For the last three nights, my 11 week old pup Ollie has not had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. He holds it all night long. I've checked his bedding and he definitely isn't wetting it in the night. He must have a bladder of steel.
It started when I would get up to take him to the pee pad at 2:00AM and 5:00AM, and he wouldn't use it. He would sit there sleepily and look at me like I was outside of my mind, when just a week before he would use it and then I would whisk him back to bed.
So I started just letting him sleep through the night (instead of setting an alarm) to see if he would whine and cry for me to let him out. And he's never whined since I started doing it. He just holds it from 11:00PM when I go to bed until I get up 6:00AM. He has to pee a puddle when he gets up in the morning, but he doesn't seem uncomfortable when I go to let him out. He is always waiting patiently for me to get up when he does see that I'm awake though.
My question is, is this going to hurt my pup somehow? If it looked like it made him uncomfortable to hold it that long (or if he cried to go out) I would get up and take him gladly. But if he doesn't have to go twice a night, I'm sure not in a hurry to get out of bed twice in the night to take him either. I am not a good morning person under the best of circumstances and don't do well with sporadic sleep.
I would think he was too young to hold it for 7 hours, especially based on what I've heard about housebreaking small dogs...but he is a large pup (almost 5 lbs at 11 weeks) so maybe he just has a better hold on his bladder?
He does not have water in his kennel at night, though he gets to drink about half an hour before bed (and before last call on potty trips) and first thing in the morning. He also has free access to water throughout the day. But even if I leave pee pads out, he will typically hold it until I get home at lunch to let him out or get home from work.
Any opinions/experiences would be appreciated.
