Dog Community

Changing Water Schedule

Posted : 1/17/2007 9:55:22 PM

Indy seems to only drink 2-3 times a day, and when she does, she drinks most of her bowl. One of those drinking times happens to be in the middle of the night, which means her getting up once to drink, another time to pee, and maybe another time or two just for fun. I get up with her everytime to make sure she doesn't get into anything, doesn't pee on my carpet and comes back to bed (she needs assistance getting back to bed because of her size). I used to cut off food and water at 7:00 or 8:00 but then she started getting up at night thristy, and I put it down for her. How can I change her drinking habits without depriving her of water? She seems to always want it at night.

tiffy

Posted : 1/18/2007 10:06:58 AM

I have no advice, but my three have access to water at all times and that means getting up in the middle of the night and going potty. If your worried about her pottying in the house, you could always crate at night. Since your worried about potty in the house, I think she should not have the ability to roam. JMO.

mudpuppy

Posted : 1/18/2007 10:25:27 AM

wow, how are you getting any sleep? you don't want to encourage this behavior. Lock the pup up-- in a crate by your bed, or just shut your bedroom door. Taking a very young pup outside once during the night to potty is ok, but you don't want to have to follow the pup around the house all night. Dogs can go all night without drinking. You need to apply some tough love here. Also, perhaps more exercise before bedtime would help the pup learn to sleep all night.

houndlove

Posted : 1/18/2007 11:57:28 AM

I can't give access to Marlowe to free water all the time because he'll also drink way more than he should at times when no one is available to let him out. There's no reason to provide access to water 24 hours a day.

I would check with a vet though. Excessive thirst (I don't know about your dog but my dogs sleep so soundly that thirst so bad that it would them up would definately be not normal) may be a sign of something else.

jenhuedepohl

Posted : 1/18/2007 12:02:35 PM

I put the water up at 8 pm, when my kids go to bed. If I don't my older dog will drink-and-drink-and-drink-and-drink. Then drink some more. He's getting better on a lower thyroid dose, but even I have to watch my fluid intake before bed if I don't want to be getting up all night. And I'm not 92 in dog years. I always let him out at 10 pm before we go to bed, but I'll wake up to the sound of pee-on-carpet at about 5 am if the water was left out. I don't know what's worse - the fact that the sound of pee-on-carpet can wake me out of a dead sleep, or that I know exactly what that sound is at 5 am!

Cita

Posted : 1/18/2007 1:04:49 PM

My little guy sleeps with me. He has free access to water until it's time to go to bed, at which point he's locked up in my bedroom (and there's no food/water in the bedroom). Very rarely he still has to go out in the middle of the night, and he lets me know by licking me in the face, but usually he sleeps through the night with me. In the morning we go downstairs where his food/water dishes are and he has free access again.

kalishea

Posted : 1/18/2007 9:19:31 PM

Huh, ok. Last night she decided she was thirty at 9:05, and bedtime for us is between 9:30-10:00, so I let her drink, then put up her water. She got up a few times, but would walk to her crate and just stand there and then I would carry her back to bed. My hope is for her to get a big drink between 8-9 and pee just before we go to sleep. We'll see how tonight goes. Thanks for the help!

Suzi

Posted : 1/19/2007 2:53:43 AM

I don't have a actual schedule of water changing through out the day. What I do is, change it once in the morning and sometimes once at night. Though I leave her bowl sitting there and she have access to it at all times. [&:]