When does their bladder fully develop?

[Pietro37]

I had my puppy pad trained before she was fully vaccinated. As soon as I could take her outside I trained her to use a bell so that she would stop pottying in the house. That's going well but she's now 8 months old and can only hold it about an hour. This wouldn't be a problem for a lot of people but we live in a high building so it's an ordeal to get her outside.

She's not a young puppy anymore but she doesn't seem to be able to hold it any longer than when she was 5 months old. When does their bladder fully develop?

Thanks for your help. I don't know if I should persist with the bell training (if she'll learn to hold it longer) or re-train her on pads to make my life easier.

[Yorkiedaze]

The internal organs are not fully developed till they are 18 months old, so yes, she is still very much a puppy. Have you considered training her on wee-wee pads. Both my Yorkies use them, plus they go outside as well. On rainy days the pads are such a blessing, and when we travel and stay in motel/hotels.

[GracieGirl]

I would suggest wee wee pads too. I also live on the 4th floor of an apartment building and Lily is only 9 weeks old. When she is able to go out it will be impossible for me to take her every 10 minutes to potty after she plays, or after she eats is alot of running up and down so I have her using wee wee pads for now but when she can go out I will still have the wee wee pads for when I cant take her out. I have a playpen with her bed and food and water on one side and her wee wee pad on the other. I put her in her playpen and she uses wee wee pad.

It makes my life easier!!!

[Bnot]

Venus is 8 months and uses her potty pads most of the time. Rest of the time she goes outside wtih Adonis. So she really does both.

I also have a bell, but the only time she rings it, is when I'm in that room. Rest of the time, I tell her to "ring the bell if she wants to go out" before she'll actually ring it.

With 2 yorkies, I time her to go out when Adonis barks to go out. She must need to go inbetween, cause she still uses the pads.

[Friley]

Our pups, Belle & Baloo, are both 6 months old and can old their bladder for about 2 hours max. Your dog is just probably really smart and figures "well if i ring the bell now and it takes 5-15 minutes to get outside (depending on stairs or elevator, or maybe you just carry her) then I'll really have to go!"

But I'm glad to know our dogs aren't the only ones with a weak bladder

[Siara28]

Are you guys talking about holding bladders at night too? My 11 wk old pup can go 7-9 hours at night with no pottying. And during the day, when he takes his crate nap, he goes 2-3 hours, no problem. Are you just talking about while they are up and walking around?
Is my little guy unusual for being able to hold it like that? Just curious.

Thanks!!

[Erin]

I also noticed a significant improvement at 18 months. Loki was housetrained before this, but he would ask to go out often and act like it was an emergency. Now he just casually rings his bells and goes back to chewing his toy until someone gets up to let him out. He also goes out far less often (he's 2)

He needed a 2am break til he was like 7-8 months old. Now he can sleep 9 hours if he's in the mood...

[Tink's Mom]

Tink is 4+ month and can hold it for between 4-6 hrs. at night and the same during the day if she's crated. But that just happened about 2 weeks ago. Before that is was 3-4 hrs. in the crate.

If she's out of her crate playing it's about 1 hr. She's learning to be pad trained. She has the poo thing down very well, but still struggling with the potty part.

[Pietro37]

Scout can hold it through the night (about 8-9 hours) and in the kitchen if I'm not at home. It's just during the day when she's active that she needs to go often.

Thanks for all your replies! I will persist with the outside training until she is older and her bladder gets stronger. I guess I could use the workout walking up and down the stairs aways

[widdlemama]

Originally Posted by Siara28

Are you guys talking about holding bladders at night too? My 11 wk old pup can go 7-9 hours at night with no pottying. And during the day, when he takes his crate nap, he goes 2-3 hours, no problem. Are you just talking about while they are up and walking around?
Is my little guy unusual for being able to hold it like that? Just curious.

Thanks!!

My 19 week old boy can go 8-10 hours through the night but can't seem to hold it when playing. I got him at just about 13 weeks and he was up once very early morn 4-5am for the first few days only.

[tuzzylou]

Lottie is about 6mths old and can hold it all through the night until i get up in the morning ( 8-10hrs) if shes in my room with me. I used to take her out straight away but we would be out for an hour and nothing and then when we got in she'd pee she uses the wee wee pads but the past week shes been peeing were ever she likes even on my bed when i was sorting stuff out, i turned round and there she was squatting on my duvet! I was not happy.
Whats the bell thing? ive never heard of that before. She gets made a fuss of when she pees in the correct place. I live in an apartment it isnt to much of a problem to get out but the nearest "green" bit is a few mins down the road.

[widdlemama]

When I first got Rocky he would wake up once in the night to tinkle. It was cold out there at 4 in the morn even in S. Calif. Anyway, I read about putting the pup in the tub with pee pads. I use news paper which not only works GREAT for me but it is free. I feel I'm recycling Yea, anyway the tub works great too because he can't get out! He would go right away when I told him to tinkle.

So you might want to try the tub thing