How Often Should a Puppy Pee | A Puppy Potty Schedule

If you are worried that your puppy might be peeing too much, read on to learn more about the normal urinary frequency in dogs and puppies and whether you should start getting worried or not. We’ve also included some frequently asked questions that you might have if you are a recent pet parent and some advice on how to get a puppy to pee outside or create a schedule.

How Often Should It Happen?

As humans, we might be under the impression that puppies pee a lot. They pee when they get excited, they sometimes pee in their sleep, and if you haven’t trained your own to do it outdoors yet, you might find it challenging to clean your floors time and again.

The first couple of months of being a dog parent can be challenging and frustrating, and you need to understand that getting a puppy that’s not potty trained yet is a true responsibility. Is your puppy peeing a lot or does your definition of ‘a lot’ is different than his or that of other people who’ve had dogs before?

While adult dogs are capable of holding their pee for a rather long time, that doesn’t happen with puppies. How long can puppies hold their pee? The truth is that most, especially the youngest, can’t do it for more than 20 to 30 minutes, and that’s if you’re lucky. Some pups might even pee every 10 to 15 minutes, especially if there’s something that can get them excited.

How often do puppies pee? The American Kennel Club recommends taking your puppy outdoors every one to two hours if he is younger than 6 months. It’s also a good idea to associate the number of months of your pup’s age with the number of hours you can wait. For example, if you have a 3-month-old puppy, you can wait for no longer than 3 hours to go outside, but do take into account that you might get a surprise before that.

What Should a Puppy Potty Schedule Look Like?

If you want to know how to train a puppy to pee outside, there are countless resources you can use and you can even have a talk with your veterinarian about this. By far the best way to do this correctly and to avoid using puppy pee pads for as long as possible is to create a schedule that you actually stick to.

Naturally, not all potential pet parents can do this, and if you do not work from home or you can’t leave your canine friend with a family member, you won’t be able to train him effectively. Perhaps getting a puppy that’s already potty trained is a good choice for you.

For a 10-week-old puppy, for example, you will have to take him outdoors early in the morning, at around 10 am, at noon, at 2 to 3 pm, at around 4 to 5 pm, and so on. That seems like an awful lot, but that’s the only way you can effectively train your puppy. You can bend the limits gradually, but that’s the key to your success – never expect a pup to want to go outdoors to pee or poop if you haven’t taken the time to train him.

A really young puppy can pee as many as 24 times in a day and can poop around 6 times over the same time span. Each one is different, however, and the amount or frequency he ‘goes to the bathroom’ can also depend on what foods he eats, how much water he drinks, as well as whether he gets enough exercise or not.

Health Signs That Your Puppy’s Peeing Habits Are Not Normal

If your puppy’s peeing frequently small amounts, the first thing that should cross your mind is that he might have a urinary tract infection. If you’ve ever had one yourself (and most people have, at least once in their life), you know how it is.

You try to go to the bathroom but very little comes out. In most cases and when it’s diagnosed in due time, a UTI is not hard to treat. You just have to pay attention and take your dog to the vet if you notice that your puppy’s peeing far too frequently and only small amounts or if the puppy’s peeing blood (although we hope not).

Then, there’s the kidney infection, in which case your puppy will manifest the same clinical signs like those you might notice in a urinary tract infection. If caught in time, it can be treated with antibiotics. However, it can become a lot more severe if it is not treated early and it can get to the point that the functional unit of the kidney becomes damaged, in which case kidney failure could ensue.

Canine diabetes is another possibility for your puppy peeing a lot. In an attempt to regulate his blood sugar level, your puppy will drink far more water than the usual, and naturally, he’ll also urinate more frequently. Diabetes can be congenital, which means that you should not overlook the possibility that your puppy might have it.

Spinal and brain tumors can exert pressure on the nerves that are found between your pup’s bladder and nervous system. The pressure leads to impairment, which means that your puppy could be effectively incapable of having any control over his bladder. Fortunately, this is the least common reason for a puppy that pees frequently, so at least there’s that to take into account.

Medications can cause a variety of side effects, and one of them can be a change in the urination frequency normally exhibited by your puppy.

What about Behavioral Issues?

Some attention-seeking puppies can pee just to get the care they need, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they might try to manipulate you. In fact, most puppies aren’t as seasoned when it comes to influencing the behavior of humans depending on what they want. They just need a little more care and attention, and that’s all.

Changes in your puppy’s routine and any disturbances to the schedule you have initially planned for him can be another reason for your puppy’s seemingly weird peeing habits. Let’s not forget about anxiety, either, which occurs to most puppies. It’s absolutely natural for a pup to behave strangely, be a little fearful, or pee frequently when you’ve just taken him home for the first time.

What Can You Do?

There are several keys to getting your puppy trained. Crate training is recommended by many specialists, and what it entails is that you will keep your puppy in a crate when you can’t supervise him. Since no puppy wants to pee in the same area where he also rests, he’ll at least try to hold it in until you take him out.

For puppies that have medical issues, you can use belly bands or diapers. They are made with absorbent material, so they can be helpful for fixing ‘minor accidents’. At least you can avoid cleaning your floors time and again.