Wont go potty outside at night

Question
Hi there

My 2.5year old maltese wont go potty outside at night. He goes outside during the day and when we are not home he is locked outside so he is partially house trained but at night he just wont go toilet outside. He has a routine feeding time, morning and night at the same time, we put him outside before we go to bed for him to go toilet and he has access to outside until bed time. He sleeps in our room and iv tryed locking him in our room only thinking he wont go where he sleeps but he still will.
Iv tried so much and i just dont no what else to do.

Your help/advice would be muchly appreciated

Thanks

Steph

Answer
Hi Stephanie,

Instead of letting your dog outside by himself at night, you should try walking him on a leash to an area where other dogs have relieved themselves. Male dogs use their elimination to mark territory, so if other dogs have marked an area, when your dog comes along his instincts will tell him to mark there too. Here is some info on training your dog to eliminate more quickly when you walk him:

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-behavior/teaching-your

There really isn't such a thing as "partially" house trained. Either your dog is trained, or he is not. If your dog is "sometimes" reliable, you have a dog who doesn't understand what's required of him, probably because no one taught him properly in the first place. A dog that isn't house trained shouldn't ever have the unsupervised run of your home. At bedtime, you should either crate him (if he's crate trained), or contain him to part of a room with child gates, or contain him with an indoor dog pen. This is an example of an indoor dog pen:

http://www.dogbedsgalore.com/members/1251894/uploaded/MPpet_exercise_pen_9005_wh

Clean the areas in your home where your dog has soiled with an enzymatic cleaner made for pet waste, such as Nature's Miracle or Simple Solution. Your dog can smell where he's gone before, and it may be attracting him back, to soil again.

If your dog is crate trained, and he's having accidents in his crate, you should not crate him in it over night when he'd have no choice to lay in his own waste. Instead, use one of the other methods of containment I've just mentioned.
Lay a thick layer of newspaper down over the entire containment area. If your dog has an accident, it will be easy to remove. Replace with clean newspaper, and be sure to take your dog outside first thing in the morning. A huge part of house training a dog is simply prevention, by not giving him the opportunity to go to the bathroom in the house! This means constant supervision on your part.  Whenever you can't be supervising your dog, he needs to be put in his containment area. An accident in your home isn't your dog's fault, remember, he's not trained. Accidents in your home are YOUR fault for not supervising or containing him. House training a dog means you need diligence, commitment, patience. Until your dog is reliably house trained continue to supervise and contain him.
It's not too late to get serious, and get your dog house trained. Read more about house training an adult dog here:

http://www.paws.org/re-housetraining-adult-dog.html

http://www.perfectpaws.com/htra.html

I hope I've been a help.
Best of luck,

Patti