I have been doing this for a few weeks with great effects... my kitchen floors are pristene and im not stepping on dog kibble in my front room.  But i was curious if this is practiced by anyone else....  I leave both bowls outside and take him out every few hours..  Rather than stand over him, i leave him alone for about 5 minutes, where i can see hil silhouete through the frosted glass... and then go back outside to reinforce his bathroom area. 

My other issue with this is.... We are always told to leave fresh water available to dog throughout the day so he can freely drink from it... but surely that must make housetraining more difficult, no?  My dog has never used the bathrrom in the house once... but i also dont leave him to drink water all day, nor do i give him any water after 9:00 PM and walk him twice before i goto bed at 2:00 AM... He sleeps to about 9:00 AM and we begin our day.

Does this make sense... i have the nerve to be posting while im exhausted.... but water all day or no?

I should have added.. that he is a dogue de bordeaux and can soak a towel while your trying to dry his mouth off

I feed two of mine outside but then they are kennelled.  I see nothing wrong with this.

Mine do however, have access to water at all times and I would consider this to be important.  Personally it has never appeared to have any impact on house training.  If they understand the basics of holding on until they go outside, then all should be well even if they do drink water.

Water should be available 24/7, to avoid possible kidney damage. This is especially important in breeds which slobber and lose a lot of fluid that way.

I feed my two outside.
For the very Lazy reason......
Beano Poos within 5 minutes of eating his dinner. If I go off and do something and he finishes his dinner he will pooh in the house. So, unless it is raining, I feed them in the yard. That way he doesnt have accidents!!! And i dont have to make sure I get him outside within seconds of him finishing!!!
Lea :)

jackyjat and jeangenie.... are you crating your dogs at night,,, because i figured that it would stand to reason since you are not puting water in the crate during the night the same premise would apply...no?

No, I've never used crates.

wow... thats impressive.  I've been sorta starting things all over textbook.. it's been quite a while since i owned a dogue puppy and maybe im thinking too much.  I used a crate for the share reason of wanting to be able to go to the store or movies now and then and having a secure place for the dog... the house training is at 100%, but i also attibuted that to the fact that his bladder isnt full at night and he has no access to water throughout the night.... honestly.. he sleeps dead solid so i dont think water would be what he would go for if he wasnt in crate...

but if you guys believe it causes kidney problems i would switch to something else... ive been warned about putting water in crate, so i'll have to think of something.

I clicked on your name JeanGenie.. i also live in the midlands... Ashby de la Zouch.. you?

I have Danes and one of them slobbers a lot. She has to have constant access to fresh water. We used a crate with her but overnight the door was left open and she was only ever shut in if we had visitors or needed a bit of timie out - 1 hour max and no water in the crate at that stage, I can count on one hand the times the door was actually shut though!

A village near Stratford-on-Avon - where it's perishing cold with a few tiny flakes of snow right now!

I crate trained them in the early stages but always put water in the crate.  Infact, they've always had free access to water.  No crates now though and they can't get out of the kennel at night, but have access to a run in the day.

Wow.. this is really interesting... completely the opposite of any of my house training books reccomendation... There has been two nights in which he's slept outside the crate in my bedroom... and the thumping of him hitting his head against the underneath of my bed gave me quite a jump..  but he didnt leave the room at all either....
i may try the approach of leaving the water in the kitchen for me... but you will get a piece of my mind if it affects my housetraining... LOL.  just kidding.

Mine have always had free access to water - I would guess that nearly everyone on here would say the same. What would you do in hot weather - you'd have to let him have water freely the, wouldn't you ?

I can't see what is the problem with feeding kibble in a kitchen. Mine eat raw and don't make a mess - if they do drop a bit on the (tiled) floor they clean it all up quickly anyway - they never leave anything. They can't get out of the kitchen at mealtimes as I have a dog-gate to the hall and the door to the dining room is shut (although this is because they are often dirty after their walk, rather than stopping them taking their food into other rooms).

Personally I'd never feed mine in the garden - I can't think of a reason why I'd need to :)

Daisy

Hi, Daisy... with the Dogue de Bordeaux, and it's jowels the water it retains mixed with saliva can be quite messy... He can have a few laps of water and before you know it, he's bringing water to the front room, hallway and still five minutes later he places his head on the couch and you guess it.. slobber.  I'm not particuliar house proud, although the house is in good order... but isnt prevention better than cure?

My floors are stone... so takes a bit longer to dry.... in either case i have moved the water into the house and will see how it goes from here.

LOL, Vodaberry - it reminds me why I didn't go for dogs with jowls :D

Good luck with the water :)

Daisy

just because of his breed - this doesnt mean you have to restrict his water intake, you mention on another post why you wouldnt have certain breeds- did you consider this 'problem' when you got your pup?

its good you are moving the water into the house ;) my pup has access to water and is very good with toileting- she 6 months old.

how old is the pup ? my 3 bullmastiffs have access to water 24/7 ,i have a drink when i want so why shouldnt they  dawn x

My dog has free access to water 24/7 and goes all night from about 11pm to 7pm and never a wee since trained

5 months on the 7th of Feb.

i actually did consider this... in fact that's how i came up with my idea of feeding in garden.... but im always open to learning new things...

I did a little more research, and i dont think i was far off... not saying that you guys are wrong, but every housetraing site ive found says:

"-Do not leave food and water out all day and night for your puppy to eat and drink at whim. Use some common sense here. Obviously if the weather is hot, it is appropriate to give the pup access to water, but if this is the case, then you need to be more alert to the possibility of the pup needing to urinate more frequently. " - http://www.perfectpaws.com/pup3.html

or

"Allowing your puppy continuous access to food or water makes house training more difficult. " - http://www.homevet.com/petcare/puppy3.html

or

"3) The last water given to the puppy should be around 7:30PM, and yet another trip outdoors to urinate/defecate. Then, the last time to take them outside in order to urinate/defecate should be around 11:00PM. (This last trip outside is up to you - whatever time you normally turn in for the night, just keep it at the same time over the weekend as well) " - http://www.tinyshihtzu.com/training.htm

I could go on and on.. but wont bore anyone.. but the general consensus.. outside of this forum is not to leave the water out... can cause urinary tract infections, creates housetraining issues and cause dogs to puke more (excessive water)... pleny all over google for anyone who wants to search.... im just surprised not one person here was doind what i was doing.

ooh- just thought- i dont let mine have water after 11pm- when she goes to bed, i got told that off local training group and info at work, i thought that LACK of water would lead to urinary infections- like with humans and cats?

Neither of mine have water after they go to bed. As they sleep in my bedroom with me, or when they are in the living room in the evening, but the rest of the time they have free access. i have one water bowl in the kitchen and one outside back dor that are always full of water. Gemma hardly ever drink and never has. Beano drinks like a fish!!!! I do have accidents in the house occasinally but it makes no difference if they have water or not.
I hate it when I am at a job and thirsty and cant get to a drink so wouldnt let my dogs be without.
If you look on dry food packets, all the ones I have seen say, Fresh water MUST be available at all times.
Lea.

lol,mine have water at night.
never ever have had house training problems

Mine always have free access to water 24/7, I often hear Spender getting up in the middle of the night for a slurp.  Never had/have any housetraining problems either.

Bear in mind that the RSPCA have successfully prosecuted owners who limited their dogs' access to water.

I have had puppies housetrained by 10 weeks of age (clean and dry, day and night) without having to resort to limiting water.

do you mean that in reference to restricting it at just night time- or when a person continues to restrict water throughout day?

The details weren't clear, just that the dogs didn't have access 24/7.

It's especially important healthwise if the dog is fed dry food, served dry and not soaked.

The biggest worry with food or water outside is access and contamination by vermin/birds.

yeh- mum leaves a bucket of water outside and it never looks 100% clean no matter how often its changed. she usually leaves it under the outside tap- leaves it on a trickle and the bucket is also situated near a drain so flows down that, maybe a waste?!

coincidentally, my dog is just having a big slurp and it occured to me that I don't know the last time she had a drink.  If it was a few hours ago and I had taken her water away by now she would have been left very thirsty by the morning wouldn't she?

Like I said, once she was trained (not as good as JG's but then my first dog) never had an accident.    Ooh hang on, my dog is having another slurp

Thanks for the replies...

I was thinking in terms of children..and i hope i dont upset anyone, but i heard that if a child is a bed wetter one of the first recommendations is to limit his water after a certain time.. and thats a human....(my brother was a consistent bedwetter... and i saw a lot of different treatments during that time.... and he was always having water/juice restricted.. or having the cut off time put back).

As for my details, because i work from home, the pup is walked often, and honestly gets a lot of water outside.. i usually go outside once ever 2 to 3 hours....and he can drink to his hearts content then.. my meaning of limiiting was to not allow him to drink water in the house.. thats all... but again.. i am always learning.

i've place the water bowl in the house for the last two hours and while dribbling is on the kitchen floor it hasnt been that bad, but i will keep an eye out for any accidents.

I used to limit my danes water (after 10pm) as pups it did them no harm, now they are adults they settle at 5.30pm and never move until i tell them up for bed and one will not rise until after 9am!! they don't even go out after 5.30 they are such lazy sods (I am not joking)

They get fed outside and the water is changed twice a day and they don't suffer. (I do change according to weather and exercise but thats common sense).

If they want it they hang about at the door but its never been often.

Each to their own i say.

I think it was Brainless on here who knew of studies into children and bedwetting, which showed that restricting water made no difference at all, other than make them more likely to wake thirsty ... I'm sure she'll be able to confirm or set me straight. :)

Edit: I thought so. A search has found that the bedwetting clinic advised Brainless to increase her daughter's water intake.

Yep I can confirm that the water take was to be increased so training the bladder to get used to being fuller.

Personally jeangenie my daugher suffers from being incontinent and however it is drummed into her to drink fluids during the day to flush the bladder.(to avoid infections if there is any) out it is well known to restrict drinking during the night
And she is on meds to relax the bladder during the night to stop the leakage so unsure where anyone got the idea to give drink 24/7 in kids as it just isnt the norm.
(which is a common med to stop bed wetting)

My dogs always have free access to water, you can be prosecuted for not allowing free access, it is a legal requirement with all animals, the only time i deny access is after a few mouth fulls after hard exercise, then after an hour they have free access when ever they want to drink. You should never deny free access to water unless after hard excercise.   The only reason i would'nt feed outside is because of pests being rats ah , they make me cringe, they would be attracted to dog food.

Unless it was Summer :rolleyes:

We feed the girls outside as much as the weather dictates :D

>I used a crate for the share reason of wanting to be able to go to the store or movies now and then and having a secure place for the dog... the house training is at 100%,

Humm thats interesting as well because we have had a total of four wheatens and the first and the second one we didnt crate train and they had accidents in the night ect like a normal puppy. The next two were both crate trained and were put in there at night to sleep and we have never ever had an accident. From the first night they got home they were clean right through the night. ;)

Edited: the puppies didnt have water left in their cage at night, they had a drink before bed and then they went out to relieve themselves but after that they went into bed and in the morning they had access to water again all day. They are 17 months old now, and they have small coop cups in their cage, but they dont drink from them at all at night. 

My two dogs never have access to water at night.  They are too busy sleeping - on top of the duvet on my bed with the door shut so the three of us don't get woken up by my husband making noise downstairs!  Before heading upstairs to the bedroom they pass their water bowl, it's very very rare for either of them to want a drink before bed.  (I feed a moist food though .. so they do not drink a lot of water anyway.)

I always use a crate for housetraining puppies and they do not have access to water at night.  However, at night puppies sleep in a crate in my bedroom.  When I hear them wake up at night if they do not settle immediately I take them outside to wee/poo.  On the way back to bed they have access to water in the kitchen - I cannot remember anytime any one of them has wanted a drink. 

Far as I`m concerned anyone who owns a dog can forget about a pristine house

Its a basic right of any pet animal to have access to fresh water at all times.

I have several bowls of water both inside & outside so they have access to water at all times, non of them want to drink all day, or night for that matter only when they have a thirst.

Mind you I`ve never had a pristine house but dream of one some day :D

oh & forgot to say I feed dogs sometimes in the garden & sometimes in the house, but mostly in house, depends on a) what they`re getting fed with & b) what the weathers like :D

I feed one dog outside and one in the kitchen to avoid food guarding issues (unless the weather is horrendous, when I feed him in the hall instead). It only takes him a few minutes to clear his bowl anyway.

Water is available to them 24/7. There is a bowl by the back door which is refreshed at least twice daily (but they still prefer to drink rainwater from a bucket at the bottom of the garden :rolleyes: ) and a bowl in the kitchen which is refreshed far more frequently as this is the one that my Newfie tends to drink from most and a couple of slurps from her drooly chops turns the water to syrup :rolleyes: If you are going to have a drooly dog, you'll just have to get used to the idea of puddles on the floor around the bowl (and across the kitchen, along the hall and into the living room... :rolleyes: :D )

I don't use a crate either and have had no problems in housetraining with water freely accessible :)

Mine are raw fed and in the Summer they get fed outside. The food doesn't hang around long enough to be contaminated by anything :D

In the Winter, one is fed in our tiled hall and the other is fed in the tiled kitchen and to be honest, I gave up worrying a long time ago about the state of the house, you can't afford to  be houseproud when you have 2 very large, hairy Briards :P

Both of mine have huge bowls of water dotted around the house so that they can slurp when necessary. I see it as a right not a privilege. They have been taught to sit and wait for their food but not their water.

Visitors to the house get handed towels at the door to lay over their laps so that when my 2 come up for a cuddle, their laps don't get saturated from the dogs very long, dense, wet beards and moustaches :D :D

As for us, we have permanently wet legs, feet, knees, bums and crotches :D

i have to say that it's allmost been 24 hours with the water out.. and no accidents...

im shocked by this, actually.. sure the kitchen floor is soaked, and the tea towel for his mouth has been washed twice by hand.. but all things considering not bad.. he did drink lots more.. and i still take him out every three or four hours...

He did vomit up water twice today.. but that may just be something else.... im not sure what but keeping an eye on it.

Perhaps because he's taken more water on board than normal this may account for the vomiting? Just a guess...

Mine drink more than is probably good for them in the Summer and occasionally bring it back up again.

You use a tea towel for his mouth? :D My 2 have 3 bath towels each and sometimes they're not enough for the constant wet beardy faces :D but I do also use them for paw and undercarriage wiping after they've been out :P