Tessa, Brodie is my first dog so I’ve not got a huge amount of experience but if it’s of any use here’s what we did:
Brodie was (and still is) in a cage during the night. We purchased a cage that we thought he would grow to fit and also a divider for the cage so that we could adjust the cage size as he grew. From information I read it was recommended that the floor area in the cage was sufficient in size for the pup to sleep comfortably but not too big that they could do the toilet and move away from it. The theory was a pup would not do the toilet in their sleeping area or in the area they ate. So when he was young we also put his food next to the cage (we tried putting his food inside but for some reason he didn’t like eating it there).
When he woke during the night barking we (ok, normally Jim!) sprinted through to Brodie’s room and took him outside. Brodie only ever had 2 wee accidents in his cage – I guess we may have been too slow in getting to him on those occasions.
I reckon within 4-6 weeks he was sleeping through the night without needing the toilet (so he’d be 11-12 weeks old). The first thing we did in the morning was to take him outside and he was always desperate to go.
We had a Savic cage plus divider bought from the Web site Canine Concepts.
I found toilet training Brodie was much easier than I anticipated and I think the cage helped. My sister tells me in her experience girls are a bit slower.
Good luck with Evie.
Sharon
