Typically, Koda won't go unless it's been 9 hours (ie I take her out before showering/getting ready for work, go work for 8 hours, let her have dinner, wait 30 minutes, then take her out) otherwise she doesn't bother trying and I have to take her out again. Even then she'll hold it longer (I had to go to a doctor's appointment and they ran late so was 2 hours late!) and she was FINE just crossing her legs a bit and went RIGHT when we got home.

I think having your sister come halfway through the day will help, though if he gets used to that schedule he may have more accidents if you can't find someone to replace her. Maybe it'd be better to have her come home at your current time, and slowly push it back a bit until he has an accident, and then come at that time for a bit, etc..

You could also put a puppy pad in his crate...it would be more expensive but cheaper and easier to trust than a dog walker to start.

How long is your commute? That might change things a bit. If it's short he's probably fine to learn to hold it a bit longer but if the commute is long then you may need to look for someone else...

 

I've never had my dogs alone for that long but I'm sure Miley can hold it. Have you ever thought of trying to pad train?
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Mine can all hold it for 10-12 hours if they need to. I'm sure Niko will be fine

 

Mine are all capable of holding it that long, although my schedule doesn't require it very often.

 

My dog can potentially hold it pretty long if she has to but I never leave her alone for that many hours.

 

both my guys can hold it for days... literally, and when it rains a lot, i have to take them out to potty on leashes to make sure they go, or they'll just hold it. regardless of that, the only time they go for more than 5 hours at a stretch is when we're all asleep, even then, if they need to go, they will both wake me

 

Well I have school, and clubs after school, so like... 12 hours, but I'm sure she can hold it longer, she is a medium large sized dog, and 4 years old, however I have now purchased a doggy door, no worries now! Just gotta close it when it gets dark for the cat... I also walk her at like 6:30 and don't let her out again until I wake up. Actually if I sleep in on the weekends I won't let her out til like 10 or even 11!! She is fine, if I don't wake up at my usually 7 it fine. If I try and lazy around and forget about her (she is in my room almost always.) then she will sit by the door/bowl and squeal a little bit, not sure if she is hungry or needs to go. But ya, it's no biggie for my girl


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Mine can hold it 10-12 hours. Zoe can go longer, although I hate it when she does that. Sometimes, she just won't go.

 

Raggy for 10-12 hours. He doesn't really need to go less then that,he will mark but he could mark all day if I let him.
When he was younger he seemed to need to go more.
With marking he is also very picky where to go on and only goes for about a second or two. So I don't count that as the same.

I can go without for up to 12 hours myself.

 

Well with our schedule... I let him out at 5:30 in the morning while I shower and leave at 6:15, he's in my room til 3:45-4:00 pm (about 10 hours) and is perfectly fine. I go to bed around 9:30-10:00 (let him out before bed) so that's 8 hours)

So his norm is 8-10 hours, but he can hold it longer (and does, on weekends when we both just wanna sleep in )

 

A dog I had years ago could hold it for days... He always eliminated in his yard, never on walks... I had a boyfriend at the time, and he was very fond of Zenta, so we took him to his Dad's place for a weekend stay... Left Friday afternoon, and came home Sunday afternoon... My friend's dad's place wasn't fenced, so I had to take Zenta out on lead - he wouldn't go... We tried to tie him out for a little while, with no success... When we cam home, Zenta peed for a l o n g time.

Storm at 11 months old can easily hold it for at least 14 hours...

 

My neighbours dog holds the record in our neighbourhood for longest wait/pee. We had to watch Chevy (black lab/rottie cross) for 7 days while his owners went up north to be with their daughter and new grandbaby. Chevy held his pee the entire 7 days! He'd poo just fine, but no pee. My dad checked the house, never left him out of his sight, and filled his bowel (to measure input and output). Nothing. He drank fine, but no pee. Needless to say we were afraid he'd explode. Though the minute his owner came over to get him, and took him outside in his yard (we even tried taking him over there, thinking maybe he didn't like our yard, and nothing) he pee'd the river nile! I was shocked he could hold that much, dog has a bladder of a freaking camel!

 

My dog is never left alone, so she never has to hold it at all. In summer she has free access through the French doors to the garden all day, so she goes out to pee on the lawn whenever she likes. She goes about eight hours overnight without going - but dogs, like people, need to pee less often at nighttime.

In the winter, my mum is quite obsessive about never letting her go more than three hours, though I'm sure my dog could hold it longer than that usually - there have been a couple of occasions when she's gotten desperate and she got really frantic running from one person to the next, whining and whimpering. The first time, we didn't know what was wrong with her. Then she peed on the carpet. Now we've learned to recognise her whine that she uses specifically when she needs to pee.

Why does she sometimes get desperate even though we let her out every three hours? Because sometimes she drops some food in her water bowl, and of course she has to drink the entire water bowl to get it out.

 

Mine have no problem waiting 10 - 12 hours

 

Thanks all! Niko has held it for 10 hours before (winter time, took longer to get home than I thought it would) but I didn't know if it was something that can/should be done regularly.

The commute will be about 15 minutes each way, longer in the winter (icy roads... ick!)

If I get hired I am going to accept the job (pays $16+ an hour) but prolly stay at home for a bit longer and tell my mom and brother to have him "hold it" longer and longer and see how he does. He hasnt had an accident since he was a puppy.

That will mean a drive time of about 1 1/2 hrs for me each day but I think it is what is best for Niko.

I thought about pee pads in the shower/bathtub but I really REALLY dont want to go down that route... and that would mean comet/bleaching the shower every day too... :S

Niko is pretty good about holding it currently and will wait if its raining outside, like some of you said your dogs do. What pampered, spoiled dogs we have!
-Niko also hates dew on the grass and will instead pee in the gravel driveway on mornings with lots of dew... He never has a problem with a foot of snow though, go figure!

 

Tessa right now can just barely hold it for 8 hours, but then she's 7 months. Jazzy was able to hold it till we got home, so anywhere from 8-12 hours; but she need out ASAP when we opened the door (she'd actually sit at the back door to go, so we started just coming in the back door to kill 2 birds with 1 stone).

 

How come none of our have doggy doors? I mean if you live in an apartment, I get it. But the rest of you? Most people I know have doors...


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I am at home most of the time now but when I was working away from home all day mine would typically go 9-12 hours just fine. I'm sure Niko will be ok. Maybe once you've lived in the area longer it would be a good idea to hire a dog walker a couple of times a week though. I hate having mine hold it for so long now, but they always seem fine.




Because sometimes that's just not a safe option. If I had a dog door I'd have chickens, raccoons, squirrels, possums, etc coming into my house! I only like to let my dogs out when I am around to supervise because they can figure out ways out of fences.

 

all ours go from 7pm to 5am most nights. They do not ask to go out if they do I let them out but generally speaking from 7pm onwards they do not go out unless I make them.

 

My dogs can hold it for 12 hours if needed. I do wonder if dogs are uncomfortable holding it that long though.

 

Nola and Boston can hold it for about 9-10 hours, but they almost never have to do that. Auggie can go 8-9 hours, and Phoenix's max is 7 hours.

 

Calli, and Wilson
Ok I guess, we don't have any of that kind of wildlife in Arizona, and my particular area doesn't have scorpions or snakes. And we have nothing in my yard that would be bad for my dog, however she doesn't even want to eat anything anyways, maybe grass, she is very careful, blue Heeler and all. She is only outside if she has to be because of the heat. Haven't had it in Winter yet, and no one would steel dogs here... And if they tried my fearful dog would bite.. Lastly we have cement walls, no way out of that! She is usually indoors anyways, my cat is out more often, and we only got a door because now my cat can't hop the fence because she was attacked by a pit bull boxer mix (sweet dog though.. Just not to cats.....) she almost didn't make it, but she limps now and can't hop the fence, so it's ok! We didn't wanna put a hole in the wall either and just bought the kind that goes into sliding doors.


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I don't have doggy doors because I rent,and I also lack a fence.
I'd also have my cats constantly escaping.

At one place I did have a catdoor that Raggy turned into a dog door by force.
Yet I didn't let him use it,I still rented,the fence was broken,and I don't need him fence fighting the neighbors dog,or getting into a real fight with another dog. Or most likely chasing one of the many biking dogs around,and annoying people,but still would be irresponsible.

I don't think he's uncomfortable for holding it that long,he seems to barely need to go afterwards,sometimes if theres something exciting going on like a potential car ride its hard to get him to go at all,even after 12 hours.

It may also be a individual thing I know I can go about 7-9 hours awake(as long as I don't drink too much) without going and 12 hours of mostly sleep without going,and without discomfort. Yet my sister on the other hand.

 

For the past 3 years Remy has pretty much been with me non stop, but when she stays with my dad (like when I was in NZ for 3 months) she was left from 7am to 4pm with no problem. Lucy is at that time now and doesn't ever pee inside, but Remy comes out to do field work with me during the day.

I would never have a doggy door honestly. The last thing I need is a bear's arm reaching for food in my house or a deer sticking it's head in to check the place out. I also don't have a fence.

 

I work a condensed schedule like that (10 hour days) and at first I felt very guilty about it because I'd always had a flexible schedule so my dogs weren't alone more than 4-5 hours max. They adjusted but it was an adjustment.

Mine are small enough that I can leave a potty pad down so they have the option of going if they need to. Mia actually tends to use the potty pad if I am gone sometimes even as little as 3 hours. Summer almost never goes on the potty pad and seems fine. She is old and lazy and sleeps a lot though.

I also can make it up to them by paying for lots of agility classes and then spending my 3 day weekends doing dog 'stuff'. It's an adjustment but not so bad really. I'm sure Niko will be fine. Most people work and most my coworkers have dogs too.

 

Quest can hold 12-13 hours, but I don't ask him to regularly. That's usually overnight too when I get to sleep in. He very rarely needs to hold it for 8 hours, just due to my hubby's work schedule (night shift). Unless he's on court switch over and working during the day, he's home with Quest while I'm at work. Then, when he is on switch over, Quest is let out before I got to work at 7 and let out at 5:15 when I get home. Sometimes, I can come home on my lunch, but not always.

 

Well, my dogs and I have all been spoiled by my current lifestyle which is classes just a 2-4 hours per day, which means most days they are home a max of 5 hours alone. I spend the bulk of the rest of the time with them.

That said, there are days when I have to be gone 7 hours at a time, and they are fine. I think the most I've pushed it was 10 hours once or twice in the last few years (feeling incredibly guilty, I'll add).

Night time wise--the girls will easily hold it all night (I try to get 8 hrs min), even when I sleep in for 10, and sometimes I still have to boot them out the door in the morning and tell them to go potty because they'll just linger in the house for cuddles and rolling around. Champ's max hold it time at night is about 8 hrs, and that's IF he makes it the whole night.

And then there's the rainy season, when Sophie will try to hold it all day to avoid getting her paws wet. (Of course, I don't let her... not good for her bladder.)

I've only come home to one mess because of a failure to "hold it" in the last few years, and that was diarrhea since someone was feeding them blueberries before leaving them home alone.... Other than that, it seems they will hold it for as long as needed.