How to house train a puppy with a 4 year old dog in the house??

Hi There, I am new, this is my first post!!
I have a 4 year old cocker spaniel, Charlie, and we are getting another cocker in 2 weeks time, I wondered if anyone can advise on house to house train the puppy with charlie around? I am particulary confused about what to do at night times, do we leave the puppy loose with charlie (so they can cuddle up together) or shut puppy in his crate? Do we keep an area of the crate for wees and poos or get up throughout the night to let him out? It was a while ago since i trained charlie and it is a bit blurry and this is a different situation. I understand how important it is send the right message to the puppy from the off so i want ot make sure i get it right!!!
BTW the new puppy is called Dave!!!

Hello

I think everyone has a different idea of how to tackle night time toileting.

I spend the first couple of weeks with my pups on the sofa downstairs. I sleep on the sofa and they are crated next to me. If they start fussing they get whisked out of crate straight outside, praise when they wee/poo, then straight back in the crate. After a couple of weeks on the sofa, I'm back to sleeping in my bed. I then set my alarm for around 3-4 am for a toilet trip. My last pup was clean and holding it overnight by about 12 weeks by doing this method.

A month of getting up in the night isn't much fun, but in grand scheme of things it is very little time at all.

I recommend NOT allowing the pup to soil the crate if possible. If you put paper or puppy pads (horrible things!) in there you will be encouraging him to soil in his bed, which can be a difficult habit to break.

That said, accidents do happen, so vet bed is a good thing to put in the crate as bedding for pups. That way if and when he wees in the crate, his bed will still be dry.

I know some people prefer to crate new dogs overnight to ensure there are no scraps/scuffles so might be worth doing initially.
I never cratetrained my puppy and it didn't hinder housetraining. She was confined to the kitchen (easiest floor to clean) but me and my mum had a rota of offering toiletbreaks. This was initially every 2 hours - meant we each got 4 hours of sleep at a time, but I do feel it sped up housetraining, I feel that by "letting" the dog toilet in the house/crate, you're giving a mixed message and saying it's OK for them to toilet indoors.
It wasn't long before we could space it out to 3 hours, then 4, then 6, then all night. We made sure it was literally just getting up, putting her on a lead, taking her out and giving the toileting command (took her a while to associate the command with the action but we made sure we used it every time anyway) and then went back in and to bed, no games or fuss, we wanted her to know it was purely a toiletbreak. I would make sure that your second dog doesn't encourage pup to start playing games in the garden, so either have someone else keep him on a lead for a toilet break too or just leave him indoors when you take pup out (he should be able to go all night without a toilet break but if you wake him up in the middle of the night he may realise his bladder's full rather than sleeping through it, so perhaps offer him the chance to have a pee too)

I'd crate pup at night both for safety and to aid with house training. I've never put paper in the crate, preferring instead to get up to take out to toilet if and when pup needs to go throughout the night.

Having an older dog often speeds up the house training process as pup learns from the older one what to do

I have a pup when I have an older dog, so I train the same way as I do a singleton.

I use crates and I would NEVER leave a pup alone with an older dog unsupervised it is not fair to either of them.

I have never had to get up in the middle of the night with a pup, I just go to bed very late and get up very early!

My dogs do not sleep upstairs and I do not sleep downstairs, I have not had any problems with this method but it might not suit all owners or all dogs.

every one tackles toilet training differently.

what i did when i brought my pup in and had my older girl was the same as what i did when i had the one dog.

at night time the pup went in the crate to minimise accidents.
they were toileted before i went to bed, and i made sure they went completely. they were then shut in, and not let out until morning. i shut them in at about half 10, and let out at 7. i was lucky neither of my two asked to go out, they just slept through.

Louie had the run of the conservatory (5 x 5) with his crate in there as a bed and paper on the floor. He was shut in there at about half 11 and half an hour before he went to bed, we would play with him (we'd wake him up if he was asleep) and then toilet him. We'd then get up at 6 to take him out.

He was separated from our older dogs until he was 75% house trained (the 25% was accidents - us not hearing him asking to go out) he was pretty much house trained at 12 weeks old.

It did speed things up having the older dogs about, everytime Louie had to go out (every half an hour and after meals/play and water) they went out too - even if they didn't need it but I think it made him feel a bit more comfortable about going out..

Everyone toilet trains differently, I wasn't bothered that it took 4 weeks - I wasn't going to get up at 3am. Although I will probably do things differently when I get another puppy. Mainly because I'm in a house that doesn't have a little room that can act as a conservatory..

Good luck - and I would definately keep them separate at night - Sadie loved it when Louie went to bed - no more playing

I put the crate next to my bed. The nose of the puppy moving around wakes me up and I take the puppy outside for a quick potty break and right back into the crate. Your puppy does not need to snuggle with the older dog. They can see each other, and you are right there, he knows you are right there.