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.