wetting at night

Question
Hi, i recently got a shih tzu dog aged 4 from a work colleague who unfortunately had to re-home him as he had nipped her young child.  He settled into his new home really well and already is part of our family and absolutely adored. He had a couple of wetting accidents in the first few days which i put down to the change of environment and him just needing to settle in. We then had 2-3 weeks of no wetting at all but just recently over the past week he has wet the carpet in various rooms during the night. He is taken out 3-4 times a day and always before bed when he always has a wee. Each time he has wet in the house it has been between 5am and 7am, he whimpers once he has done this almost as though he is letting me know what he has done. He has never wet during the day even when i work and he is left alone for a few hours, only during the night. I've tried to look up this problem on the internet but seem to be unable to find a solution or advise on how to tackle it. He's a lovely obedient dog in every other way and i just want to be able to stop this habit before it becomes more of a problem.  Really hope you can help.

Regards
Julie Taylor

Answer
First this could be a medical problem,such as a bladder infection which is common,and cured with antibiotics-so a trip to the vet would be a good idea. Now if everything is ruled out-the thing to do now would be to buy a crate and keep him in there at all times(esp night)and only take him out to feed him,play with him,take him for walks,and of course to take him outside about every 2-3 hours if you are home. Crates are the easiest way to correct house training issues as dogs like to keep sleeping areas clean. And use the crate like this for about 2 weeks,and slowly let him out more often-and if accidents re-occur then back in the crate he goes full time for about 10 days.