Weird house training issue...

My Irish Terrier pup is now 11 weeks old. She's an absolutely delightful little dog, but I'm encountering kind of an odd house-training issue and wondered if any of you has some advice or experience with this. She is having regular bowel movements outdoors and has not pooped in the house yet, but the issue is a weird one with peeing....

We are crate training and that is going very well. She'll go about 6-8 hours at night without needing to go out to pee (although she has had a couple of pee accidents in her crate, so I went back to letting her out in the middle of the night for a few days, and now she is sleeping through again). During the day she will often sleep for 4-5 hours without needing to go out to pee, but between the hours of 5 pm and 10 pm she needs to pee almost every 15 minutes it seems!

This seems to be when most of her indoor accidents are occurring as even though I try to respond whenever she indicates a need to go out (such as heading to the door or whining) she seems to need to go out almost constantly. I've also noticed that the urine seems very dilute, very little "pee" odour - like she's loading up on water or something?

I'm kind of puzzled by this, as she can go hours and hours without wanting to go out, and then in a 5 hour span she needs to go out frequently. Is this weird or has anyone else found this with a new puppy?

I'd appreciate any thoughts or advice as I'm kinda baffled here, LOL! Thanks in advance!

It's pretty normal. When they're asleep, everything slows down. They're not drinking much during that time. When they're up and about, more active, they need to go more. That's how it's always been for my pups. Lyric slept through the night right off the bat, no crying, no waking up. He'd sleep from about 11 or 12 o'clock until about 5 or 6 a.m. Then during the day, I'd be watching him and taking him out every 30 -45 minutes. Sometimes I think he wouldn't competely empty his bladder. And otherwise, they're just more aware of the need, the nervous system is on full alert during the day. LOL. Since the urine is light and not concentrated, I would not tend to suspect a UTI. Otherwise, if you are worried, have her checked out by a vet or just give a phone call.

Are you away during the day ?? This could be a pay-attention-to-me phase ...sounds like you've done well though !

Hi! Thanks - I think we are doing okay, but it's been a long time since I house-trained a puppy (about 7 years, I guess?). Nope, I'm home all day. This pup is kind of my "child replacement" now that my only daughter is in Grade One

She seems to sleep most of the day except for when I take her for a walk - I wonder, could she be waiting for when my daughter comes home to play? Because they just play like crazy when she gets home - so maybe she's established this routine already?

I just don't remember this with our other dog, but then he was a different breed (Chessie) and he house-trained pretty quick...

Thanks for the reply! I don't think it's a UTI (I used to manage vet clinics and saw lots of dogs with UTI's and this doesn't seem the same in terms of the urine smell, ya know?). I'm relieved to know this is normal, LOL. She just seems to sleep all day and then "wake up" around 4 pm - coincidentally about the time my daughter gets home from school? I wonder if she could just have decided that I am a dud as a playmate and decided to rest up for when the "real deal" gets home, LOL? I dunno, but thanks for the answer!

You're too funny. ROFLOL! I don't know....it seems quite inactive for a young pup. Hmmm. If she's sleeping most all the day, I'd be kind of worried unless she is really bored. Dogs will sleep if there's nothing else much to do. What kinds of things do you try to do with her? How about obedience practice? Any of that? That's fun when positive methods are used and gets their brains working. You can get lots of help in that if you need some.

Anyhow...I doubt that you're a dud. You have too good of a sense of humor for that. LOL.

Oh yes, we've been working on obedience. She knows sit and come, but down is a novel concept for her, LOL! It just seems she flakes out for a good part of the day, but come evening whoa! She just goes nuts! This is the pattern she's followed since we got her 2 weeks ago, and seems healthy in every other respect (eating, pooping, barking, nipping, chewing, general mayhem and chaos!) but seems to really like those daily siestas. Oh well - maybe she'll perk up as she gets older? I really expected her to be "busier" during the day, but in some ways this is nice too, as my daughter is thrilled to think she waits for her to come home to play!

And thanks for the nice comment about my sense of humour - having a puppy around just makes it easy to be silly, LOL!

Well, it sounds like she's fine. She's just an afternoon and night owl. LOL. Yes, dogs can really bring lots of laughs to our lives. My Doberman has such a sense of humor, it's incredible. I've never had a dog who made me laugh so much. He's just a major goof ball.

Down is a more difficult thing for them to get. It's a rather vulnerable position and sometimes they just don't really want to do it for us. But it sounds like you're coming right along and she'll get it. Just do like you do with sit and lure down with the treat in front of her so she gets into that position, and then add the command after she starts getting the behavior you want.

she is fine... my dobes went thru that so you arent alone seeming like it is every fifteen minutes... but that is because they are more active and it helps them potty when they are active. so take her out every hour for twenty minutes be consistent though dont change up because if you change she wont understand and then more accidents will occur... just be consistent be patient she is only 11 weeks so dont get to bent out of shape she will grow out of it in a few weeks... use an enzyme cleaner you can get at pet smart like nature miracle or the other one actually works better i found but i cant remember the name of it... green red and white bottle... hope that helps