# How much water to give puppy?



## mintesa (Mar 30, 2008)

Im wondering how much water to give puppy? He is 11 weeks. The stool is normal, not hard, soft, but I can pick it up. But it leaves some strains in the grass. Is this okey?

He does not seem to drink that much, except when after playing, and then it is usually pee time after 1 hour. The breeder told me no water after 18oo. If I start leaving him alone for work how much water should be left? He will stay in a small puppy room, it has a babydoor. So far no accidents there when we leave him there.


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## Teela Brown (Jul 3, 2009)

I always allowed my puppy to have as much water as she wanted. Some people disagree. But I was never comfortable taking water away. I personally believe that water is a right not a privilege. I figured that if puppy doesn't pee on the floor because she is dehydrated - that isnt really teaching her not to potty in the house - just making her thirsty. Accidents will happen. But I never really felt that taking away her water would gain us anything. 

That being said, our puppy was a dream to potty train and we did not have many issues so it never became a problem. So I suggest you let it play out. If you can leave her with a full water dish with little or no accidents then don't worry about it. But if you have mess after mess then you might need to cut it down by a third.


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## MsMolly (Sep 2, 2009)

JMO, during housebreaking you should take the water up about 2-3 hours before bedtime. This should allow them to process it and relieve themselves when you go to bed so not to have to in the middle of the night. Always worked like a charm for me and never had any nighttime accidents.

When Molly was real yound I would get up once during the night to let her try to pee again. And gradually cut that out as she grew.


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## LuvMyAngels (May 24, 2009)

Buster is never without water. From the time we brought him home at 9 1/2 weeks he's always had access to a full bowl of water. As long as I allow him time outside to relieve himself, we have no issues. By the 3rd night home he was not having accidents over night. Each night at bedtime I wash and refill his water. 

Pups size may play some role in this, Im raising a young Saint Bernard. He was 20lbs at 9 1/2 weeks...


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## Kina_A (Jun 8, 2009)

My vet informed me that our pup should be allowed water at all times. She's now 5 and a half months and I haven't really had any problems housebreaking her.

I crate trained her and she sleeps in her crate at night. She only woke up up in the middle of the night for the first couple of weeks we had her. once or twice she even woke me up in the middle of the night and had a drink of water before going out to pee. Now she's fine until DH gets up.


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## skelaki (Nov 9, 2006)

In some ways it depends on the puppy and your situation. If you are home all day and the puppy isn't one that uses its water bowl as a swimming pool, I'd leave it down until about 2 hours before bed. If it does like to "swim" in the water dish, you can schedule when to put it down (i.e. after eating, after any exercise, before bed, etc.). For work, I like to freeze the water in the bowl over night or put ice cubes in the bowl, depending on the pup, so that it melts gradually for drinking but there's less mess.

But, whichever way you go, you never restrict the amount of water.


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## mintesa (Mar 30, 2008)

thank you guys. He always has water during the day, he is not swimming in it. I also place water in his food, coz he gets dry food. And we have been taking his water away at 19oo, breeder said 18oo but we always remember that by 19oo, but yesterday we forgot it again also.


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## Poly (Sep 19, 2007)

Eleven weeks old is considered young to be housetrained, so I'll assume you pup isn't. If you work at it diligently from the very beginning, the "average age for reliably housetrained" is sixteen weeks but that can vary a lot in either direction. 

Anyway, until your pup is "reliably houstrained", withholding water in the evening is both prudent and necessary. Please try to be consistent about it, though. After your pup is housetrained, he should have free access to water at all times.

I'm not in favor of witholding water from puppies at any other times - it's your responsibility to see the signs and get him to his potty place. 

However, with older dogs that are not houstrained or have forgotten it, it is sometimes necessary to restrict water intake to specific times until they get the idea.


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