I get this question all the time. There is no one way to say exactly how long your dog can hold it or how long you can leave your dog in a crate before he has to go to the bathroom. There are a couple different formulas that I use, though, to help people know how long they can leave their puppy in a crate.
One school of thought says that you can leave a dog in a crate as a puppy for his age in months, equal to hours, plus one. That means that if you have a two month old puppy he can ‘hold it’ for three hours. A four month puppy can ‘hold it’ for five hours and so on and so forth. I have found this to be true for certain dogs that seem to have ’small bladders’.
For other dogs, and in my experience this is most dogs, they are capable of ‘holding it’ a bit longer. For most dogs I find that their ability to hold their bowls falls into a timetable much like the following:
- 8 weeks old- 3-4 hours
- 10 weeks old- 4-5 hours
- 12 weeks old- 5-6 hours
- 4 to 5 months old- 6-7 hours
By about 4 to 6 months of age is usually when a puppy can ‘hold it’ for an entire eight hour work day. Again, these are just basic formulas. There are always exceptions to every rule. Some puppies will be able to last longer quicker and many will take longer to work up to a full eight hour day. Go at your dog’s pace and you will be in good shape.
