Should I carry my puppy out to pee? Having a puppy in your home is cute. But there’s nothing cute about cleaning up a messed-up environment with a puppy’s pee. This article will let you know if you should or not, and if it’s a good idea or not.
Generally, it is advised that you should carry your puppy out to pee on two conditions. First, your puppy is still very young, and second, you’re training your puppy that your home is not a place for him to mess up.
As time goes on, you should carry your puppy out to pee and teach him to show signs that he needs to pee. This will save you a lot of headaches when he’s older.
Is It a Good Idea to Carry My Dog Out to Pee?
Asides from your puppies making a mess in your home which you’d have to clean up thoroughly, in most cases, it is a good idea to carry your puppy out to pee due to the following reasons:
1. Reinforcing the Willingness to go Out
Anytime you carry your dog out to pee, he gets the message that your home is not a place to pee. When he’s grown, he tends to stick to that routine
2. Protection
Your puppy is too young and inexperienced to understand the world out there. He can’t recognize a potential danger when he sees one. With you, he feels safer.
3. Avoiding Stairs/Steps Risks
A puppy’s joints are not strong enough to climb stairs until they’re grown. Climbing the stairs on his own could cause arthritis and hip dysplasia in him. Therefore, it is a good idea to carry your puppy out to pee if you have stairs in your home
4. Prevents diseases
Dogs love to sniff things around, that is their way of perceiving the world. But at the same time, they can contract diseases from smelling or touching the wrong things, especially since your puppy hasn’t received all his vaccinations.
If other dogs use the yard for pee and poop, carrying your dog in this case helps them avoid diseases that you would have to deal with if they went out on their own
When Should I Bring My Dog Out for a Pee?
Taking your dog out for a pee is a good idea, you probably already know that by now. Now you have to know when to bring your dog out for a pee to avoid accidents. Let’s discuss when to bring your dog out for a pee, below.
a. Before bedtime
Right before your puppy goes to bed at night, carry the puppy for a potty session. This will relieve him of the pressure in his bladder.
However, you have to let your puppy understand that it’s not playtime; it’s potty time. You can do that by using a phrase such as “go potty” or “potty time”. This will help him understand that it’s time to pee and not to jump around.
b. At midnight
In the middle of the night, your puppy may need to pee again to avoid midnight discharge. Even humans do get up to pee a couple of times in the middle of the night, so puppies are not much different. If you do not carry him to pee he might do his business right there where he sleeps.
Typically, a puppy can control its bladder one hour for every month of age. So if your puppy is 3 months old, he can hold his bladder for at most 3 hours. Do not stretch these hours more than this between potty breaks to avoid accidents.
c. When he wakes up
You just woke up and you have a full bladder? Your puppy is most likely to have a full bladder too when he wakes up. Regardless of the time of the day, carry your puppy out for a pee.
d. When he shows signs
When your puppy shows signs that he wants to do his business, please carry him out for a quick pee. But how will you know the sign he’s showing is a pee warning sign?
How to know if your puppy wants to pee
A puppy that wants to pee will show the following signs:
Whining
When your dog keeps whining, it may be a sign that he wants to go out for a pee. Whining is a means that dogs use to communicate their discomfort. So how will you know which whine means that he wants to pee?
Try walking towards the door where you usually carry your dog to pee and see if he runs toward you in excitement. If that is the case, then your dog wants to pee.
Scratching the door
Does your dog keep scratching the door that leads to your front porch? That might be a sign that he wants to pee outside.
How Do You Get Your Puppy to Tell You He Has to Pee?
Give Him Treats When He Pees Outside
Teach your dog to do outside when he wants to pee from a very young age between 12 – 14 weeks. Before he is 6 – 12 months old, he already knows better than to pee inside.
Whenever your dog goes to pee outside on his own accord, give him treats for doing so. This makes him just want to go out every time he needs to pee, if not for anything, to get his treats.
Teach Him to Ring a Bell to Go Pee Outside
This will take a lot of practice and patience with your dog. Teach your dog to ring a bell in the house whenever he wants to go outside. Put a doorbell rope at the door base for your dog’s easy access. Give him a treat anytime your dog rings the bell during your practice, and open the door for him. Repeat this process over and over again.
Next time, when your little friend wants to pee outside, he rings the bell, and he’s sure you’ll open the door for him to go out for a pee.
What to do when you catch your puppy peeing in the house?
Instinctively, you just want to punish your dog in any way including rubbing his nose in his pee. Don’t do that. You’ll cause your dog to fear you. And the next time he needs to go off, he goes into hiding to do his business. Rather, do the following:
Be Patient
Take it easy with your dog. Don’t spank or yell at him. Just clean up the mess thoroughly and move on. It is not natural for dogs to ease themselves outdoors; they just want to go off right where they are. It takes a lot of practice to get them organized!
Don’t Stop Training Too Soon
Your dog needs some time to understand the routine of his training. So if your dog still goes off indoors, don’t stop the training yet even if you are tempted to.
Schedule Your Dog’s Drinking
Too much drinking will certainly result in frequent peeing. You might want to schedule a time for your dog to drink water. This lets you calculate how many hours are left before he “goes off”. Be careful though, to not starve him of water.
How soon after drinking water does a puppy pee?
A puppy’s frequency of peeing depends on its age. The older they get, the less frequently they pee. If your puppy just drank a lot of water, he might need to pee immediately as puppies pee every 10 – 30 minutes.
So as your puppy drinks a bowl of water, be on the lookout for pee signs, and carry him out for a pee. Puppies can hold their pee for one hour for every month of age. So it depends on how old your puppy is but you should expect him to pee any moment soon after drinking water.
How Long Should You Wait Outside for Your Puppy to Pee?
You carry your puppy out to pee. He’s just there, he’s not peeing. Wait for 15 minutes for him to do his business. If he doesn’t, take him back to his crate for another 15 minutes. Repeat the process a few times throughout the day. This is just to ensure that your dog’s bladder is empty and he will not mess up your home anytime soon.
Do not spend more than 15 minutes waiting for him to pee. He might never do that. In fact, he might assume that you’re out to enjoy the outdoor air with him. Let him know that you are in his pee area for business and he needs to get to it, fast.
Conclusion
Carrying your dog out to pee is inarguably a good idea and thus, advised, especially if they are young puppies. But be sure to train him to go out to pee on their own even in your absence.
You don’t want to carry your dog out to pee forever. You can as well make an indoor arrangement such as a dog’s indoor lawn where he can do his business, and you take it out when he’s done if that’s not too much work for you.
