# Completely 100% housebroken ages?



## frostwolf7294 (Jan 23, 2014)

I have been doing a lot of research on housebreaking lately. My question: If a dog's bladder is not capable of full control until 6 months + , why are so many people on the net claiming their puppy of ages anywhere 8-14 weeks is completely housebroken & only took two days?? 

This just seems crazy & contradictory to me.


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## boomer11 (Jun 9, 2013)

housebroken doesnt mean how long a dog can hold it. it means when the dog understands that it is suppose to go do its business outside and will alert you so it can go outside.


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## Msmaria (Mar 2, 2013)

8 weeks, but he followed the older dogs. They trained him.


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

some people are good trainers. some dogs learn faster. my last
dog took 2 weeks before he was house broken. i got him when he
was 10 weeks old. the dog i have now took 11 days and he was house
broken. i got the dog i have now when he was 10 weeks old.

after my dog was house broken i continued to take out every
15 minutes to a 1/2 hour. overnight he was out 2 or 3 times.
as he aged his times went from every 1/2 hour to every
45 minutes, to every hour, to 1 hour and 15 minutes and so.




frostwolf7294 said:


> I have been doing a lot of research on housebreaking lately. My question: If a dog's bladder is not capable of full control until 6 months + , why are so many people on the net claiming their puppy of ages anywhere 8-14 weeks is completely housebroken & only took two days??
> 
> This just seems crazy & contradictory to me.
> 
> ...


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## TAR HEEL MOM (Mar 22, 2013)

To hold it no matter what, and never, ever pee in the house even if they were alone for several hours? 6-7 months.


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## trcy (Mar 1, 2013)

I didn't get my dog until he was 3 months. It took 2 to 3 weeks to house break him. It felt longer though..lol


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## trcy (Mar 1, 2013)

boomer11 said:


> housebroken doesnt mean how long a dog can hold it. it means when the dog understands that it is suppose to go do its business outside and will alert you so it can go outside.


Exactly. We ran an errand once and were suppose to be back home in 3 to 4 hours. Well, there were delays and traffic, we were going about 6 hours. We had Riley then and he did his poo right near the back door. He was trying to get out. He did not get in trouble for that though. It was our fault.


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## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

I honestly didn't think it was possible for such a young puppy to have bladder control...but Cricket (my JRT) proved me wrong. We brought her home at 12 weeks, the first few nights she slept in the crate and I'd wake up every few hours throughout the night to take her out. She never pottied and I just knew she'd have accidents...

She never did, and I realized she just didn't NEED to go out every few hours. So we stopped waking up to take her out and she never had an issue holding it through the night. 

The experience I had with her hasn't been typical, most of my other dogs have been higher maintenance and haven't had as much bladder control until they were older. But it is possible! I'm sure it helped that she was already crate trained by her breeder, and I think she was used to sleeping in her crate.


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## Germanshepherdlova (Apr 16, 2011)

My dog was 7 weeks old when we brought him home. Within a week he was housebroken. While I was at work or school and had to leave the pup alone for 9 hours-he could not hold it that long and would have to pee. That's because he was too young to hold it so long-but housebroken he was because he wouldn't do that if someone was home to let him out-and he knew to go to the door when he needed to go.


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## MichaelE (Dec 15, 2012)

Lisl was good to be by herself up to 10 hours at about seven months. She would regularly hold it for up to eight hours by the time she was five months. About six hours at four months. 

Careful food and water intake management helps a lot during potty training and never letting them out of your sight while you are home with them.

Lisl was very easy to train. I can't remember the last accident she had before I considered her 110% potty trained.


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## Curtis (Jun 9, 2013)

I brought my puppy home when he was 8 weeks. He could not hold his bladder. When he woke up from a nap, I had to carry him straight outside because if I let him walk he would stop and pee before we got to the door. Other than that we went out every two hours, through the night as well. 

At 10 weeks, he was fully house trained and used the doggy door on his own.


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## Shade (Feb 20, 2012)

Delgado came home at 9 weeks, he had two accidents the first week (my fault) and never had another. So he was completely housebroken and hasn't had a single accident since 10 weeks old. 

I attribute it to the breeder doing crate training and potty training in advance and us just keeping a very close eye on him. Some dogs just naturally get it, some take much longer


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

boomer11 said:


> housebroken doesnt mean how long a dog can hold it. it means when the dog understands that it is suppose to go do its business outside and will alert you so it can go outside.


It's this but if they can't hold it while the owner isn't there and they are not in a crate then they aren't housebroken. My golden puppy will tell me when he has to go out, but if I left him out of the crate and he had to go he would, I do not consider him housebroken. Crate trained and housebroken are two different things IMO.


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## frostwolf7294 (Jan 23, 2014)

llombardo said:


> It's this but if they can't hold it while the owner isn't there and they are not in a crate then they aren't housebroken. My golden puppy will tell me when he has to go out, but if I left him out of the crate and he had to go he would, I do not consider him housebroken. Crate trained and housebroken are two different things IMO.


Agreed! 


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## JulieBays (Jun 26, 2011)

Hans and Sasha were housebroken within 3 weeks of bringing them home. However, both of them never had to wait too long. They were both crate trained and either I or my son are home on and off during the day. So, I agree with the OP in the fact that a young bladder can't hold it all day. But, using a crate and being very diligent in your potty breaks makes a big difference. Hans is now 15 weeks old and hasn't had an accident in weeks.


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## boomer11 (Jun 9, 2013)

llombardo said:


> It's this but if they can't hold it while the owner isn't there and they are not in a crate then they aren't housebroken. My golden puppy will tell me when he has to go out, but if I left him out of the crate and he had to go he would, I do not consider him housebroken. Crate trained and housebroken are two different things IMO.


yeah then your dog isnt housebroken because he didnt know where he's suppose to go. my dog isnt even crate trained and he knows he's not suppose to pee inside. thats the definition of housebroken. its not a length of time.


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

boomer11 said:


> yeah then your dog isnt housebroken because he didnt know where he's suppose to go. my dog isnt even crate trained and he knows he's not suppose to pee inside. thats the definition of housebroken. its not a length of time.


Right, but he does know where to go when I'm home and he can ask. Until he can hold it for longer lengths of time I'm just setting him up to fail. And if he fails its because I failed him. I will add he has never had an accident in the house, but he likes to go out to pee often. Even with no accidents I don't feel he is completely housebroken, because I don't feel he can hold it for longer lengths of time. By longer I mean 5-6 hours. He doesn't sit still and still pees after he plays for a little bit.


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## boomer11 (Jun 9, 2013)

eh to me its not a length of time. its whether the dog knows to go outside or not. if a senior dog suddenly has to go every few hours are they suddenly not considered housebroken?


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## trcy (Mar 1, 2013)

llombardo said:


> It's this but if they can't hold it while the owner isn't there and they are not in a crate then they aren't housebroken. My golden puppy will tell me when he has to go out, but if I left him out of the crate and he had to go he would, I do not consider him housebroken. Crate trained and housebroken are two different things IMO.


I disagree. Maybe because I didn't use a crate to potty train. First my dogs are rarely left alone, but if we do leave them and come home to an accident right near the door they would use to go out if they could, then that tells me they held it as long as they could. That would be the only time they have an accident in the house and it's was poo.


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## Oskar's Human (Jan 22, 2014)

I am beginning week 3 of potty training tomorrow and Oskar has just in the past three days started whining at the door when he needs to go out. Honestly, I am proud of him I thought it would take MUCH longer than this. He hasn't had any accidents in the past two days whatsoever. We have had him on a strict intake schedule) and been integrating crate training with having him out and taking him out ever 30-45 min this entire time CONSISTENTLY! <-- I really cannot stress that enough. 

It was weird though, just all of a sudden he was whining when he needed to go out, ignore him for a second and he will whine his way over to bite your arm... baby's gotta go!

That being said, and I would think more onto the topic of this post, I wouldn't think he is officially house-broken! But maybe that is just my skepticism. I was trying to do the whole deal without treats until my vet looked at me on monday and said "Seriously, give him a treat every time, CONSISTENTLY, and it will be a matter of weeks. GSD's are smart dogs!" 

I'm glad I took the advice


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

trcy said:


> I disagree. Maybe because I didn't use a crate to potty train. First my dogs are rarely left alone, but if we do leave them and come home to an accident right near the door they would use to go out if they could, then that tells me they held it as long as they could. That would be the only time they have an accident in the house and it's was poo.


Well I'm the only one in my house and work 12 hours a day, so my dogs are left alone for about 6 hours at a time and 4 out of 5 were crate trained. The bottom line is that it tells you they held it as long as they could, but they didn't hold it completely. I would consider 8 hours about right, but anything after that would be an accident and to long for the dog to hold it and completely the owners fault . I personally am not spending my time picking up pee , way to busy with the dogs doing other stuff for that to be an option. So we can agree to disagree


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

boomer11 said:


> eh to me its not a length of time. its whether the dog knows to go outside or not. if a senior dog suddenly has to go every few hours are they suddenly not considered housebroken?


Medical and age don't count. Technically if they are completely house broken and they start peeing in the house, it can be signs of a medical issue(diabetes, uti, etc )


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## SuperG (May 11, 2013)

Mine was pretty much 95% housebroken at 11-12 weeks but to this date she still leaves the toilet seat up.

SuperG


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## SoCal Rebell (Jun 3, 2009)

I keep my back sliding open all the time for access to the completely walled in backyard, my last GSD taught my pup Golden Retriever Dory to go outside in 2 days. Now 4 year old Dory is teaching Rebell, it's been a week but only a couple of pees, no poops. I know some not agree with this method but when I catch my pup in the act of peeing or pooping I stick his nose in it and carry him outside.



.


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## brembo (Jun 30, 2009)

Banjo was ROCK solid at 6 months. I do not recall an accident ever past that.
Cable came to me when 3-ish. Aside from day one jitters he hasn't gone inside.
Allie, semi-adopted 9 month old, never, that I remember. 

Doggie doors are worth their weight in gold.


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## volcano (Jan 14, 2013)

My girl was potty trained real quick, before 10 weeks. And slept through the night without soiling the cage or whining to get out. She also barely drinks though, Im not kidding when I say a bowl of water can last her over a week.


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## Loneforce (Feb 12, 2012)

The second night home, Jonas was scratching at the door asking to go out. 8 weeks 1 1/2 days. He has asked to go out since. But don't worry he is no angel LOL , he makes up for it with a few other quirks I am working on.


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## boomer11 (Jun 9, 2013)

volcano said:


> My girl was potty trained real quick, before 10 weeks. And slept through the night without soiling the cage or whining to get out. She also barely drinks though, Im not kidding when I say a bowl of water can last her over a week.


do you feed raw? or do you have an incredibly huge water bowl?? i swear mine goes through 2-3 bowls a day of water. and if his bowl is empty off to the toilet he goes....


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## brembo (Jun 30, 2009)

My two will drain a 5 gallon inverted water-er thingy in about 5 days.


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## dogfaeries (Feb 22, 2010)

Russell was 10 weeks old when he tried to go out the dog door on his own because he had to pee and poop. He got stuck in it, and had to back out, and we raced outside through the patio door. He peed and pooped and I threw him a party. 

I seriously never had to do anything to housebreak him beyond taking him outside about every 30 minutes to an hour. He never had an opportunity to go in the house. Once he could heave himself out the dog door on his own, it was even easier. If I hadn't let him out yet, and he needed to go, he just went outside on his own. Carly and Sage were good teachers too with the dog door. He also went to work with me every day, so I took him out constantly. It's very handy to have a dog that will potty on a leash.

When we go to dog shows, and he is loose in the hotel room and needs to go outside, he will jump on the hotel door. 

Easiest dog I've EVER house trained. Ever.


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## Wolfgeist (Dec 4, 2010)

We got Zenna on the 26th of last week, and the past four days there were no accidents in the house, none in the crate, and she sleeps from midnight to 8am. We pick up water at 8pm. Working from home, I was able to take her out every hour... we had several accidents the first 2-3 days, but it seems she "gets it now"... she goes to the front door and whines frantically when she has to go. Happened very quickly for my male Hunter, too!

If you can be consistent and vigilant, it can happen pretty quickly.


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## FirefighterGSD (Jan 20, 2014)

boomer11 said:


> housebroken doesnt mean how long a dog can hold it. it means when the dog understands that it is suppose to go do its business outside and will alert you so it can go outside.


Right! My male is 12 weeks old and 100% housebroken. He whines and goes to the back door when he needs to go out. He will sit there until we open the door to let him out.


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

FirefighterGSD said:


> Right! My male is 12 weeks old and 100% housebroken. He whines and goes to the back door when he needs to go out. He will sit there until we open the door to let him out.


And if your not there to let him out?


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## boomer11 (Jun 9, 2013)

llombardo said:


> And if your not there to let him out?


then he'll hold it and whine until he cant hold it any longer. whats different between that and a dog that can lasts 8 hours and then cant hold it any longer? 

HOUSEBROKEN just means the dog knows where to go and doesnt just pee and poop everywhere. housebroken can mean the dog learns to go on a pad inside the house. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF TIME! look it up in the dictionary if you dont believe me =) 

your definition is clearly different. just let it go.


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## SummerGSDLover (Oct 20, 2013)

Housebroken. This is something that has been debated a lot between my husband and I lately over our 5 month old GSD. My Housebroken means this: "A dog that can hold it even after he is let out of his crate, plays, eats & drinks, etc. and can still be trusted to tell us when he's gotta go."
My husband's Housebroken means this: "A dog who can be left out all night while we are sleeping and is confidently trusted to not potty in the house, who can wait til someone lets him out in the morning." 
I personally think they're the same but my husband thinks crate training is "cheating" when it comes to potty training. I think a crate is setting the puppy up to win. I think leaving a puppy out all night not in a crate is setting him up to fail. Thus, my 5 month old is crate trained. Because I win. Lol. 
Honestly, I would trust Yogi to wake me up if he had to go in the middle of the night if he wasn't crated but alas, I have three boys under the age of ten, 2 of which still wet the bed. I have enough potty accidents to clean up in the morning without adding the dog. Lol! 

*-*Summer*-*


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## MrsLeftlane (Mar 7, 2011)

Our youngest GSD is 15 weeks, and completely house broken. From the day we brought her home (at 8 weeks), I've been by her side. I take her out on a schedule, and she has slept with me every night since she's been here. She stays on our bed from about 10:30pm, until 5-6am every morning. At first, during the day, I would take her out about once an hour, then I pushed it to 2 hours, now it's about every 3 hours. She also has 2 very good teachers. A 10 yr old GSD, and a 10 yr old Husky. They're both great dogs, so she's learning a lot from them. We also have a 3 yr old GSD, but he's not home all the time, he travels with my Husband. With all of our dogs we go in and out the same door every time we take them out, so now our 15 week old will go sit by the door, and wait. They're very smart, so take full advantage of that. Routine is the the key. We also have never crated our dogs. Thankfully I'm a stay at home Mom, so I'm able to keep a set routine. I can also leave for a few hours to grocery shop, etc, and come home to no accidents, and nothing chewed up. We've been blessed with some amazing dogs.


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## vicky2200 (Oct 29, 2010)

I'm not sure where you got that information. Dakota was pretty much house trained from day one- at 7 weeks (maybe younger, it was almost 10 years ago now). He only peed in the house once. Other than that we would leave him in our (safe) basement when we would leave and if it was for 8 hours he would poop. Maybe occasionally he would pee in that time, but usually it was just poop. He never pooped in the house when we were home and only peed that one time.

I think it really depends on the dog, but most dogs, with consistent training will be finished around 6 months.


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## FirefighterGSD (Jan 20, 2014)

llombardo said:


> And if your not there to let him out?


He's never had an accident in the crate either so i'm going to stand by my original post  Also, FWIW, I work from home so it's rare that he is alone (and crated) for more than 2 hours at most.


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## FirefighterGSD (Jan 20, 2014)

boomer11 said:


> then he'll hold it and whine until he cant hold it any longer. whats different between that and a dog that can lasts 8 hours and then cant hold it any longer?
> 
> HOUSEBROKEN just means the dog knows where to go and doesnt just pee and poop everywhere. housebroken can mean the dog learns to go on a pad inside the house. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF TIME! look it up in the dictionary if you dont believe me =)
> 
> your definition is clearly different. just let it go.


Thanks


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## helensdisturbed (Nov 9, 2013)

Six months and completely trained. We had odd accidents prior to this age where we didn't open the door in time etc. 


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## A girl and her dog (Jan 25, 2014)

Apparently housebroken is more of a personal standard; something defined by the owner and what they can live with. 

I have one that I can trust not to go in the house at night (as far as I know); he sleeps with me and is almost one year old. 

My baby- 9-10 wk old GSmix can't hold it for very long and is still being crate trained. He's been having accidents (on purposes?) in the crate at night lately. He didn't at first and would hold it for up to three hours. Now it seems he just goes in there as long as there's a blanket in there. That's NOT housebroken, lol! 

Some will say that if the dog is taken out every hour and is constantly supervised so that it never has a chance to go in the house that it is NOT housebroken. Same goes for saying that the pup has NEVER had an accident. Are you sure? Because they've never had a chance to have one. If I leave my pup unsupervised (lately, even for a second) he'll have an accident. I don't think that is necessarily housebroken. Even my Chi that's a year and holds is (again, to my knowledge) all night (about six hours), WOULD go in the house if I left him running loose inside, alone for half the day. I know him! He would un potty train himself in a heartbeat just b/c he can. He's a Chi, that's how they roll. As long as I'm diligent about bringing him out no less than every three hours in the daytime, he's "housebroken." 

By contrast, my GS pup is nowhere near that level of housebreaking. He does go sit by the door sometimes if he has to go. That's it. When I first brought him home, he actually whined at the edge of the bed at night to get down and go out (now he has to be crated at night), would come to me and paw at me and whine to go out. Now, he just goes wherever and whenever like he was never taught otherwise. Seems the Chi went through a stage like that too. 

I say they're housebroken when you can trust them not to desecrate your floors for a length of time that you know they can or will hold it. NO dog can or should hold it for 12 hours. If that's the expectation, that dog will never be "housebroken."


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## Ivy's (Nov 4, 2012)

A girl and her dog said:


> Apparently housebroken is more of a personal standard; something defined by the owner and what they can live with.
> 
> I have one that I can trust not to go in the house at night (as far as I know); he sleeps with me and is almost one year old.
> 
> ...


My youngest GSD is house trained completely as 3 months, my older one (whom we got at 8 weeks) took 4 of 5 months to finally understand what I wanted her to do. I worked with her relentlessly, too. Not so with my 2nd pup. She just seemed to pick it right uo! Love my dogs!!! They're loyalty and love is more reliable than most humans. :wub:


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## mcdanfam (Aug 27, 2013)

I don't think they can be fully house broken....it is about "alerting" to go outside. 
Ours were alerting us within 48 hours...but we did it very routine. We read an hour for every month they are old is how often they need to potty. 
Not sure this is the correct way....but..
We crate trained them, every two hours we would carry them from their crates, to the door, ring the bell with their tiny paw, give a treat, open the door, and then come in to play, return to crate....We repeated the process every 2 hours for the first 2 days, day two...later in the evening, the female...ran to the door, rang the bell and went potty. 
We have never had accidents...but they could not hold it, well we did not test them holding it until they were about 4 months old...that was the first time they slept 8 hours without potty breaks through the night....by 10 weeks they were alerting us and we could let them have tons more time outside of the crate. We never left them unsupervised and were very routine about the bell and potty breaks. At 4 1/2 months old we trusted them to sleep out of crates, roam the house and know they would ring the bell....at 15 months old...they ring the bell, and if we don't hear it the first time, they make sure we hear it the second. 

Good luck.....


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

Sinister was potty trained at 13 weeks old. He didn't have any potty accidents after that, he knew how to tell me he needed to go outside.

Draco was potty trained at 15 or 16 weeks old. He did have a couple of crate accidents but it was my fault for leaving him for too long. No accidents outside of his crate since he was 15 or 16 weeks old and he learned how to tell me he needed to go outside.


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## ApselBear (Feb 10, 2014)

My pup was potty trained from day one(he was a natural, no actual training invovled). I, on the other hand, took a bit longer to get on his level. It took me a few days of getting used to his signals of when he was ready to "go". 8 weeks(9 counting my learning curve).


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

A girl and her dog said:


> I say they're housebroken when you can trust them not to desecrate your floors for a length of time that you know they can or will hold it. NO dog can or should hold it for 12 hours. If that's the expectation, that dog will never be "housebroken."


I agree 100%. 4-6 hours is expected, but they can go about 8-10 hours and over night is also expected. If they have to go over night I expect them to ask. Even if they have had diarrhea in the past, they ask. If I call them in from outside and they haven't gone yet they run the other way and go, it's like oh boy I'm going in the house , so I better go now.When I took my son to college we were gone a lot longer then I expected-14 hours, I fully expected a mess when I got home. 4 dogs and not one accident and no one crated, none of them are crated (except the puppy now, he wasn't here yet for the14 he trip)that is housebroken IMO. The same thing when my mom was sick and dying, crazy hours and they all dealt with it with no accidents.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

A girl and her dog said:


> NO dog can or should hold it for 12 hours. If that's the expectation, that dog will never be "housebroken."


I disagree.

One time when I was really, really sick, I laid on the couch and Sinister laid next to me. I lost track of time and realized that Sinister had not been outside to potty for 15 hours. He never once asked to go out either, it's like he knew that I wasn't feeling well so he didn't drink a lot of water. He does that during the week too while I am at work. He barely touches his water while I am gone.


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## Serbrider (Jan 30, 2014)

My 9 year old dog *can* hold it a full 24 hours if need be, but apart from very rare emergencies, I never expect her to hold it for more than 8-10 hours at a time. It's just not fair to her.

For a puppy, considerably less time. For the first two months of mine I plan on every two hours and once in the middle of the night. After that extend through the night and allow for more time. I believe in setting up for success, not failure.


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

LaRen616 said:


> I disagree.
> 
> One time when I was really, really sick, I laid on the couch and Sinister laid next to me. I lost track of time and realized that Sinister had not been outside to potty for 15 hours. He never once asked to go out either, it's like he knew that I wasn't feeling well so he didn't drink a lot of water. He does that during the week too while I am at work. He barely touches his water while I am gone.


There is times when mine will and have to hold it longer, but it can't be good for them. I know I personally wouldn't want to hold it for 12 hrs , could I? Yes, but it's not good. I'm sure it's fine for some dogs , but I would never expect that on a daily basis. I bought my house based on distance from work, so they wouldn't have to hold it for more then 5 hours at a time.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

llombardo said:


> There is times when mine will and have to hold it longer, but it can't be good for them. I know I personally wouldn't want to hold it for 12 hrs , could I? Yes, but it's not good. I'm sure it's fine for some dogs , but I would never expect that on a daily basis.


No, I agree. My dogs hold it for 9 hours a day.


I don't agree with this quote though, I know some dogs that have to hold it 12 hours a day and they are housebroken. Dogs *can* hold it for 12 hours and sometimes longer but they shouldn't have to. Some people sleep 8-10 hours a night and they don't get up to take their dogs outside to potty, of course that's not me, we sleep 5-7 hours a night.

_*"NO dog can or should hold it for 12 hours. If that's the expectation, that dog will never be "housebroken."*_


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

LaRen616 said:


> No, I agree. My dogs hold it for 9 hours a day.
> 
> 
> I don't agree with this quote though, I know some dogs that have to hold it 12 hours a day and they are housebroken. Dogs *can* hold it for 12 hours and sometimes longer but they shouldn't have to. Some people sleep 8-10 hours a night and they don't get up to take their dogs outside to potty, of course that's not me, we sleep 5-7 hours a night.
> ...


I didn't take it the way you did. I agree that some dogs can, but they probably shouldn't.


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