# Whippet Needing Toilet During the Night EVERY Night



## Adzyp (Jul 2, 2015)

Hi All,

We have a 20-month old female Whippet that we are having trouble with in terms of wanting to go to the toilet during the night every single night. It’s been happening for months now.

She does sleep with us in the bedroom which we don’t mind and generally get a good night’s sleep with her in there apart from every single night, without fail she disturbs us and wakes us up as she wants to go outside to the toilet and it can happen anytime between 01:30 – 05:00 therefore breaking up our sleep.

She is fed once in the morning and once around 5pm plus the odd treat or bit of our own food and always has access to water. We take her food away from her every night at about 7-8pm and make sure that she goes to the toilet just before we go to bed at around 10pm so I would have thought that she would be able to last until we get up in the morning at around 6am.

Now i'm not sure if it’s a case of her taking liberties knowing that we will just get up and let her out at whatever time of the night regardless or if it’s something else which we can change and hopefully keep her sleeping throughout the night.

When we go out during the day, we leave her puppy pads out which she goes to the toilet on so im thinking as a short term measure to leave these in the usual place and leave the bedroom door slightly open so that she can use those at night without us having to get up but ideally I would like her to stop her having to go during the night every single night!

Does anyone have any suggestions please?

Thank You


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## Katalyst (Aug 11, 2015)

My lurcher went through a phase of doing this largely exacerbated by my insomnia so if course if he asked, as I was asked wake anyway, I let him out. Mostly I think it was just a habit I allowed to form. 
I got him out of it by taking him out at midnight for a wee and basically ignoring any door kicking or whinging. He can hold his bladder for many more hours than I can so there is nothing stopping him over night. 
It got him out of the habit. 
Unfortunately, my dobie picked the habit up from him a few weeks after I got her and one night I was ignoring her squeals and whinging to go out very stubbornly as she had peed and pooed just a few hours earlier. 
Poor maude wasn't lying for once and had terrible diarrhoea all over her bed. 
So at 4 am I was showering down a crap coated and very sad dobermann. Oooops!


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## Muttly (Oct 1, 2014)

I really wouldn't go back to puppy pads, she shouldn't be using them at her age. How long is she left during the day?

Does she poo and wee before bed?

When she wakes you in the night, does she actually go to the toilet? Or just have a sniff and a faff?


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## Hanwombat (Sep 5, 2013)

Certainly sounds like a habit that you have intentionally created for her as she whines - you get up, so she'll continue to do it.

I'd get rid of the puppy pads - if she is 20 months old she certainly should be toileted trained.

I would perhaps see about teaching her a settle command and if she wakes up during the night, either a) ignore her and hopefully she will soon get that crying doesn't do anything or b) when she wakes up, ask her to go settle.

I had the same issue with my collie, he'd wake up about 3am most nights and do nothing outside and as I kept getting up he got into the habit. 
Then when he did start waking up (he is downstairs) I used to shout to him (not at him) to go and 'lay down' and he would.

Now its months on and not a beep during the night and he sleeps all the way to my alarm (even past it)


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## Adzyp (Jul 2, 2015)

Thanks all. To answer some of your questions:

Yes she does actually go to the toilet when let out, quite often its a wee and poo. Its not just a case of her getting up for the sake of it. and Yes we let her out when we go to bed around 10pm.

Regarding toilet training/puppy pads, yes she is well trained. She will always head to the back door and wait to be let out to do her business, however when she gets left home alone for a hours during the day she is likely to at least have one wee on the carpet hence why we prefer to just leave pad out whilst we are out. I don't see the harm in that? Prefer that than having to clean the carpet each day


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## Muttly (Oct 1, 2014)

She should have someone letting her out every 4 hours though and an adult should be able to easily hold it for at least that. If she being left all day long and having to resort to toileting in the house, that's not really fair and will confuse her toilet training.

Does she poo in the morning before you leave her? because if she is pooing more than 3 times a day, she is possibly being overfed. She shouldn;t be waking in the night to poo.


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## Burrowzig (Feb 18, 2009)

With my dogs, food goes in then poo comes out (from the previous meal) after a few minutes. I feed 3 times a day, 8.30 am, 5 pm, 11 pm . Last toilet trip is about midnight and all the dogs will poo either then or just after the 11 pm feed, then sleep through till morning - that's 4 of them.
You could find a later meal helps break the cycle/habit.


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## Adzyp (Jul 2, 2015)

Thanks all, I think tonight and over the next few weeks we will try a mixture of cutting down on the food given to her, especially in the evening along with ignoring her during the night and see where we are in a few weeks time


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## Muttly (Oct 1, 2014)

Let us know how you get on. It's always a tricky one, these night habbits they get into can be hard to break.


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