beagle pup wont sleep through night anymore

Question
Hello. My boyfriend and I got a 3.5 month old beagle puppy several weeks ago. We are still working on training him, and he's in a great obedience class now. We've been having a couple of issues with him recently though. The biggest issue is that he is no longer sleeping through the night. When we first got him, he slept just fine in his crate next to our bed. He woke up to go out once in a blue moon and if he whimpered, we just put our hand down next to his crate so he could smell it and know he wasn't alone. After a few weeks, we moved his crate into the main room of our apartment. He was fine for the first week or so, but lately he's been waking us up every single night at LEAST once to go out. We don't praise/play/interact when this happens. We will take him out and put him right back. Sometimes he cries even after he has just been out. Covering his crate with a blanket seems to help though. It's frustrating because I know he can hold his bladder for longer than 3 or so hours. Part of me wants to let him cry, but I live in an apartment so it's hard to do that.

The second issue (which may be related) is that we seem to be regressing with housebreaking. He was doing SO well. He seemed to get the hang of it for awhile, but now he has accidents often, sometimes right after coming inside. What tips do you have for these problems? Thank you so much!

Answer
Hi Caroline:

My first thought is, he's just not ready to be on his own at night yet, but then you mention accidents during the day, so my second thought is he may have a bladder infection.

Puppies do not keep themselves as clean in that area, and a small infection is common.  So I suggest you get a vet check.

Also to consider is the time of last feeding and access to water.
You may be feeding him a little too late before bedtime or a little too early.  
I normally suggest last meal should be a small snack meal about two hours before bed, enough to keep a Puppies tummy full, so no waking in the night with hungry tummy rumbles but not so much as to have him wake for a potty break.

During Potty breaks, make sure he is on leash and stand still.  Puppies are easily distracted, and either forget to pee until they are back in the house or get distracted and do not finish their pee, thus some left over when they get back into the house, where all is calm.

Also use proper cleaner's designed to remove dog odour and stains.  These products contain a special enzymes that breaks down the smell, that dogs can scent (not Us#, and therefore leaves a this is a Potty Area odour, when we have cleaned with other products.  #Vinegar does NOT work).