Hi, My gorgeous 14yr old male Jack Russell, has now started needing to go out for a wee 1 -2 times in the night. Unfortunately, this means I have to get up and let him out at all different hours of the night. This means I do not get enough sleep and he won't use pee pads and a dog flap is not possible. The vet has seen him and said it is just old age. Any suggestions for me please? thank you
Unfortunately as we all age, this becomes a problem. That even now, he insists on going outside to do his business is really a sign of what a good dog he is. What I recommend is letting him outside at the very last moment before you fall asleep. This means if you like to watch the news in bed before falling asleep, you want to take him out to do his business when you turn off the tv. This gives you the absolute longest stretch before he has to pee again. Hopefully you can get several hours of sleep before he needs to go out again. You can also try changing his feeding time and see if that helps. I had a dog who always needed to pee around 3 am. I was feeding her about 9 pm. I changed her mealtime to 6 pm and she no longer needed to get up in the middle of the night.
My OH used to get up at between 3 and 3.30am every night for my late departed Beagle girl, who suffered from hormonal incontinence. This was a very quick process of, open the door, dog did wee, and back to bed. Maybe 2 minutes. There is a syrup that vets can prescribe for incontinence. It is intended for females, but I have heard of it being successfully used for male dogs. It is called Propalin in the UK, and Proin in the US.
