Another bed-wetter

cefe13

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Sep 12, 2013
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Castor (2013-2021 RIP)
This is my first post on this forum, which I've found very helpful during our first months as bulldog owners!

Our Castor is five months now, and although he never pees indoors when he is awake, he does have accidents almost every night. They only happen in his bed (he sleeps in a plastic basket on a towel with a fleece blanket beneath). At what age did your bulldogs sleep through the night? Is this bed-wetting likely due to immaturity or should we look for some other reason?

During daytime, we take him out every three hours or so and he never pees indoors during daytime. The last time we take him out is round midnight and by then he is sound asleep so we need to wake him up to go out. Nonetheless, he always pees and usually poops then. If he wakes up during night, we always take him out at once, but quite often he doesn't wake up until his bed is wet. Setting the alarm clock and waking him up seems to be the only solution right now. Any other suggestions?

Since he only pees in his bed we believe he's too young to sleep through the night. On the other hand, these accidents sometimes happen only an hour or so after he's been out, so it's a bit frustrating (and we don't have a washing machine so I spend a lot of time in the laundry...).
 

cali baker

Worlds Greatest Chef
Feb 25, 2011
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Hi and welcome to EBN!:welcome3:

I'm no expert on this but did just want to say to make sure his bedding is thoroughly cleaned once he pees/poops on it. Because if there's still a scent on it, he will continue to pee there. I know you wash his bedding regularly but using some kind of enzymatic cleaner to make sure all the urine scent is gone may be helpful if you're not already doing that.
Also, you may want to put a treat or two in his bed since dogs won't usually pee/poo in his sleeping area.
 

Marine91

The New Casper
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May 15, 2013
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Blips and Chitz
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Harlea 5/4/13 - 8/25/22
Definitely use and enzymatic solution as recommended above. All bullies are different and some sleep through the night with no accidents sooner than others, but the general consensus for pups is their age in months plus 1 hour so your 5 month old should be able to hold it for 5 to 6 hours. My Harlea is only 18 weeks and she has been sleeping through the night in her crate with no accidents since about 11 weeks. However, she is not 100% potty trained as she will still have a pee accident in the house from time to time when she is really playing hard and doesn't make it to the door in time. For now you make have to go back to square one at night with having to take him out on 2 hour intervals or switch to a crate for night time sleeping as they do not normally pee or poo in their "dens" so to speak.
 

Manydogs

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May 2, 2013
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Hello!
Well, as "they" say, dogs don't usually pee in their sleeping crate. Well, that had been true for 40 years for mine. One of my "girls", who will be 1 year in Oct. did very well as a pup. Then just when I thought she was "potty" trained, she started to pee in her bed at night. Did fine all day! So, I didn't let her drink for at lest 2 hours before bed. Still didn't work. When I thought about it further, I realized that she is such a deep sleeper, she probably didn't even know she had to pee. (No UTI-- confirmed) I started getting up about midnight/1 or 2 and taking her out to pee. Sometimes, she had already wet the blanket., but most times not. I did this for several weeks, and now that she is 11 months, she sleeps through the night and doesn't wet the bed. IF she DOES have to go, she will whine and wake me up, but that is rare now. All animals bodies mature at different ages and I guess mine just took a little longer since she IS a very sound sleeper. Perhaps yours is also. I didn't,- but some try a crate with NO bedding. But for awhile my water bill was higher from doing more wash!
 

Vikinggirl

Norwegian Rose
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Oct 8, 2012
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Burlington, ON Canada
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:babysleep:Hi, you've already got great advice from members above, the only thing I can suggest is maybe take the bedding away completely, as some bullies like to pee on their blankets or pillows. My two guys had blankets in their crate when they were first brought home, and they would pee on them, but they also chew and eat pieces of their bedding as well, so we took them out and the peeing stopped. My guys are crate trained at night, and when we are not home, and due to the fact that they can't have anything soft like stuffed toys, blankets, pillows because they eat them, they sleep on the plastic tray. They have two huge dog bed pillows, that I bought at Homesense, but they only use these when they are out during the day, but only when we can supervise them.
 

TubbysMom

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Jan 15, 2013
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Tubby lost his bed privileges looooong ago. What I noticed was he would literally pee his bed while asleep.
I suggest getting rid of the bed until Castor earns it back.
 

dalmatina38

The Stripe Wearing, Broom Wielding, Voodoo Prieste
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Jul 13, 2012
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Sierra Vista Arizona
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Amber and Ruby
Amber had a problem with this once and what I found out was when she was right near the air-conditioning vent without a blanket on her would have an accident while she was sleeping. Once I figured that out and closed the air-conditioning vent where she sleeps she never had the problem again. She sleeps with our daughter but the air conditioning vent is right above the foot of the bed; we closed it and keep the door open so it doesn't get hot and now things are just fine. She does not have a bed of her own because she will destroy it but drags a blanket around from room to room depending on where she is staying for the day. Ruby still is in her crate at night not anywhere near air conditioning. Also, my bullies are restricted from water after 7:00pm in the evening; we started that during house breaking and just keep it as a rule and it works great for us. Good luck.
 
OP
cefe13

cefe13

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Sep 12, 2013
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Castor (2013-2021 RIP)
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Dear all, Thank you so much for your valuable input! I'm so glad I found this forum and grateful for all the advice. We have taken away Castor's water bowl in the evening and I will most definitely start using an enzymatic detergent to see if that helps! Removing his bedding will then have to be the next step, I suppose, but will try another detergent first. We don't have air-conditioning, but there might actually be a draught where he sleeps, so we will take that into consideration too.

Thanks again for your quick responses to my question.:)
 

Davidh

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Mar 21, 2011
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We have a 4 month old pup that sleep through the night and does not soil her bedding. That being said we have another adult bully that will pee her bedding so she does not get bedding. Some will mark their bedding. We use Primo crate pads in all our crates because some of our girls can not have bedding, as they like to chew it. So you might try it a few nights without the bedding and see how he does.
 

AubreysMom

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Aubie had a problem with her bedding too, so we took it out. No more accidents after that.
 
B

Baxter Tiberius

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I just wanted to interject something that may be of use.

One time when Baxter was sleeping on my lap, and got into "REM" sleep (i assume as he was both running, barking, and doing all kinds of puppy motions in his sleep), he began to dribble out his wee wee onto my lap.

I didnt realize what was going on for awhile, but noticed he seemed very warm.

By the time I caught it, my entire lap was covered in urine.

This taught me that at least for Baxter, some of these "bed wetting" incidents are not intentional at all. And have nothing to do with existing scent.

He simply wets his bed sometimes. And is not to blame.
 
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cefe13

cefe13

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Sep 12, 2013
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Sweden
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Castor (2013-2021 RIP)
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Interesting! I don't think Castor is peeing intentionally, so that is probably what he is doing too. Nonetheless, we'll try some powerful cleaner to see if that helps.

I think he knows I posted my question here, because last night he slept for seven hours without an accident!
 
OP
cefe13

cefe13

Well-known member
Sep 12, 2013
3,714
205
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Sweden
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Castor (2013-2021 RIP)
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Bed-wetting update: I think it may have been the draught; since we closed the window there have been no accidents at all. Thanks for telling us about your experience, Dalmatina38! I have now also washed his blankets with a better detergent so hopefully the combination of super clean bedding and no draught will keep him dry!
 

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