How long can/should your dog hold it?

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Paeoniaa

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I take Marlowe out to pee/poop on a schedule. When he stays home for the day, he goes out at 8 am, 5 pm and midnight. On days he goes to daycare, I take him out first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Sometimes, he dillydallies before peeing but I've never had him not pee before bedtime.

Yesterday, I picked him up from daycare at 8 pm, an hour later usual. When I took him out at midnight, he did not pee. After walking around for 20 minutes to no effect, I brought him back in, fully expecting him to wake me in the night to go out.

When the alarm went off at 7 am this morning, he was still asleep. I took him out and, after a little wandering about, he finally deigned to pee. He showed no urgency whatsoever.

Even if he had peed just before I picked him from daycare, that would still mean that he didn't pee for 11 hours.

Is this normal? More importantly, is it healthy to hold it for so long?? :confused2:
 
My dogs are like camels....they seem to be able to hold it forever.

Most nights I forget to let them outside at bedtime, and in the morning they are clamouring more for food then pee.

I think dogs will get used to whatever schedule is given to them....even if its a non-schedule!

At the beginning, when their first being house-trained, then schedule is critical. But once trained, I think that mixing thing up is not a bad thing. It just allows extra flexibility in your own life.

That being said, when we're on a normal schedule, the boys go like clockwork. I can almost time them from the minute I get up to the minute they do their business. The key point is the minute that "I" get up. Not when they say its time. :wink2:
 
Mine girls all have a bladder the size of Nevader! :lol: Beckon -- he's another story. Being an intact boy, he seems to have enough in his tank to water the world! :eek2:
 
I crate the boys at about 7 pm every night and I know at times they have stayed in the crate until 7 am, so I guess that is a long time. They have access to a doggy door all day so I have no idea if they even hold anything in during the day. My old Sheltie would have burst her bladder rather than have an accident in the house.

Donna
 
My adult dogs can hold it , it seems forever. Easily 14-15hours. I would never on purpose make them do that though but at times things had happened. I relly depends on health status, water intake, acitivty etc. Some dogs just like us if they get to the point of gotta will go in the house and in that case we can't blame them.

Generally longest mine go is the 8 hours I am at work or overnight. But 10hrs happens occasionly. As long as most dogs are asleep they are good. I do make a point of as soon as I get up they go out and as soon as I get home from work out their go.

As far as how long is healthy, again depends. Chronic long time of retension of urine in the bladder can cause UTI, bladder atonia, or just a loss of house training. A dog so prone to UTI woould need to go out more often,same with a dog with say diabetes, renal dz, liver dz, cushing etc.
 
when Belle was at the breeders she was crated all day so it took her some time here to get used to the fact that she could do her business during the day.

right now she goes for a walk around 7:00 for both, then between 11:00 - 11:30 for a pee and a walk, then again between 3:30 - 4:00 for both and another walk, and if she does both, then again between 7:00 - 7:30 for a pee or a longer walk if she didn't do both on her afternoon walk.

Once we get to when there are more daylight hours than darkness, she will go out earlier in the morning and later at night.
 
I can't say if this is good, but Miko used to go once a day. I wonder if that's because he used to sleep more (I'm out of the house almost 12 hours for work), versus now because DH is home with him (and therefore, keeping him up). So, for Miko, it'd be 24 hours. I would take him out if he asked me to, but he never did and sometimes I'd just forget.

He's also the type of dog that will go if I take him out, regardless if he really has to. It's almost like he knows to take advantage of the grass.

Koji OTOH, I think the max has been 12 hours. Since he's new to long times w/o going we try not to push it. He also gets to go when he asks to go (because DH is home), so I tell DH to sometimes just ignore him and make him wait another 15 mins or something. Because he's going to have to learn eventually that he can't go out when he wants once DH goes back to work.

So, I think 12 hours is okay. Especially if they're sleeping for most of that time (which in your case, it sounds like your dog was sleeping).
 
I'm hearing consensus that our dogs will adapt to our schedules (once they are past the basic house-training stage).
 
Sca hates to pee outside his area and will hold it forever on trips, I swear his white fur is going to turn yellow one day :rolleyes2:
 
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