night time house training

Question
i have a 7 month old dog basset who both my wife and myself love very much. the problem is that during the night he will virtually always urinates on the floor, sometimes twice.i do tell him off for doing this on the floor but it does not seem to be working.i always let him out last thing at night before i go to bed but it is not working. sometimes he wakes us in the middle of the night after he has urinated just to go outside to do more. please help

Answer
Hi Jonathan,

Chances are, if your boy is 7 months old and still urinating at night, he wasn't house trained properly.  Most people make mistakes during house training and it's not a big deal to correct.  :)

Firstly, no, telling him off won't work...so stop.  You have a 2 second window to either praise good behavior or correct bad behavior.  After that, it's pointless.  Your pup has no clue what you're yelling at him for.  In fact, he thinks he's 'in trouble' for whatever he was doing the second before you yelled at him.  When a dog has an accident in the house (or any undesired area) and you don't witness it, ignore it, clean it up with a biological pet cleaner and go on about your day.

A good idea would be to go back to house training 101 for a couple of weeks and crate train him in conjunction.  Even if you don't plan on continued use of a crate, every dog should be trained.  Vacations, sitters, kennels, extended stays at the vet, etc. are all good reasons to make sure your dog is properly crate trained.

Your guy should have to go out within about 20-30 minutes of eating, drinking or playing/exercising and immediately upon waking or greeting.  Clip on his lead, walk him to an area in the yard that you want him to use (same each time) and calmly tell him 'go potty'.  When he does, treat/praise and walk him back in the house.  Remember...what goes in comes out...if he's eaten, he'll have to poo...wait until he does.

Aside from these times, take him out on the hour using the same lead method.

At night, he should be crated or confined to a small area (crating would be best).  A dog typically will not mess in his 'den'.  You don't want him to have enough of an area that he can urinate in one corner and sleep in another...this is why crates work so well as an assistant to potty training.

Make sure he has his last water at least an hour before bed and that he has gone out several times before he's to be in for the night.

At his age, he does have physical control over his bladder and should be able to hold himself overnight for about 8 hours...physically.  Behaviorally is another story...that's what you'll be working on.  If you think that you've potty trained him properly and this isn't the reason for his accidents, it's a good idea to have him checked out for any type of urinary infections.  :)

Good luck!