Hello all,

My 8 week old Austrailian Sheperd seems to have an extremely small bladder.  It has been about 23 years since I have had a puppy, so I was wondering is it is normal for a puppy to urinate more than once an hour.

We brought him (Strider) home last Tuesday.  And here is the odd thing.  Two days later he seemed to be totally house broken.  Then two days after that he started having accidents again (Thank The Lord for tile floors!). Now we have to put him outside every hour on the hour to insure no accidents, and even still there is an occasional one.

Is this normal?  How long does it take for a puppy's bladder to mature?

Thanks for listening :)

Mike & Strider

Hi Mike,
Don't worry, it is perfectly normal for a puppy to need to wee every half-hour or so. Take him out into the garden very frequently and praise him for when he 'goes' outside, and he will soon get the idea. Don't expect him to be able to last very long for several more weeks.
:)

Hi Mike,
    Sounds fairly normal - as a general rule, take your puppy out for a wee every hour, if he doesn't go in 5 mins, take him out again 10 mins later to try again, and so on.  Also after eating, sleeping and playing!  By the time he is 15 weeks you will find he is going a lot longer in between times.  I think it would be very unusual to have a pup totally housetrained at only 8 weeks!! - (if only!).  The only time I would worry is if he was actually straining to pass urine, without much coming out, as this could be sign of a bladder infection.  But if Strider is squatting normally, just don't worry!
  Hilda

It might be worth taking a urine sample to the vets just to make sure there's no infection  though......

If his drinking alot then its likely that he will be weeing alot... have you looked at it this way?

Rox