I love my dog, 6 years old, about 50 lbs. he’s sweet and wonderful. But. He insists on going outside 4-5 times a day to go pee because he never goes all the way to empty his bladder. He’ll insist on finding a ‘good’ smelling area and will wet there, quit, and even if there is a block longer on our walk he’ll stay full until we get home only to insist on going back out a short while longer.
How do I deal with this? I’m a city apartment dweller and have to put on full winter gear and go outside with him so it’s becoming a frustration of mine.
How many times a day do you personally go pee? Is 4-5 times really that excessive? I think that’s probably on the low end of what I normally do. I wouldn’t expect my dog to go much less than that, especially since there’s often a pretty long stretch when we’re at work where she doesn’t get to go out.
Walking and taking your dog out to pee is part of what you signed up for when you got a dog, and you need to do that a few times a day.
On top of just the basic biological needs to pee and for exercise, you also need to consider the sort of social aspect of dogs marking their territory. That’s part of being a dog.
Honestly at 6 years old he may even start needing to go more. Just like humans can get incontinent with age, so can dogs, and your boy is approaching or already well into middle age depending on his breed. And he’s probably pretty set in his ways at this point, he’s used to going out 4 or 5 times a day to pee, it’s going to be an uphill battle training that out of him. Not impossible, but difficult.
I take my girl out a minimum of 4 times a day, and if the weather’s nice and we’re not busy it might be 2 or 3 times that many, some of those might just be a quick potty break and not a full walk, but no matter how many times I can pretty much guarantee that every time she goes outside she’s going to pee.
I suggest investing in some warm slip-on shoes and a jacket that you keep by the door with his leash, and maybe make your walks longer when you do go out.