Should I Keep Water With My Puppy All Night?

Question

I'm getting a 9 week old Shih Tzu tomorrow, and I'm not sure if I should give it water all night in the crate, or take it away. Some sites say to keep it with her at all times, while others say take it away at like 9 o'clock. What do you guys suggest?

Answer 1

I would say take it away at 9 pm. We do that with our older dogs also just so they don't have accidents in the house over night. They always get clean fresh water in the morning and through out the day untill around that time and we take it away. It will just help in the potty training is what I would say. I have been told this before by the vet to take away water at bedtime.

Answer 2

Keep it available at all times all day until a few hrs before she goes into the crate. Putting water in her crate is not a good idea. It will defeat the purpose of house training her. She will likely step in it, get wet, knock it over and wake you up because she doesn't like laying in a wet kennel.
That's my suggestion. The only time I'd recommend it around the clock is if a VET SUGGESTED it for some medical condition. Otherwise, NO.
Same for if she has to go in her crate for an hr. or two in the day while you run errands. You will likely need to take the puppy for potty runs at least once in the night if she is only nine weeks when you get her.
If she runs a lot during a potty run and is panting when she comes inside, she may need a few laps of water.
If you keep your house real warm or she is kept in a very warm and dry place, she may need more water.

Answer 3

You should take away water 1-2 hours before bedtime unless you want to be taking the puppy out every few hours all night long. It is unfair to leave water or food in a crate with a puppy and expect them to not need to go out.

Your pup may need an outing or two in the night, but leaving water with him in the crate will only increase the outings. As your puppy grows, if he doesn't have water available at night, his night time outings will stop. The more outings he has in the night the greater it will be come a habit rather than an actual need.

Answer 4

I got my puppy at 9 weeks also, at first we let him have unlimited water all night long he would end up having to urinate every 15 minutes or leaking in the corner of his crate. We then stopped giving him water while he was sleeping in his crate and he only needed to use the bathroom about every 2.5 to 3 hrs. He does have a disease which does make him urinate more frequently but all puppys do need to go very often.

Answer 5

Perhaps I shouldn't tell you this, but I will. I have two Maltese dogs. I don't believe in crates. They were already trained to the pee pee pads when I got them.

They have never seen a crate. When I brought them home they slept with me in my bed from day one. They didn't have any food or water in my bed. They had their blankie and a couple toys. I placed a pee pad at the end of my bed. There was one accident on my bed. BUT the pup was only 8 weeks old, so that was not bad. They only peed on that pad and only about once a night. After about a month I removed the pad and they have never gone on my bed again.

They are trained to the pads. Which was fine with me because the first 6-7 months of their life they couldn't even go up or down the steps to get outside.

If I had a Shih Tzu I would train them to the pad them too. They have small bladders and they can only hold so much. They tend to go potty much more than a larger dog. Our Lab/mix could go 10 hours and still not be in a hurry to get outside and go. He could sleep from 10 p.m. until noon the next day and never move. But the little, short guys can't do that.

There is one bad point to the pads. Mine go outside now to play. They jump and run and come back inside to go pee......They don't know any better..............Funny huh?

Answer 6

I wouldn't give her water after 8 or 9 pm, I never did with my puppies. You will probably still have to let her out during the night for a few weeks, but not having a bladder full of water will help you both get some sleep. Good Luck

Answer 7

I read all the responses from previous dog lovers out there, and they all are correct in my eyes. I have four dogs, and i remember quite well when they were puppies. With the crying, simply ignore them, what i do is usually keep the TV on low so that they think i am in the living room, hearing voices soothes them. Same thing with the radio too. I used to have my dogs sleep with me but they do like to sleep rather close to the body so kind of annoying when you have a queen size bed and you are married! So i have some of my dogs sleep with me, and some do not, they get use to it. With the potty training thing, really i know this will be hard, but its the only way to do it. When training my dogs, i took them outside constantly to let them know that potty is outside not inside. In the middle of the night, we would get up around 3ish and take dogs out so that they could do there bussiness out there. At night around 8ish take there food and water aways so that they don't need to use the bathroom as much as they do during the day. That should help the situation a bit, it did for me. I would leave blankets and toys for them to play with at night, but don't leave food down for them. Put food back down for them around 7 in the morning, or whenever your wake up during the day. If you don't work much, then take them out every 1-2 hours until they get use to it, when they get use to it, bump the time to 2-3 hours a day for potty time. Time matters! If you work a lot then get a little crate for the dogs to stay in while you are gone so that they won't poo or pee in your house or where ever you keep them. I have also don't this and it works great, Bc the dog won't want to poo or pee in the area that they are in for a few hours while you are at work. When they are fully potty trained you won't have to put them in the crate and you can trust them in the house and let them out twice or three times a day-about every 4 hours. All depends how much the dog eats and sleeps. Oh by the way, if its a puppy, i would definatley take the dog out after he sleeps too, bc then usually after the pup sleeps then he needs to go potty too.

Answer 8

No, don't give him water in the crate, you are setting up to have an accident in the crate. You don't want him having accidents in the crate cause once it becomes a place to go, then it'll be hard to get him to keep the crate a safe and clean place.

9 week old puppies I usually give water to them around 10, outside around 10:30, then outside again approx 2AM. Then they are fine til about 7 or 8AM.

Answer 9

It will deffinatley take some crate training to keep the dog from peeing or pooping in the create if you leave both food and water in the area with it. The best I can suggest is leave the water (dogs need a good bit of hydration or could become sick). I will add though since you are getting a puppy it will most likely need house trained anyway and leaving water in there may make it a little tougher to train but it can be done! Make sure you get a good puppy pee pad (you can buy them virtually anywhere in a pet section) to put with the dog where ever you may crate or pin up the pup if you do. They will absorb any "potty mistakes" and keep the smeel of pee down until you can get it up and place a new one. Wish you good luck with the house training.

Answer 10

I would leave just a little water for your pup in the cage. Just to wet her whistle but not enough to make her need to pee.