Our female Maltese is 8 yrs old... we have two (boy/girl). Bad habit I know but they sleep w/us... lately the female gets up in the middle of the night to poop. We take her out before we got to bed 9:30-10. If we don't let her out, she has an accident in the house. They get fed around the same time and we even take up food a few hours before bed but lately it's been almost every night.. and she does poop when she goes out. My husband and I are having to "switch off" so we can get some sleep. We're going nuts. What can we do? She's too old to crate... she'll start scratching every wall/door if we lock her in the bathroom. I know we started a bad habit but they really have been no problem until the last few months. What can we do? I found poop on our rug last week because my husband and I were so tired we never heard her jump off the bed (the jump is how we know she needs to go), otherwise, she just stays in bed all night.

If your dogs got to go, then she's got to go. There isn't anything that is going to prevent her from wanting to go potty. I don't believe this is a bad habit in the least bit. You're luck she is telling you she needs to go out instead of finding a present in the morning.

Your dog is getting older.. her body is changing. Is she on a good quality senior food? If so, what are you feeding. Sometimes the diet will change a lot of things.

You could also switch up her feeding schedule and see if this helps. If she only eats once a day feed her in the early morning, if she eats twice a day I would feed her first thing in the morning and late at night

Early in the morning and early evening would be better than later at night. Only because if they don't completley expel their bladders and bowles before they go to sleep, the dog will need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.

I feed my dog late at night, and he doesn't usually go poop until the next morning. I guess it depends on the dog,