puppy.
Puppies Can’t Hold their Bladders all Night
If your puppy is under 4-6 months old, they cannot hold their bladder all night. This is because they don’t have full control of their bladder yet.
Generally, you can expect a puppy to hold it for one hour per month of age. At two months, the age where many puppies go to their forever homes, they can only hold it for two hours.
Puppies also aren’t potty trained. You may have to take your puppy out more regularly in order to catch them before they have an accident, as they don’t yet know that they should wait to urinate outdoors.
Chances are that you’ll be waking up many times in the night to take your puppy outside in the beginning.
Take Your Puppy Out to Pee before Bed
By taking your puppy out to pee right before bedtime, you’ll buy yourself some extra sleep.
For instance, with a three-month-old puppy, you could take them out right before bedtime at eight o’clock. Then you can sleep until around eleven o’clock.
If you’d taken them out at six instead, you’d only get an hour of sleep before waking again to bring them back outside to pee.
Puppies Wake up to Pee Several Times
A puppy won’t just wake up once in the night to pee, but several times. This means you’ll be up with them throughout the night to avoid accidents indoors.
A two-month-old puppy will wake up at least three times in the night to pee, around every two hours. Since they’re not yet potty trained, you may find that you have to get up even more than this so that they don’t wake up first and pee inside.
Puppies have Bladder Control at 4-6 Months
Puppies develop full bladder control at 4-6 months old. Of course, this still doesn’t mean that they can hold it forever.
If they’re potty trained, however, they can hold their bladder all night.
It’s recommended that you still let your puppy outside at least once every six hours at this age. While they can hold it for a few hours longer, you shouldn’t force them to.
This could lead to an accident even in a potty trained dog. Even worse, they may develop health problems as a result of holding their bladders too long.
You should also remember that every dog is different, and some will be able to hold it for less time than others. This is something you should adapt to rather than expecting your puppy to adapt to your preferred schedule.
Don’t Punish Accidents
If your puppy has an accident in the middle of the night, you should never punish them for this.
Instead, ignore the behavior and clean the spot well. If your puppy can still smell their pee, they will urinate in the same spot again.
Yelling at your puppy or rubbing their nose in their urine will cause them to fear you and may lead to even worse behavior in the long run. It doesn’t teach them anything about peeing outside; only proper potty training can do that.
While it’s frustrating, remember to take a deep breath and use it as a learning experience for yourself. Begin to bring your puppy outside to pee more often so that they don’t have accidents in the house.
If you need more tips on how to potty train your puppy, so they behave correctly when they wake up, I have some for you below.
How to Potty Train a Puppy
1. Take them Outside Frequently
The first and most obvious step to potty training a puppy, but one that some people miss, is that you need to spend a lot of time taking your puppy outside.
This can get tedious, but it’s part of having a puppy!
It’s important to create a schedule and stick to it. Set timers if you need to so that you’re getting your puppy outside frequently enough.
If you adopt a two month old puppy, you’ll be doing this at least once every two hours, or possibly even more than this.
2. Walk Your Puppy Until they go Potty
When you bring your puppy outside, don’t expect to stand in one place and have them do their business right away.
Dogs need to sniff around for a spot to go. This is natural and instinctual behavior for them.
Allow your puppy to wander about until they go potty, and make sure they’re completely finished before bringing them back inside.
3. Reward them for Going Outside
Of course, your puppy needs lots of praise and treats for using the bathroom outdoors. Be sure to reward them heavily whenever they do so.
This is how they’ll learn exactly what you want from them, and once they know, they’ll do what they can to please you and get more scratches, praises, and treats.
4. Watch them Closely
During the potty training phase, you’ll need to keep a constant eye on your puppy to avoid them having an accident inside.
Look for cues that your pup needs to potty. For instance, they might sniff around the house looking for a place to go.
If you see any indication that your puppy has to use the bathroom, bring them outside immediately—even if you’ve just taken them out.
5. Don’t Punish Accidents
Like I discussed above, yelling at your puppy for having an accident inside or rubbing their nose in it won’t help anything—it actually is much more likely to harm your relationship with your pup.
Instead, don’t acknowledge the behavior to your puppy. If you need to, walk away in order to accomplish this.
Once you can do so calmly, go back and clean the mess thoroughly to avoid your puppy returning to soil the spot again.
If your puppy seems to gravitate toward the same area, you may want to block it off until they’re potty trained so that they don’t have access.
6. Alternatives to Outside Potty Training
There are alternatives to outdoor potty training if this is impossible for you. Some reasons to use alternative methods include:
- You live in an apartment
- Your puppy is a breed that struggles in extreme temperatures
- You or your puppy has a disability
- Your puppy is not yet vaccinated
Alternatives methods are not great if your goal is to have your dog go potty outdoors consistently.
While allowing your puppy to use the bathroom indoors on a pee or grass pad may be more convenient for you at this age, temporary rules are confusing for your puppy.
They’ll get used to being allowed to eliminate indoors, and not understand why the transition is being made.
This isn’t the end of the world, but best to avoid it if possible.
The alternative methods for outdoor potty training are:
- Puppy pee pads
- Real grass pads
- Artificial grass pads
There are pros and cons to each of these, which I’ll summarize below.
Puppy Pee Pads
Puppy pee pads are the most basic and well-known way to potty train a puppy indoors.
They’re disposable and relatively inexpensive, which makes them convenient to use.
The biggest drawback to them is that your puppy may become confused about where they can potty, and begin to pee or poop on similar items around the house.
It’s also more difficult to transition your puppy outside later on if that is your goal.
Real Grass Pads
Real grass pads are the closest thing you can get to outdoor potty training while indoors. If you plan to transition your puppy to going outdoors later, real grass pads will make for the easiest transition.
Your puppy will also be easiest to potty train using real grass as opposed to the two others I’ve listed.
This is also the most eco-friendly option on this list.
However, the grass will die and need to be replaced over time, which can be costly.
Artificial Grass Pads
Artificial grass pads hold up longer than the options above.
They’re not as eco-friendly as real grass, but they’re better for the environment than puppy pee pads which are one-use only.
Artificial grass looks like real grass, and will likely make for an easier transition outdoors than puppy pee pads if needed.
However, because it doesn’t smell the same as real grass, you’ll have more problems with the transition when compared to real grass pads.
Writer: Katelynn Sobus
