We have a 1 qt. bowl that we refill for Machete, until he's acclimated and housebroken completely, then he'll have access to the pet fountains the cats use as well...but while we're vigilant about taking him out I wonder are we giving him enough water?

Should he have unrestricted access?  Some sources say no water 1 hour before bed, others 2-3. But also we don't want a dehydrated puppy, and it's fine now, but in the summer it's going to get super hot and we'll want to make sure he's ok and hydrated at all times.

Also, the adult dogs at our breeders had water dishes clipped to the gates of their crates.  I would probably like to do that when he's older and in warmer weather, but is that just inviting disaster for a new pup (even if he never does mess his crate)?

(also, yes, I tried the FAQ and searching, but the search function on this site is very basic and doesn't even really use boolean operators properly)

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My dogs aren't puppies any more, but they are crated at night and most days stay in my office with me during the day. We make trips downstairs every couple of hours where they are free to drink or wander outside as they choose.

Sorry I can't really give you any perspective from the puppy side of things, as I got Ein as an adult. But she just has a big bowl that I just keep topped off. She's crated at night without water in the crate. 

But from what I understand it's a fairly common practice to remove water dishes from non-housebroken pups an hour or 2 before bedtime. As long as he's urinating a normal amount, he's getting enough water. 

since Juno was a pup, he's always had free for all water during the day. at night i take it away right after dinner which was about 2hrs prior to bed time. Then i moved it to 1hr prior to bed time as he got older. Now that he's almost 1yrs old, he can have water even right before bed w/ no problem. he's crated. i'm not sure if he'd hold it as long if he was uncrated 

Are you taking him out on a leash? Or do you have a space he roams free in? I'm potty training a puppy right now, too, and I'm just curious what's working for you. :)

That sounds like a great routine! Thanks for sharing. :) I'll have to try that.

We've had Sky for a few weeks now. His intervals are, to say the least, unpredictable. Just when you thought it was safe.....LOL. We don't even call them "accidents" any more. They are "unscheduled events."

What I've found is that despite the best of intentions, a sound plan, and management tools (crate, feeding schedule, baby gate, potty breaks, etc.), real life intervenes. Family and friends come to visit and meet the new puppy, housebreaking schedule is abandoned. Puppy kindergarten one night a week...excitement, massive doses of treats...schedule blown. Rain storm: human weakness, missed potty break. Trip to vet, vaccinations, wormer...puppy hyperactive, thirsty, peeing extra, runny poop...."housebreaking" out the window. And so forth.

A sense of humor and relaxation of expectations (both of oneself and the puppy) are the saving graces. The important thing is the bond of love and respect you're forming. The rest will come in time.

oh yeah, in a perfect world he'd be on an iron clad schedule, but we're trying to simulate what it will be like when i'm at work this week and it's hard for me because i just want to hang out with the puppy every minute of every day.

he'll be more controlled - schedule-wise - when we're both at work.  and any time there is an accident (precious few times, and NEVER in or near his crate) it's always been our fault. either we weren't paying attention to the cues, riled him up too much, or too long a wait in the vet's office.

but he's very good with his potty breaks so far. and we're making sure he stays very hydrated for all of his romping around.

however, we are tracking EVERYTHING, i mean, every.little.thing.

so we take note of his meals, his potty breaks, training, naps, car trips, walks, etc.  it's all documented in a puppy log so we can actually start getting a grasp of his patterns.  for bathroom stuff, it's helpful cuz you can look back over the day of what he did, what worked, what didn't, etc.

(no, i'm not OCD, shutup!)

LOL, I did exactly the same thing, and I probably am OCD!  It helped for a while. :)

In my case we don't really enforce the water rule too much with Peiko (Corgi), it is our small dog who has the tiny bladder that really needs to be watched. As far as potty training went with Peiko, it is pretty much the exact same thing as Jen said. We let him drink as much as he wants during the day but crate him at night. He did have a couple of accidents in his crate while getting older, and I really doubt he enjoyed it very much either. But eventually he just stopped having accidents all together. You just gotta hang tough and let him have as much water during the day as he wants until he gets older. I have not really considered a water bowl in his crate that much yet, even though it is very dry here.

We actually have left the water for him overnight, and sometimes I'll notice on the pupcam that he'll wake up in the middle of the night and have a drink, then go right back to sleep, so I'm happy he's staying hydrated. So far, never a mess in his crate ever, night or day.  I think he started crate training at 4-5 weeks, and he's been great since we got him, too.

Plus the logging of everything really helps us learn patterns, because puppy accidents are never their falt, but rather us making mistakes with him.

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