How often do you let your dog/dogs out?

Reading the cat threads I started to wonder this.

So many people talk about having to rush home to let their dogs out. I've never really had to worry about that. I'm gone for work all day but if I need to do something like get groceries I don't really worry about leaving Yoshi that extra half an hour/hour.

Even if I'm a little late it's not like Yoshi is busting to go outside any way. I can ask Yoshi if she needs to go out and most of the time she doesn't even want to go out for another hour or so.

From the other thread I just got the vibe that everyone lets their dogs out A LOT and thinking the dog can hold it a little longer is just out of the question.

Um... when she asks to go out? Usually once or twice a day. Unless it's raining. then she just won't go out.

Though, she also goes on 3 hour-long minimum walks a day, so she does her business then too

Frodo has a bladder made of steel. I can be gone for 10 hours and he's still not asking to go out.

My dogs have always been the "when someone gets home we must go outside" type. And if something is off schedule (like today when I had to take Ms. Red to her eval) and I don't get home until an hour or more past normal, they say they REALLY have to go.

At this house, I just leave the patio door open while I'm home if it's nice out so they go in and out at will. But they go out first thing in the AM and first thing when I get home and if nothing else, we have last outing before bed.

Today we had off for Columbus day, and Lucy went outside to pee 5-6 times. During the week when we're at work, she goes out at 7:00 (when I leave), at 8:30 (when DH leaves), at 4:30ish (when I get home), goes on an hour long walk sometimes before dinner, and goes out again before bed. Sometimes there are extra outside times if she needs to go. So...yeah, easily 5 times.

I'm not even sure if my schedule is more about dogs needing to go out or just..my schedule lol but they go out 3 times a day.

Morning (7am), Lunch time (2 pm) and evening (6pm)

We've skipped the lunch time break and the dogs were fine.. but I prefer not to. Sometimes they pee when we go out for lunch so I always feel like if I DON'T get them out they are sitting around holding their pee lol but either way, it's never really a rushed I HAVE TO GO kind of thing. Usually they are more excited for the fresh air and off lead time then just rushing to go to the bathroom.

As for how many times, usually 3, sometimes 2.

When we get up, right before I go to work, and before bed. If I sleep in then the first 2 turn into one.

All three of my dogs go to work with me every day so they generally don't end up having to hold it more than 6 hours or so except at night. Every so often they go 8-10 hours at the max and they are fine.

Yoshi is kind of like that. If it's raining she'll run outside but once she realizes it's raining she's trying to get back in.


XD This is Yoshi. I know on some Saturdays we'll both sleep in and if it's cold or rainy it's a chore to get her to go out and go. Even though I'm sure after sleeping all night and playing/eating/drinking in the morning she HAS to go.


:O that's crazy to me!

Yoshi usually goes MAYBE 3 times. But once she starts asking 4/5 times it's pretty easy to see that she doesn't have to go she just wants to play.

Xena goes out in the morning whether she asks or not, then when the kids get home from school, when I get home from work and before I go to bed. And, of course, any other time she asks.

For me I use to make her go out but if she isn't asking for it she does this weird fake pee thing...

I kind of like her going to the bathroom when told so didn't want to keep having her pretend to pee like she was XD

My only issue with waiting until she asks in the morning is that she'll make me late for work and she probably wouldn't appreciate waiting from like 10 PM to 2 or 3 PM the next day to pee :rofl1:

I work long hours so if I don't come home at lunch or right at 5, I feel bad. If I know I have an errand to run after work, I make sure to let them out at lunch. I let them out once when I wake up and once more before work. Once at lunch most days. Once right after work. We go on a walk and they have to mark everything. Then we generally let them out once more before bed. So that's 5-6ish times a day on a weekday. On weekends they're out more frequently.

They can hold it up to 12 hours, it's happened on a rare occasion. I always feel awful and most the time Mia has gone on the pee pad if I'm gone that long.

Same here. Payton typically goes out and actually pees more often than Auggie (being intact does that) but he could hold it all day if he had to. I just don't really want to make him have to hold it all day. Auggie needs to be let out regularly though to make sure he pees and empties his entire bladder or we get UTI/bladder infection stuff going on again.

I do feel like I need to get home and let the dogs out, but I don't really mean out to potty, I mean out of their crates to run around and be crazies. Payton gets destructive and more obnoxious than usual if he's not out and playing and using his brain enough. =P Auggie is more low maintenance but even he has limits on how much time he can spend NOT playing, as I learned from his crate rest last year.

my guys go out about 3-4 times a day--pretty routine scheduled times based on our work schedules. They go out before I go to work, then again when I get home (about 7-8 hours)- and then again after dinner. Baxter usually prances around for one more trip outside later in the evening.

We have a fenced in yard, so everyone goes out at least 3 times a day, but when I say "goes out", the coonhounds usually spend the first hour or two they're awake out in the yard... pretty much anytime I walk through the house & a dog annoys me I open the door lol

Zander has a bladder of steel, too. He can hold it an easy 10 hours, and has held it up to 17 hours before.

The only time he HAS to go out is when we wake up. But I feel like that's more routine than anything else.

About five to six times a day usually. In the morning first thing, then right before I leave for work, then sometime in the afternoon if my brother comes home, then when my mom gets home, then after supper and again right before bed. They don't really need to go out that much probably, but I feel better letting them out often. They never ask though unless they really desperately need to go after drinking too much after playing.

It's easier to put her out on my schedule than to wait for her to tell me she has to go out (which is inevitably when I'm already in my pajamas or it's started to rain or whatever else). I can't let her out in the yard anymore, because she climbs the fence chasing the squirrels, so it's all leash breaks that require a person to monitor her. Much easier to do it when I'm prepared!

Oh, and she always pees. Sometimes she even poops 2-3 times in a day. If she starts whining at the door, it means we need to go on a walk to get her bowels moving.

Average day is out around 8a, somewhere between noon and 2p, 5 or 6p, and right before bed at 11p/12a, so four times. Usually at least three of the four potty each time.

Some days I'm gone for the lunchtime trip or the 5/6p trip, though, and they are fine.