Can anyone help?  Our choc lab (12 months old) cant seem to hold her wee in over night.  We take her for a short walk about half 10 before we go to bed, just to go to the toilet, which she always does.  The only problem is by 4-5am she has been for a wee on our carpet.  We don't let her have a drink after 7pm.  Has anyone any suggestions as she has totally ruined our carpet.

Is she on a moist food or kibble?  It's also possible that she could have cystitis or urine infection.

Sorry - can't help with the physically stopping her weeing overnight, but you could try confining her to a smaller (non carpetted area) overnight to discourage her from weeing. A crate could be your answer. But you may want to have her checked by your vet to make sure there is nothing physically wrong with her.

I would also say - please DO NOT REMOVE HER WATER - and I make no apologies for shouting this one. It is obviously not stopping her from weeing and it is a welfare issue to withhold water from her for 12 hours or so, even more so with the high temperatures we are having, especially if she is fed on a dry diet.

She has dry food only as we find she gets really bad wind and stomach ache if she has wet food, we do give her a mixture once in a while so she doesn't get get bored of the same food.  She hasn't had a 1st season yet, i wondered if that could have anything to do with it..

We have been concerned it could be a urine infection problem as she keeps licking her private bit all the while, but didn't know if that could because she might be due her 1st season.

Has this behaviour only just started - was she holding on overnight before? It could be a case of coming into season - they usually wee more often when they are coming in and some bitches will wee in the house. Or it could be an infection.

Has this weeing been a recent thing then?  Or has she always weed in the middle of the night?  I'd still be tempted to look at a baldder/urine infection - there is a suppliment called cystaid I believe which does work.  You could ask your vet and take a urine sample just to see if there is an infection there.  If however this is a new thing then her season may be on it's way.
Lol - posted at same time as ridgielover

She used to sometimes do it before, probably once every month but at the moment it seems to be every night or every other night.  Her wee has always seemed to be very strong and yellow.

I'm thinking infection - if you've ever had cystitis you'll know.  Mum's dog's uring was very strong smelling and would hit you in the back of the throat.  That's how we knew it was an infection - and this was a male dog so quite unusual as it's mostly female dogs that get cystitis.  The cystaid has cleared it all up and he gets it fairly often to make sure it doesn't come back.

Can you get this at the pet shops or do you need to go to the vet?

>Her wee has always seemed to be very strong and yellow.

That means she's not getting enough to drink and needs to be given more fluids. Urine should be pale and have only a slight smell. A dog should be getting an average of about 60ml of water per kilo bodyweight daily - more in hot weather. So don't restrict her access to water - it's not helping her at all.

You can get it online - look up some of the online pet shops.

But note what JG is saying too with regards dehydration - but if you find that giving her free access to drinking water that you get an almost constant peeing dog then there is a definite infection.  Certainly with the monthly accident's that's what I'd call it - just accidents.  But the nightly peeing is a bit suspect.

We never restict her water when its it hot.  We always make sure her bowl is topped up with water especially in this weather.  Its only about after 7 (at the moment) we try to stop her drinking it incase it was what was making her wee. We will let her carry on drinking the water whenever she wants it.

I'm delighted that you're not going to restrict her water any more :) She needs to have access to water all the time - particularly as she is fed dry food.  As has already been stated, the strong dark urine could be an indication of either (or both) an infection and not enough water being consumed.

You could try to catch a urine sample and take that, and her, to the vet for a check up. That would put your mind at ease about that. If all is clear there, then perhaps it is either a hormonal thing connected to her coming in season or maybe has become a habit. The smell of urine on the carpet (very difficult to shift :( ) could be encouraging her to keep going on the same spot.

If she was mine, I'd pop to the vet with a sample :)

If it is a case of it maybe becoming a habit and nothing else, how would you get over that one?

Sounds like an infection but you can check that out with the vets.
Also you need to clean the carpet of any smells, even if you think it's clean she may well be able to smell it and this will only encourage her to wee on it again.
Try giving her ice cubes to eat,that way she'll get more water and will enjoy playing with and eating them.
Maybe also add some water or other fluid to her dry food,that way she'll have more water without realising.
My TT loves it when i water the garden and will try and drink the water coming out of the hose,it's a good game and if they drink more in the process then it all helps.  

>If it is a case of it maybe becoming a habit and nothing else, how would you get over that one?

Change her routine. If she only wees in a particular area at night, make sure she can't get to that area; have her confined to the kitchen at night, for example. Clean the carpet very thoroughly: first with a dusting of bicarbonate of soda to absorb smells, then hoover it up. then wash the area with a biological laundry solution to remove any further traces of urine smell. These things will make it easier to break the habit.

Has she been spayed? Urinary incontinence after spaying is fairly common.

Has she been spayed?
OP says she has not had a season yet. :-)

Bitches do tend to wee more often when in season. When outside (never in the house)my bitch when in season use to do lots of small wees all over the place (I always presumed she was advertising the fact she was in season). When not in season she only use to wee once on a walk ,unlike males which are always weeing all over the place (gate post,lamposts etc etc).

When my bitch was young (under 10 months) she didn't like toileting away from home. You could take her for a walk and she wouldn't do anything. Bring her home and she would wee on the carpet. I had to bring her home and then carry her through the house and put her out the back so she could wee at home (otherwise she would have gone on the carpet again).

Ailsa

> We don't let her have a drink after 7pm. 

I thought that this was a big no no after the Animal Welfare Act was launched to cover treatment of pets.

Hmmm...our carpet has also been ruined, and all my own fault. I could have kept him in his crate at night (but didn't), I could have walked him very late at night (I frequently work till 3am), but usually didn't, and I could have taken up the newspapers long ago but was under the impression he needed them--the problem was that he liked to scrape newspapers to 'hide' his wee.

I was seriously worried that this was going to be the first dog I ever lived with that couldn't be house-trained. I can't recall how it happened, but it was about the same age as yours--it may have been something as simple as running out of newspaper one day.  The day I didn't put any down for him was the day he started to properly tell me he needed to go out, and we've been fine ever since. I'm not inviting anyone over until I can afford to replace the carpet, mind.