# Dog Help Needed (Please!) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 4, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dog-help-needed-please/519992 "2009-12-04T16:00:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dog-help-needed-please/519992/21 "2009-12-04T20:55:28Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > With the exception of oddball dogs like Captain, three times a day is too few. Large dogs should go out more often, and small dogs should go out even more frequently than that. Every book I’ve ever read on puppy training says that dogs should be able to “hold it” around the # of months they are old. So an 8 month old dog should be able to hold it for 8 hours. Given that, 3x/day should be fine for a lot of dogs. As I said previously, though I don’t do it every day, mine are fine at 3x/day. They free-feed & drink, so it’s not that I’ve trained them or anything like that. It’s just what they’ve naturally done. It does seem weird, given that I go WAY more than 3x a day, but less weird when you think about the fact that they really only drink when they’re actually thirsty, and don’t always have a glass of water/tea/coffee/beer sitting next to them the way I do. Heck, half the time I’m pushing the girlie dog out the door and not letting her back in until she goes at least a token amount. I think she’d be fine going out twice a day if push came to shove. The boy, he goes out whenever the door opens, but you know how guys are. They want to pee all the time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dog-help-needed-please/519992.md?page=1)