Water during the night time

[Bobbys dad]

Good morning all, after some advice.

Our Golden Retriever is 3 in October, but in the last month has taken to wetting occasionally during the night, this morning I came down to a large puddle in our hallway.

His bed is in the hallway, but he has the run of most of the house ( we don't cage him). He gets at least three walks a day, the last one being at 9 PM on the lead for about 30 mins, then we put him ( and ourselves) to bed about 9:45. I get up with him around 5:45 AM for his first walk of the day.

He gets a mixture of wet and dry food twice a day, one at 7 AM then his main meal at 6 PM.

We normally leave him plenty of fresh water,  but I'm wondering if I should limit this now, or even take water away from him after his last walk, (it wasn't particularly warm last night here in the North West).

Any thoughts?

[Red_Akita]

Hi, welcome to the forum.
There are different schools on water restriction; personally I think that unless there are underlying medical issues, dogs should have access to fresh water at all time.
I think the best thing you can do is taking him to the vet, if you haven't already done so. This will allow you to exclude things like urinary tract infection, kidney problems or diabetes (sorry, I don't want to alarm you, but better safe than sorry).
He's a young dog so his bladder should be able to hold until morning without a problem. Maybe he just got used to drinking more water with the recent heat wave and he's keeping having the same intake, but it's hard to say until you rule out medical problems.

[Tinyplanets]

Hello and welcome to the forum, I would agree to get him checked out for medical causes. Is he on any drugs which may cause a problem? My terrier used to have steroids for inflamed paws and would sometimes wet in the house. I am not sure if it was because she was drinking more. She loves playing in water and will often consume a fair bit when doing so. This in itself doesn't seem to be a trigger for accidents in the house. For some reason the steroids seemed to affect her ability to hold on. She would sometimes even wet when we were home indicating that she may not have been aware of the need to go until it was too late. I don't think she drinks much in the night anyway but we leave her water all the time.

[Meg]

Hello Bobbys dad and welcome to the forum!

Please, please do not restrict his access to water.

It may be, as suggested, that he has drunk a lot of fluid recently due to the recent heat. With their heavy double coats Goldens would need to drink water as appropriate.

Another suggestion may be the type of diet he is eating, as kibble alone necessitates a higher volume of water intake. A slight tweak of less kibble added to meat may help him.

If this continues and you are at all concerned then I'd suggest to have his current health checked with his vet.

[Bobbys dad]

Thanks for all replies. We'll monitor how things go, and if he gets worse will get him to the vets.