I heard this. I know each puppy is different but divide how many weeks your puppy is by 2 and that is how long they can hold it. For example: A 8 week puppy can hold it for 4 hours. A 10 week puppy can hold it for 5 hours. Has anyone else heard this? Thanks!
No but I suspect there are so many variables from levels of excitement heat tiredness etc that it might not work out so simply
The one I most commonly have heard (in my whole 2 weeks of dog ownership!) is the number of months old + 1 to give an idea of the number of hours they can hold it. However, as SwampDonkey said, the early reality has been that sometimes during times of high excitement during the day our wee man will go 3 times in an hour; whilst last night he went overnight for over 7 hours without a peep! What has been useful for me in the last couple of weeks has been keeping a daily log of the dogs main activities - pees, poops, meals, playtime, rest time, drinks. This has given me a much better idea, specific to my dog in his surroundings, of what I should expect and has helped us begin to settle into something like a rhythm together.
my 4 month old can usually go around 5-6 hours during the day while in the crate and about the same at night.
My pup is 14 weeks and definitely CANNOT hold it for 7 hours during the day. Overnight, sure. But during the day, I don't leave him in his crate for more than 3 hours give or take.
It'd be a rare pup indeed who could hold their bladder for 4 hours during the day at 8 weeks. I don't leave my adult dog alone for longer than that in case she needs a wee. Sure, she can hold it longer than 4 hours during the day, but I like to give her the option. At 10 weeks she was peeing every 20 minutes without fail - 5 hours, that'd have been bliss. She was dry overnight for 6.5 hours at 8.5 weeks old, but that was night. You don't want to damage their bladders by forcing them to hold on, and you don't want to put them in a position where they're forced to wee indoors because they're busting and you've made them hold on too long.
No, I've never heard of this. I believe that they learn to hold their wee/poo when the neurological system is sufficiently mature to allow them to do so. Which vary from puppy to puppy.
Never heard of this, and looking back at our puppy experience, the formula is highly inaccurate. It's easy to understand that whoever came up with that formula was looking for an easy way for people to understand bladder holding capability, and I'm sure they meant well. But in reality every puppy is different. Learning to understand your own puppy's needs takes time and effort to observe, record, plan and act. I don't think there are (m)any short cuts on the subject.
No, I haven’t heard this. All pups are different. Some can only hold it for half an hour or so at 8 weeks, others closer to an hour. Of course, all pups can hold it longer at night as they are sleeping. I hope they are not using this as an excuse to leave young pups alone for too long. ,
No, I haven't heard of this either. It depends on much more than age and it's important to go with the puppy's needs. It's amazing, though, how long some adult dogs can wait if it's raining so hard they don't fancy going into the garden or there are much more exciting things to do indoors!
Yep, all puppies are different, and so is the way we go about toilet training too, which can affect the bladder control ability. I agree with you @Boogie and hope this isn't a "tool" or excuse to leave puppies too long. On a slightly different note, I know human bladders will relatively speaking "shrink" if the human goes a lot, responding to every early urge to go without even trying to hold off for a few minutes. In such cases we recommend "bladder retraining" where there is a conscious delay in going pee with the purpose of just stretching that bladder a little bit more. It got me thinking. It does explain why people (with puppies ) in the summer with an "open door to the garden" can struggle a little more with toilet training, where as "working mums" like myself may end up with dogs with bladders the size of a camel.
My Keir sometimes chooses not to wee in the rain. This is something of an issue as he’s not allowed to wee on lead walks - so I have to wait until he’s ‘been’ before we go out. One wet, windy, rainy day last week he waited until 2pm from 9pm the night before! .
The one I read was for crate time but I think it meant before they had to go out to pee. I heard one hour per month of age plus another hour. So an 8 week old puppy is not yet two months old (not quite) so could only be crated 2 hours. Half of your formula and if we were busy playing in the house mine might have been outside every 15 minutes. NO WAY I'd try 5 hours, unless, maybe what you heard meant at night? ONe of mine was clean overnight from 7 weeks old.
