# Pottying every 5-10 minutes! Help, please!



## jingerb (Aug 9, 2015)

Hi all,
Stanley (14 wks) is about my 8th dog as an adult, so potty training and puppy life aren't new to me. I'm sure it's frustrating for long-time members to read another potty training post, but I am at my wit's end, and would please, please like ideas.
He's peeing about 6-8 times an hour, sometimes more. Unless he's in his crate, and then he doesn't pee. He sleeps for 9 hours straight at night in his crate on my nightstand, happily. He takes his naps in his crate and doesn't pee. If he's not in his crate, I literally cannot sit down and have to take him out every 10 min. or more. He often pees on his potty pad, both in and outside of his pen, and often on my floor...in a blink. He can pee 3 times outside in 10 minutes, walk in the door and pee again within a few minutes. We're never able to enjoy even a few minutes "on empty."
And I'm restricting his water. He's probably had only 6-8 ounces today, and has peed well over 50 times. (Keeping in mind that he has regular naps in his crate, and we went on two outings in his travel carrier for socializing, so he fit a lot in during off hours!) For example, he last had about 2 ounces with dinner at 6:00 and still peed 7 times between 9 and 10...some outside, some inside.
If he had a UTI, would he be able to sleep for 9 hours without potty? Or crate without potty throughout the day? His little life isn't too happy with me hovering over him and snatching him up every 5 or 10 minutes. Nor, sadly, is mine. 
:crying:


----------



## Molly120213 (Jan 22, 2014)

I would definitely have him checked for a UTI. Puppies pee ALOT but what you are describing is excessive. When they are sleeping they can definitely go a lot longer without peeing and I would think that would be the case even with a UTI. If the urine is normal for infection there may be other things the vet may want to check for. Until you get this straightened out I would suggest confinement to the crate or expen with pads. I would keep freetime on a tiled surface under your direct supervision. You can even keep him leashed to you to make sure he does not run away and pee somewhere. Good luck and I hope you figure out what is going on real soon.


----------



## Paddington (Feb 15, 2016)

Hi,

Paddington used to pee every 10 minutes when he was little. I too was at my wits end. I worked with my puppy trainer to help resolve this. Initially at the 10 minute mark I would put him on his indoor toilet and ask for a piddle. This was with a view to gradually extending the period of time. I would use a marker word "good" (we have moved onto clickers for training) when he peed in the appropriate place and gave him a treat. Later on a toy was used to see if he preferred that. We only progressed slowly and the trainer came to the conclusion that Paddington found peeing in an inappropriate place highly reinforcing. This was because we would get paper towels out to clean it all up which he enjoyed trying to catch, and probably us generally making a bit of a fuss. She suggested that when he had an accident we calmly remove him to a different area where he could not see us while we cleaned up his accident. It is important to emphasise that this was not a punishment but simply removing him for a short duration so he couldnt see what he found to be reinforcing.

After we implemented that system we seemed to make good progress, but continuing to praise when he pottied in an appropriate area. 

If you are already treating maybe increase the value of the treat. I know Paddington really likes cheese.

I hope this is of some assistance.


----------



## 31818 (Oct 29, 2014)

jingerb said:


> He's peeing about 6-8 times an hour, sometimes more. Unless he's in his crate, and then he doesn't pee. He sleeps for 9 hours straight at night in his crate on my nightstand, happily. He takes his naps in his crate and doesn't pee. If he's not in his crate, I literally cannot sit down and have to take him out every 10 min. or more. He often pees on his potty pad, both in and outside of his pen, and often on my floor...in a blink.


1. Take our amigo Stanley to the Vet and have him checked.

2. Stanley is too young to have the run of the house, yet. Keep him in an ex-pen while in the house with a potty pad inside.

3. I suspect something else is going on here. Stanley may be demanding your attention in a negative way. If he potties in an inappropriate way, don't reprimanding him, just ignore him (the WORST punishment for a Havanese). Pick him up and put him into his ex-pen. Leave him there for 15-30 minutes then let him out and play with him for a few minutes.

4. Take Stanley outside on a leash every 30 minutes (set a timer) for 5 minutes at a time. If he potties, praise lavishly and reward with one treat. Don't take him in after his first go. He may go two or three times in that 5 minutes and he gets rewarded each time. No potty, no praise and no treat and back into the house after 5 minutes. Watch for the "fake potty" to get a treat! Ricky learned this trick quickly to just get a treat. Peek underneath the undercarriage to see a stream before rewarding. No potty, no treat. Even if it is a 2 second tinkle, then that deserves a treat. Havanese are very smart and can be manipulative at times! But Stanley will learn your desired protocol for potty very quickly, IF YOU ARE CONSISTENT IN YOUR TRAINING!

5. I took us (as rank beginners making a lot of mistakes) a bit more than 3 months to get Ricky 100% reliable indoors. Once we learned to be consistent, potty training went quickly and it was all over in about a month.



Paddington said:


> If you are already treating maybe increase the value of the treat. I know Paddington really likes cheese.


BE VERY CAREFULLY WITH CHEESE! Our Vet is not a fan of cheese for dogs. He says it is the number one source of pancreatitis in dogs in his experience. Ricky loves cheese of all kinds. The Vet says if I am going to give Ricky cheese, do it infrequently and very sparingly. We give him a total of about 1/2 inch cube about once a month. So far no problems. I have also found that Ricky also likes cheese flavored treats (made with healthy ingredients) as an acceptable alternative.

Ricky's Popi


----------



## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

vet , never withhold water.


----------



## jingerb (Aug 9, 2015)

Molly, Paddington, and Ricky, please thank your people so much for their help!
Stanley went to the vet this morning and DOES have a UTI! Frustratingly, he was already peeing a LOT at his first vet appointment almost three weeks ago and the vet told me he undoubtedly did not have a UTI as a puppy. :frown2: A couple of other things transpired that made me switch vets to a new vet, who today checked and indeed, UTI. Poor little dude!
Some antibiotics will help, and soon we should be off on a new and improved potty training experience!
Thanks again!


----------



## Molly120213 (Jan 22, 2014)

So glad you have an answer! Poor little guy should be able to get back on track as soon as the antibiotics kick in!


----------



## jingerb (Aug 9, 2015)

davetgabby said:


> vet , never withhold water.


Thank you. I absolutely would never withhold water...I was just monitoring it far more closely and making sure he wasn't gulping, gulping, gulping at every opportunity. He did go to vet today and does have a UTI. I was perplexed because previous vet had said he couldn't have a UTI. We now have a new vet. And medicine. And hope. :smile2:


----------



## Askavi (Nov 5, 2015)

So glad you found out what was going on. It definitely sounded "not right". Also, seems that the change in vet was necessary. I changed vet due to not getting the answers/results I wanted about my cockapoo's skin problems last May. Never looked back and she's getting much better treatment now. All vets are not equal.


----------



## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

jingerb said:


> Thank you. I absolutely would never withhold water...I was just monitoring it far more closely and making sure he wasn't gulping, gulping, gulping at every opportunity. He did go to vet today and does have a UTI. I was perplexed because previous vet had said he couldn't have a UTI. We now have a new vet. And medicine. And hope. :smile2:


Good you double checked. Any time there's a change in housetraining like you described , a vet visit is recommended. Impossible to housetrain with this going on, yeah theres never a reason to withhold water .


----------



## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

jingerb said:


> Molly, Paddington, and Ricky, please thank your people so much for their help!
> Stanley went to the vet this morning and DOES have a UTI! Frustratingly, he was already peeing a LOT at his first vet appointment almost three weeks ago and the vet told me he undoubtedly did not have a UTI as a puppy. :frown2: A couple of other things transpired that made me switch vets to a new vet, who today checked and indeed, UTI. Poor little dude!
> Some antibiotics will help, and soon we should be off on a new and improved potty training experience!
> Thanks again!


So happy you took him to the vet. I was just reading this thread now, and the first thing I thought was UTI. Pixel had one as a puppy and Panda had two. They were both a BIT older when it happened, still young, but I had an established routine with both, so it was very obvious that they were suddenly peeing MUCH more often. With Panda's second one, she actually had blood in her urine.

PLEASE do not restrict his water for ANY reason, but especially not now. It is REALLY important for him to drink LOTS so he can flush that bacteria out of his body.


----------



## 31818 (Oct 29, 2014)

davetgabby said:


> yeah theres never a reason to withhold water .


When we are in Mexico tropics or during hot California summers, we encourage Ricky to drink more water that is lost during his "sweating." We make his Honest Kitchen with more water to make it more like a soup. He eats the whole bowl right down and gets hydrated at the same time. 0

Riucky's Popi


----------



## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

davetgabby said:


> Good you double checked. Any time there's a change in housetraining like you described , a vet visit is recommended. Impossible to housetrain with this going on, yeah theres never a reason to withhold water .


Not only is it impossible toothy train while that is going on, but there can also be some "potty training fall-out" as a result, so be prepared. Panda was very close to error-free until her second UTI, which happened while we were away in our travel trailer, in Canada. We realized she was having trouble in the evening, and then had to call around to find a vet that could see her the next morning. I don't know if that longer period of being uncomfortable affected her potty training or if it would have any way, but even after she was feeling better, she started having a LOT of accidents, when she hadn't before.

We realized that part of the problem was that she seemed to blame the litter box for her discomfort. She would get into the litter box reluctantly, turn around, run out of it to squat and pee before we could grab her. That happened last May, when she was 7 months old. Between then and VERY recently, although she would poop in the litter box, she refused to pee there. She learned to go outside instead, so she still got potty trained, but it took a LOT longer than my other two before I could trust her out of my sight.

A couple of weeks ago, I almost fell over out of surprise when I saw her get in the litter box and pee. She had the funniest look on her face, like she wasn't positive it was OK for her to do. I'll tell you, we had a HUGE party!!! Tons of praise and cookies for that!!! It's important to us that they are willing to use the litter box if at all possible, because it makes it SO much easier when we are traveling, especially if the weather is bad. I haven't seen her pee in the box again, but I keep watching, and if she does, I'll be sure to continue to praise her LOTS and hopefully, we'll get her using it again. The only saving grace is that when she DOESN'T have a UTI, she has a bladder like a camel. She can go a L-O-N-G time without needing to pee.


----------



## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Oh, one more thing... The vet who saw her for the second UTI said that she was exceptionally fluffy underneath, even for a havanese. She suggested that we keep her "sanitary" area clipped pretty short so it didn't collect bacteria. I know that's a bigger issue with the girls than it is with boys, but you might want to keep it in mind, especially if he's got a lot of hair down there. Since we started keeping her "lady bits" clipped, she has never had another UTI.


----------



## 31818 (Oct 29, 2014)

krandall said:


> She suggested that we keep her "sanitary" area clipped pretty short so it didn't collect bacteria. I know that's a bigger issue with the girls than it is with boys, but you might want to keep it in mind, especially if he's got a lot of hair down there.


We keep Ricky cut short "down there" too! It is good for hygiene as well as prevents staining in the sani-area for both genders. Ricky's belly is cut very short but the body hair is kept long so the hair drapes along his sides to hide his belly and sani-area.

Ricky's Popi


----------

