Bathroom Habits?

[Guest FlaOkie]

Tatiana, our 4 year old female Geryhound, has been with us for almost two months now.

She has adapted well to her new environment and routine.

She is healthy, eats well, and spends most of her days sleeping on her back with her four feet in the air.

She is definitely enjoying her retirement from racing.

 

Now to her bathroom habits. –

She creates nice piles of poop once or twice a day.

The one thing that I have noticed is she usually goes 12 to 14 hours without peeing.

Not every single day, but most days. She does drink her water, but not in large amounts, like our late Lab used to slurp up.

On her walks, she has a ball smelling every blade of grass she can get her nose on, but it doesn’t seem to stimulate her pee’er.

 

We have had many different type dogs over the years, and have never seen one consistently hold it this long.

She goes out for walks 4 or 5 times a day, so I don’t expect her to go every time.

I’m not really too concerned, but since Tati is our first Greyhound, I was wondering if this is this common in this breed, or maybe she just has a champion sized bladder?

[3greytjoys]

Good question. 12-14 hours is too long to hold urine on a regular basis. I'd suggest adding a little water to Tatiana's kibble (if you're not already doing so). Helps prevent hounds from choking on dry kibble, prevents dehydration, helps kidney health, etc.

 

Typically, racing Greyhounds' elimination outings are scheduled every 4 hours (exception is while sleeping overnight). They're placed in a fully-fenced enclosure to sniff around and eliminate at their leisure (limited potty time). After being adopted as pets, some new Greyhounds are either so excited about going on leashed walks that they don't think about eliminating, or they feel too shy to eliminate with humans standing close by. It sometimes helps to lengthen their leash (just while they're eliminating), and/or for humans to turn/look away. If extra leash length is needed, two regular leashes can be very securely knotted and clipped together. (Please do not use a flexi-leash for Greyhounds. Flexi-leashes are very dangerous, especially for sighthounds.)

 

All our Greyhounds (various ages) comfortably urinate 5 (to 7) times per day.

 

Have fun with your new girl!

 

[turbotaina]

Our new boy is like that. And he takes forever to go pee when we walk him. Our other greyhound will have pooped twice and peed on everything in sight before Crow will pee And he'll poop, like your girl. He just has a bladder of steel. Most of the time, he won't go back outside after dinner unless we take a walk. So he'll eat dinner at 4:30pm and when we get up at 4:30 am, he frequently doesn't want to go out. He'd rather have breakfast, thank you very much. He normally will go out around 8 or 8:30, so he'll sometimes hold it for as long as 16 hours . That's just how he rolls. And he drinks regularly and we add water to his kibble

[Guest chickenpotpie]

Lucky generally goes pee on our walks. She quite the marker and our walks typically are an hour +. Otherwise, she will do an after dinner pee, then I make her pee before bedtime (sometimes she squats to please mommy but nothing comes out) Then she doesn't have to potty until the morning. She goes for walks at noon and 4-5pm in the winter. In summer she goes for a walk in the morning and usually 6-7pm. Lucky also dosen't drink a lot of water on her own if she's not hot, so I make sure she gets it through her meals.

 

She may just not have to pee much. As long as she checked out medically and she's getting enough water and some fluids in her food, it may be much ado about nothing.

[Feisty49]

I like reading how each dog is different. I don't know if it's normal, but if you're concerned, have her checked by the vet. If this is how she is, it's probably just her way, though I wonder if holding urine that long can contribute to UTIs, etc.

 

Annie usually has at least 4 outings a day when she has an opportunity to pee, and she uses them all. She does a lot the first thing in the morning, about 6:30 AM, and at the last turn-out of the day, about 7:30 PM, both of which are in the fenced yard. In between is when we walk, and she's a marker because the last one to pee wins, don't 'cha know. So, I'd say Annie is a good pee'r.

[Guest FlaOkie]

I’m not really concerned that she holds it for so long, just curious more than anything.

Evidently she is not the only one that came equipped with a steel bladder.

We will keep a close eye on her as we get to know her better.

She does know when she goes out it is time to pee and/or poop.

She also employs the fake squat to show the human on the other end of the leash she knows what she is supposed to do, but has an empty tank.

I just think she has set her priorities. Sleeping and eating are at the top of the list, peeing at the bottom.

The one thing we have quickly learned is our Greyhound is different than any of the other dogs we’ve had over the years.

Thanks for all your input.

 

Tatiana--