# Please hold it!



## mom2Zoe (Jun 17, 2014)

I could have had the exact same post and question, although I would think a spoo has a bigger bladder than toy. Zoe can barely get to the two hours when out of crate. She is 5 months on the 26th and I am also wondering when it will get easier?

She is beautiful by the way.


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## poolann (Jan 31, 2013)

I would say that crated she should be able to hold longer. 1. She is confined & won't want to go in the immediate area. 2. Less activity = less stimulation so she shouldn't need to go as often. Just make sure to take her out before crating & as soon as you return. 

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## mom2Zoe (Jun 17, 2014)

poolann said:


> I would say that crated she should be able to hold longer. 1. She is confined & won't want to go in the immediate area. 2. Less activity = less stimulation so she shouldn't need to go as often. Just make sure to take her out before crating & as soon as you return.
> 
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Out of crate she is getting stimulation from everyone which can't be helped. she doesn't sit like a vegetable. In the crate she can hold for 4 hrs. I have not tried longer except and night.
Sorry if I am hijacking thread , but have same question, which I have asked but never really got an answer when it would improve.


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## poolann (Jan 31, 2013)

Nothing wrong with interactive stimulation. I think that is wonderful & you have a large family so I bet she is in puppy heaven. I certainly don't feel like you are hijacking the thread 
The amount of time is such an individual thing for dogs I apologize but I can't give you a straight answer other than it should increase over time. 

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## MiniPoo (Mar 6, 2014)

First thing to check is to make sure she does not.have a UTI. If no bladder infection, then she might have puppy vaginitis. My puppy was diagnosed with this and I too had to take her out every 2-3 hours. I had to get up 2 times during the night. This lasted for months till she was almost a year. She did grow out of it but it was a royal pain the arse. So I feel your pain.


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## mom2Zoe (Jun 17, 2014)

MiniPoo said:


> First thing to check is to make sure she does not.have a UTI. If no bladder infection, then she might have puppy vaginitis. My puppy was diagnosed with this and I too had to take her out every 2-3 hours. I had to get up 2 times during the night. This lasted for months till she was almost a year. She did grow out of it but it was a royal pain the arse. So I feel your pain.


SHE DOESN'T HAVE A uTI.She goes all night without a problem and can hold in crate for a bunch of hrs. I even sometimes put her back in crate after playing for an hr or so{ without taking back out} and she can hold another two in crate. I am trying to hope she will develop to hold it longer by doing this. I think she just needs to learn how to hold it longer out of crate. I'm sure its a developmental thing. I was just curious if its because she's a toy vs mini or spoo or larger other breeds.


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## Newmum (Jan 2, 2014)

I've been keeping up with reading the forum but haven't been posting recently as we've been dealing with some health issues with Ember but I know mom2six you've made a few threads or posts along these lines and are maybe feeling a little frustrated. Here's a little link that helped me out with Ember. Hopefully this will help beanz too

The Sixth Commandment of Housebreaking - The Housebreaking Bible: Keeping your puppy or dog on a schedule

I found the table on this site far more accurate than the 'age in months plus 1 hr rule'. I feel the 'daytime' 'nighttime' hours could also read as 'out of crate' 'in crate'

Hopefully this is helpful, although I felt it was more accurate than the age in months rule Ember was still a little behind this table for daytime. When she first came home, for the first 2 weeks she needed to pee every 20 minutes if someone was playing with her! She slept through the night since her 3rd night so we were lucky there. 

I also know when she poos, so if she had been out for a wee and it wasn't time for a poo and she was 'asking' to go out I'd ignore her or get her to play a while. I guess that's kind of risking the housetraining but sometimes she'd just be asking to go out because she wanted to sniff the grass or whatever. At 8 months I still take her out at least every 4 hours when I'm home, because I'm home the majority of the time I don't see the harm in letting her out this much. However I also know she can hold it in her crate if I need to go out all day.

Sometimes it's can be a little trial and error, if puppy is insist on 'I need to go out' then they probably need to go out but if they've had a few months without any accidents in the house and you know they have had a wee they may just be asking to go out to check on what's new out there. I wouldn't try not letting them out when they ask if they haven't had a few months without accidents. 

On the flip side, if your home and they ask to go out and your can let them then there's no harm in letting them out. They wont not learn to hold it just because they usually have plenty of toilet opportunities. Their ability to hold it will develop with age anyway. As a human comparison, I am usually at home most days so I'll go to the toilet whenever, that doesn't mean that if I go out shopping all day and don't want to use the public bathrooms I cant hold it all day. 

I'm not sure the size of a dog matters too much, the bigger the dog the bigger the bladder but the more they drink so I'd think its the same in ratio?

I hope this all helps and you find the table on that site a bit more comforting in seeing that your puppy's are not behind in being able to hold it.


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## beanz (Jul 14, 2014)

Hi all,

Thank you for your discussion about my concern. I think I have come to a realisation and thought it might be worth sharing.

While Piper is a standard poodle, she is on the small side (she is half the weight of two of her littermates we have met and significantly shorter). I had been concerned about how skinny she was and made a trip to the vet to just check things out. I have been feeding her Orijen Puppy and sometimes she gets Ziwipeak (the latter is just a little out of budget for me to feed too often). I have been feeding a little more than recommended on the back of the food bags in an attempt to put some weight on her but if I increase the food too much she gets very soft poop. 

Anyway, so when we were at the vet's we were told that she is too skinny and needs to eat more. I specified the food type and quantity and that increasing results in soft poop. The vet recommended using other food, increasing the amount and feeding more often.

I decided that I did not want to change the food as what I'm feeding is high quality and what the vet recommended is... not so much. Through googling around it seems that overfeeding results in soft poop. So instead of increasing the food I took one of the vet's recommendations and went back to feeding her three times a day. Now, even though she's eating the same amount of food, just having it spread throughout the day has resulted in not only firm poop, but also weight gain. I guess her stomach was just too small to hold and digest the food in two feedings. 

My take away from this is that while she may be 5 months old, maybe she is just a little slow on the physical maturing. So if she has a small stomach, chances are she has a small bladder too. She has lots of energy and is a smart and confident pup (she tried earlier today to initiate a game with two giant Leonbergers) so I'm just going to chill out and give her the time to grow physically. My mum was telling me that when my brother and I were kids she never had to buy us new clothes because we hardly grew... Piper's probably just found the right family of vertically challenged people to join.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

beanz I am glad you got Piper checked by the vet. I am also glad that you have found an insight that you think explains your situation. Be patient a while longer and I am sure you will be fine.

Mom2six I am not sure about small dogs and whether that really makes a difference, but I hope you continue to see progress. Patience for you too. You will get there.


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## mom2Zoe (Jun 17, 2014)

lily cd re said:


> beanz I am glad you got Piper checked by the vet. I am also glad that you have found an insight that you think explains your situation. Be patient a while longer and I am sure you will be fine.
> 
> Mom2six I am not sure about small dogs and whether that really makes a difference, but I hope you continue to see progress. Patience for you too. You will get there.


Embers mom_ Thank you for all the info

I am trying to be patient ..... I am very happy with the progress. She really understands that you potty outside. She just doesn't understand how to tell me she needs to go outside yet and hasn't caught on to ringing the bells. She totally understands when I say poopy or pishy please and usually does on command. I am extremely proud and pleased with that! I just need to remind myself she still is a baby and the rest will come. My hubby resents that weekends revolve around her schedule. On weekdays nobody is effected by this. I am just looking forward to that part getting easier.


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## PoodleRick (Mar 18, 2013)

mom2six said:


> Embers mom_ Thank you for all the info
> 
> I am trying to be patient ..... I am very happy with the progress. She really understands that you potty outside. *She just doesn't understand how to tell me she needs to go outside* yet and hasn't caught on to ringing the bells. She totally understands when I say poopy or pishy please and usually does on command. I am extremely proud and pleased with that! I just need to remind myself she still is a baby and the rest will come. My hubby resents that weekends revolve around her schedule. On weekdays nobody is effected by this. I am just looking forward to that part getting easier.


Penny was like that. I have a bunch of posts here saying she gives no warning at all and just squats and pees. That is until I recognized her signal. It was a very very subtle signal but once I got it there haven't been any accidents in two months. Like Penny, maybe she's giving you a signal that you're not picking up on?

Rick


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## PoodlePaws (May 28, 2013)

PoodleRick said:


> Penny was like that. I have a bunch of posts here saying she gives no warning at all and just squats and pees. That is until I recognized her signal. It was a very very subtle signal but once I got it there haven't been any accidents in two months. Like Penny, maybe she's giving you a signal that you're not picking up on?
> 
> 
> 
> Rick



What was the signal?


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## PoodleRick (Mar 18, 2013)

She would walk by the back door and give the door a slight glance and keep on walking and then glance at me and keep on walking through the kitchen. The back door is right next to her food bowl and she walks around while she eats to. So I figured she was getting ready to eat or was just walking around. One day as she was strolling around a said "outside?" and she darted for the door and peed as soon as she hit the grass. Now she'll stop and look at the door and then me like " Hey stoopid, the tank's full" It's a much more obvious signal now because clearly she thinks I'm stupid. 

Rick


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## mom2Zoe (Jun 17, 2014)

Rick- I think Zoe was trying to signal when she had an accident last week.
I take her out every 1 1/2- 2 hours when out of crate. That accident was only after an hour. She hasn't had one since then.
I do believe you are right though, it was a slight signal. She went to door stood there a min or two then came back to where I was and squatted and peed.


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## PoodleRick (Mar 18, 2013)

mom2six said:


> Rick- I think Zoe was trying to signal when she had an accident last week.
> I take her out every 1 1/2- 2 hours when out of crate. That accident was only after an hour. She hasn't had one since then.
> I do believe you are right though, it was a slight signal. She went to door stood there a min or two then came back to where I was and squatted and peed.


Yeah, sounds like a signal to me.

Rick


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

mom2six it sounds like you are very close to making a breakthrough. Pay close attention to those little signals and you should find that the accidents disappear pretty quickly. I hope that once that happens your family life will settle down a bit so that everyone is happy.


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## Raven's Mom (Mar 18, 2014)

PoodleRick said:


> It was a very very subtle signal but once I got it there haven't been any accidents in two months. Like Penny, maybe she's giving you a signal that you're not picking up on?
> 
> Rick


Rick, how old is Penny now? She is very pretty!


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## ItzaClip (Dec 1, 2010)

My spoo has exact same signal. Very subtle at first just casual walk by door. Now she does the funniest thing. If I don't notice her standing at back door she will trot from door to door( which is back and forth through the living room cause watching TV is usually only time I don't catch it) as soon as I get up she dashes for back door. 

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## PoodleRick (Mar 18, 2013)

Raven's Mom said:


> Rick, how old is Penny now? She is very pretty!


Thanks. She'll be 8 months on the 8th

Rick


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