# Last Potty Break Debate - Wake or let sleep?



## Tappster98 (Apr 21, 2012)

Hi all, 
Our Stella Blue is now 14 weeks hold, and has an 8pm bedtime. She's being crate trained and gets walked in our backyard to go outside in a special spot. 

The debate in our home is the last "Out". I've read the books on dog training and they say to take her out right when you go to bed (say 10 -11pm) . My husband thinks thats mean as we have to wake her. But then she can go in her crate up until 7 am. He'd rather let her sleep and then listen for her whine (but that means my turn). 

I say it's ok to wake her as she goes back to sleep right away.

What do you say???


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## mm03gn (Sep 24, 2008)

Our girls (4 & 6) curl onto their beds to go to sleep around nine pm. Their 'last pee' is at 10pm, so yes we wake them and say 'time to go pee' (it does not take much convincing to get them up!). If we didn't take them out at 10, we'd have to get up at 5am to whining dogs wanting out! They definitely have to go on the schedule that best works for us


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

You can always give it a try and see what happens. If she can't hold it until a reasonable time, then wake her up for a 10:-- piddle. At 14 weeks, Penny could go from 8:30 until 5:30...when we got up.


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## MikaTallulah (Jul 19, 2006)

Last pee for mine has always been around 11p. As adults the start to fuss around 11pm to go out because then they know they get a cookie before bed


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## cubbysan (Mar 13, 2007)

As adults, mine's last time out is about 9, later in the summer because it doesn't get dark until almost 10 here. They don't need to go out until 6:30 to 7 in the morning, sometimes later.

As puppies, I would take them out right before I went to bed around midnight, and then take them out about 5 to 5:30 - then gradually increasing the time as they got older.


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## ms_summer (Mar 23, 2012)

Summer (4 months) gets her last pee at around 9.30/10pm... At around 2 or 3am I wake her up to go potty, she does her business, I put her back inside, turn the lights off & she gets the message that it's time to sleep again. She'll sleep then til 6am when I get up to get ready for the day. I have no problems waking her up, after all she has all day to nap and I don't, so it has to be my schedule lol


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## Gavin's Golden Gary (Apr 29, 2012)

Hi there!
Gary (12 weeks) goes out for last potty at 10pm, goes in his crate and then out in the morning at 6am. I wake him up even if he is sleeping just so he can have his last potty.


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## Wyatt's mommy (Feb 25, 2011)

Our 2 year old goes out right before we go to bed.......yep we wake hime up


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## Brandiann (Jul 24, 2011)

I say wake her up.. My fiance still takes Lola out sleeping or not before he goes to bed (usually around 11) even though she is 11 months old and COULD hold it. She doesn't seem to mind and I think it would be worse to let them pee themselves if they can't hold it, or wait til they cry to go out and have to wait for you to get ready to bring them out.


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## Mollymoo (Mar 7, 2012)

Molly has her last pee at around 11 pm it only takes us moving around to wake her so she goes out with our other dog then bedtime till we get up for work around 6am. Trouble is she does the same 6am potty call at the weekend but then we all snuggle in our bed for a couple more hours.


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## Molly's Mum (Apr 1, 2011)

Molly falls asleep around 8pm, we wake her between 10pm and 11pm (depends when we're ready for bed) so she can have a wee. She gets up with no problem as she knows the drill now and returns to her bed, curls up and goes back to sleep. We've worked this routine since she was a pup, always waking her last thing at night even if she's sleeping and it's never been a problem as she's always gone straight back to sleep.


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## BriGuy (Aug 31, 2010)

At that age, I would wake Cookie up and bring her out before I went to bed, usually around midnight. I'd much rather do that than wake up to barking in the middle of the night.


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

Yep - if Tesia doesn't wake up on her own, I wake her for a last out. She's pretty funny - she sleeps the night in my room, and when we come back in from that last out, she always just walks in and goes straight into my room and back to sleep, whether I go in to bed at that point or not. She has the routine down perfectly.


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## mooselips (Dec 4, 2011)

What the heck, some of your dogs are going to bed at 8 p.m.!

Bridget, the she-devil STAYS up all evening, has her last wee at 10:30, then in the crate she goes.

I am pretty sure she'd sleep until 8 a.m. but Hubby and I are ususually up before her......

If she does nap in the evening, she usually does around 8 p.m. for an hour.

BUT, I surewould wake her if she DID ever go into bed that early.
Maybe when she gets a bit older?????? (I can only hope)


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

mooselips said:


> What the heck, some of your dogs are going to bed at 8 p.m.!
> 
> Bridget, the she-devil STAYS up all evening, has her last wee at 10:30, then in the crate she goes.
> 
> ...




My dog is older. When she was younger, she _never_ went to bed on her own. But since she's been older, sleeping more often, she's taken herself off to bed in my room when she gets tired. If it's around last out time, I'll pop her out quickly first. But she often goes and sleeps for a few hours, then gets up at just about the right time and comes out to the living room, I take her out, and we both go to bed for the night. But if she's had a very tiring day, I do need to wake her up for that final out.


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## BriGuy (Aug 31, 2010)

mooselips said:


> What the heck, some of your dogs are going to bed at 8 p.m.!
> 
> Bridget, the she-devil STAYS up all evening, has her last wee at 10:30, then in the crate she goes.
> 
> ...


Cookie is getting close to 2 now, and if she fell asleep at 8:00 I'd be worried that she was getting sick.  Now she konks out by about 10:00, which is perfect for me. She would sleep quite late if we let her too, so I guess each dog is different.


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## Willow52 (Aug 14, 2009)

As an adult, Hank usually doesn't go out before bedtime and holds it until 7:30-8:00am. In the summer we're usually outdoors until dark anyway. During the winter months when we're indoors more he would ask to go out sometime during the evening. When he was a puppy I took him out around 10:30 or 11:00pm.


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## ozzy'smom (Jun 18, 2011)

Ozzy usually falls asleep between 8 - 9 in the family room with us. When we go to bed we wake him up and take him out. It's part of the routine and he's used to it. 

I wouldn't feel that it's "mean" to make him go out. I'm sure your dog doesn't feel it's "mean" to wake you up at 5am to go potty.


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## Casey and Samson's Mom (Sep 24, 2011)

8pm is pretty early to expect her to sleep through till 7--I'm with the "wake her at 11" crowd.


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## oakleysmommy (Feb 20, 2011)

Last time outside is by 10pm my goldens go out with no problem it's getting my couch potato great Dane up and out that's the problem. They all hold it til 5:30-6am


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