An adult dog needs to go outside 3-5 times a day to do his business; veterinarians recommend that outside the dog’s trip should not go up to 6-8 hours for ideal health conditions.
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How Long Can A Dog Go Without Peeing?
Amazingly dogs have the stamina to control their pee or poo for around 10-15 hours, which is the right timing to save your house from messing up with creepy accidents. However, forcing the dog to hold it for longer hours is not a healthy practice to follow. Well-trained canines have better control over pee that can help prevent accidents, but extending this period frequently can prove detrimental for their health conditions.
As we have to use the bathroom every few hours, so do our dogs. It is nature’s call, and every living being has to respond. It doesn’t matter if you are a new dog owner or parenting dog for years; you will find this article helpful. Dogs can hold their pee a little longer. A trained dog asks you to go outside as he feels the urge to pee.
Imagine holding the pee for a long time, and you can understand how unpleasant that can be for dogs too. Holding the pee is harmful to every breed. No one should be forced to hold their urine for a long time. If it happens frequently, it can cause many infections and inflammatory issues.
How Often Should Dog Urinate?
To keep track of your dog’s health, you have to observe how often he feel the urge to pee—generally, a smaller or younger breed dog pee more than a larger or older breed dog. A healthy dog produced an average of 10 to 20ml of urine for each pound of body weight per day. A preferably healthy adult dog should be allowed to relieve themselves outside for at least 3-5 times a day. Moreover, veterinarians suggest taking your dog out approximately about 6 – 8 times a day to avoid in-house accidents.
It is to consider that puppies pee more than adult dogs, due to their small urinary bladder. They are not able to hold pee longer. However, multiple factors affect your dog’s peeing habits. These factors include diet, breed, age, size, and drinking habits. On the other hand, senior dogs also pee frequently due to their age and specific health conditions.
What Triggers Frequent Urination In A Dog?
Dogs do frequent urination due to some behavioral problems, which include sudden fear or excitement.
Other factors belong to health issue including
- Kidney failure
- Diabetes
- Liver diseases
- Disturbance in steroid hormone production
- Tumor
- Side effects of medications, Electrolyte imbalance
- And other health issues
How Long Can Dogs Hold Their Pee?
In case you don’t allow your dog to go out to pee after every 6 – 8 hours, they can hold it for up to 10 – 15 hours. However, letting your dog’s hold their pee for a long time frequently, and if ‘accidents’ don’t occur, it will lead to kidney or bladder problems. A trained dog can hold up on to its urine for a long time without letting accidents occur. But keep it in mind even though dogs can hold up their urine for a long time, but it can be alarming for their health.
Trained dogs are taught not to mess up the living space, so they have fewer options to get relaxed. Some dogs are well trained to ask the owner to go outside when they need to pee. The owner must have to take care of the physical needs of your pet.
Remember, the pet does have their ability to control urine for some time, but that doesn’t mean we can take it lightly. Your dog has a nature call, and if you make him hold it for a long time because you don’t want to go outside is something fierce with an animal. It is vital to realize that this kind of negligence about the basic needs can lead to serious health issues for dogs. He might not show his distress, but continuing to hold on pee will affect his kindness and bladder.
Drawbacks Of Making Your Dog Hold Their Pee
Ideally, you don’t need to send your dog out to pee for more than 6 -8 times a day. Once in a while will not hurt a lot. But continually making them wait can create health issues. Here are some problems that can occur with your dog if it is holding up his urine for a long time.
Bacteria growth
Urine is a waste liquid of the body that contains organic and inorganic compounds, as it consists of different bacteria. Urine travel from kidneys to the urinary bladder. In the case, if urination is stopped for a long time, these bacteria thrive out. Therefore, it is essential to expel out these bacteria by using the bathroom. Often making your dog hold onto its pee can cause rapid growth of bacteria in its urinary tract, which will eventually lead to a urinary tract infection. UTI (Urinary tract infection) can cause frequently less quantity pee and can get treatment by the use of antibiotics.
Kidney Disorder
Holding on to pee for a long time can severely affect the kidneys of your dearest pet. Your dog may try not to pee accidentally in your home and control its pee in its bladder. However, that situation will build pressure on its urinary bladder and make the back affect the working of the kidneys. Pee is the combination of organic and inorganic compounds hence contain bacteria and germs. Until it stays inside the urinary bladder, the bacteria keep on traveling in the track to kidneys. Always holding on pee can affect the working of organs severely.
Bladder Stone
The untreated urinary infection will lead to the crystallization of particles present in urine. It will eventually form a unitary bladder stone. Unless the dog passes the stone, it will be tough to urinate. Passing stone through urine is excruciating. Sadly, you have to take your beloved pet to the vet to remove the stone from the bladder. Your dog then has to go through surgical intervention. It takes no time for the acid to build up and make a stone.
Incontinence
Similar to all the living beings, when the dogs grow older, their health effects. Incontinence is a problem that majorly appears in older dogs. It is referring to a condition in which the urinary muscles of the dog become weak, so it is hard for a dog to hold on to its pee for a longer time.
Ideally, you want your dog to go out for urination all year long, no matter the weather conditions. However, you may need to compromise on it if your dog is suffering from Incontinence. You may require arranging an indoor potty for your dog.
Traditionally an indoor potty is the arrangement of newspapers, and pee pads strategically placed all around your home.
What To Consider About Less Urination Of My Dog?
If your pup is peeing less than usual, he might be suffering from dehydration, or there is the possibility of some other health issue. You need to plan some meal changes to give your dog a better diet full of nutritionist elements. It would help him to cope up with mineral deficiencies causing less urination as the persistence of this condition will cause severe health damage.
It is essential to remind yourself that your pet is dependent on you for health and diet. You are the person in charge of his health, so try to find the best interest at heart. His health and safety should be a matter of concern for you as a loyal pet owner.
When To See The Vet?
You should consult a local vet if you feel any irregularity in the bathroom habits of your pet. However below mentioned are some alerts that you should keep an eye on.
These red flags will let you know if something is not right with your amiable dog’s health
- Frequent urination
- Darker the color of urine
- Disturbance while passing the urine
- strong odors
These symptoms are the indicator of some underlying health condition. Ignoring these signs will do nothing good for your pet; this situation calls for some expert consultation that is impossible without a hospital visit.
Take extra care of your pet during this time of distress; in loneliness, he will suffer more. You can call the vet at home for a medical checkup if you don`t want to take your pooch to the clinic. Coming home back with a vet can cause more anxiety for a sick pet when he sees a stranger, he can respond with aggressiveness. A better idea is to send your dog outside for sometime before your arrival with a doctor. Further, you can comfort him by cradling him in your lap.
What If The Accident Happens?
Urine Training
If an accident happened in your living space, don`t get panic, urine removers are available to deal with such a nasty situation.
A urine stain on the carpet of furniture will create bad odor for longer while it looks quite horrible. Training can take some time to develop the habit of peeing outside; you can keep the urine remover to deal with such accidents.
Urine remover should be handy to eliminate stains and odors from your space. It is a solution to deal with emergencies at home during the training period.
Potty Training
it is an essential part of dog training to make him disciplined in going out or washroom for poop; otherwise, it will be a mess inside your home.
If you can reserve one washroom for the dog, it will be useful to train him quickly, and you can maintain the hygiene of your pet. Either way is to simply take your dog for a walk and grab him to sit and leash. After that, you can enjoy a long walk with your dog. At the start of the training, you have to plan frequent outdoor sessions to train him well, patience, and constant effort to know about his needs.
Finally, your pet will be able to learn for the right place to do its business, make sure to have bags for picking up the mess along the way.
Every Dog Is Different
You may notice the urge to pee in humans may vary according to age, diet, and weather; the same happens with animals. Every dog is different from the other, and possibly they live in different weather and living conditions.
Many factors can decrease the time of bathroom trips of your dog, and it depends on
- breed
- age
- size
- diet
Observe your pet’s daily habits to know him better if he is looking uncomfortable after 6 hours, and you have to make it possible for him to ease himself. Do you probably know that dogs can spend 10-12 hours without needing to go for a pee, but is it the best option for them? Not at all, holding on for too long may cause severe illness in the future. Holding on pee is the possible cause of bladder, kidney, and urinary tract infections.
At the time of adoption, discuss the type of breed with your vet to understand the individual requirements of the pet. A big size bulldog may have different habits when compared to a small size pup.
Key Takeaways
Scheduling frequent potty breaks for your dear pet is vital to keep track of its health!
Breaking down here all the facts related to dogs peeing routines, lets review
- Puppies and younger ones:
Take them after every hour
- Older puppy:
Add one hour as per month
- Senior dog:
After every 4-6 hours
Follow this schedule in regular days, in some uncommon situation, and you may wait for 10-12 hours but keep it fair not to make it a habit of daily practice.
As you pay attention to body language, you will soon be able to recognize a play request and urge to go for a nature call. Developing a regular habit will keep you and your pet happy for good reasons.
Hey, I work as a manager of a pet store in Texas. Dealing with a variety of pets is not only part of my job but also my passion. These adorable, loving creatures are so excited when they find their new home. However, many new pet owners struggle in taking care of their pets and come up with a lot of queries every day. So, based on my knowledge and experience, I am using this platform to address major issues faced by pets, their food options, grooming techniques and so on. The major issue I addressed is that most of the part-owners prefer to surf through the Internet instead of going directly to the vet. And the worst part, they are rattled with multiple types of information available there. So, my target is to provide authentic information with my experience. Walkthrough my blogs and ask any of your queries. I would love to help!
