How often should I take my dog out for potty.

[btn90]

Hello, I am new to this forum. I have had my dog since January and Jackie is 11 months. I recently started training her to potty outside and whenever she does go, I praise her and give her a treat and allow her to go back into the house. I am not sure if I am doing it right but I allow her to play in the house for 3-4 hour then I let her go outside to potty. Sometimes she does but usually she doesn't. If she does go, I give her a treat and allow her to go back into the house. If she doesn't I put her back in her crate then wait 30 minutes later i would open the crate to see if she wants to go, then if she doesn't she goes back into the crate until she does go.It is hard to predict when she needs to go. I know for sure she goes right in the morning. So the question is how often should i take my dog out for potty. Should I let her play in the house for 4 hour? and is my method good?

P.S. How often does 1 year old Cavalier potty?

[Karlin]

It sounds like a very good method for an older dog who was not housetrained to go outside from the start. I think every 4-5 hours is a good maximum to use for how long to wait between potty trips. If she is managing these than that is really good and you have a mostly housetrained dog already. I always use as a guide how long I'd feel comfortable without access to a bathroom.... At night they can hold themselves much longer while sleeping as systems shut down. Once housetrained, they can go for 8 hours or so as a stretch during the day if needed, but I'd not ever want to put a dog into that long a wait on a daily basis.

This free book is a good general guide for puppies or adults to all sorts of training including housetraining. If a dog isn't housetrained you really take the same approach anyway whether adult or puppy. But I have always found an adult more quickly can move to holding itself for a few hours than a puppy, I m sure because they already have a stronger bladder. Nonetheless at first I'd take the same approach as with a young puppy -- total supervision and crating when I cannot supervise and getting the dog out every hour or two, then building up wait time.

You are really well along though going by your description.

[btn90]

Thank you Karlin, I appreciate your response. Today I let her stay in the house for 6 hours. I took her outside and she went potty right away. I think she is getting a hang of it. I am curious how do most owner take care of this problem?