Dog Keeps Getting Up to Pee in the Middle of the Night

[Anonymous]

I have a 2+ year old mutt (basset hound/beagle/rhodesian ridgeback? mix). We adopted him when he was 10 months old and he's awesome. But starting about six months ago, maybe even longer, he's gotten into what I consider a bad habit, which is deciding that he needs to pee in the middle of the night when he wakes up from his deep sleep. It became clear that he also really likes using that middle-of-the-night pee pee time to run like a maniac around our backyard, chasing bunnies and sniffing every corner. We wised up a little, and started leaving his leash by the back door and putting that on him to stop him from making it his play time. So now he just goes out, pees, and comes right back (with me standing at the back door holding onto the long leash). But pretty much all he does is make a little bit of pee, nothing that he couldn't hold til morning, IMO. We've cut off his water at 7pm, and we stay up pretty late so we let him out for his last pee before bedtime at around 11, 11:30. He's been checked by the vet and she sees no medical issue for why he's getting up to pee so much. Is there anything else we can do? We've tried ignoring him, but then he whines and cries incessantly and a) I don't want him waking up my kids, and b) don't want to make it so that he has to have an accident in the house.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Anonymous]

Is he getting enough exercise during the day? My beagle runs around a ton at the park after work most days and is zonked our the entire night because she’s so tired from it. I’d make sure he’s REALLY tired when he goes to bed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is he getting enough exercise during the day? My beagle runs around a ton at the park after work most days and is zonked our the entire night because she’s so tired from it. I’d make sure he’s REALLY tired when he goes to bed.

Most days he does. He's predominantly basset hound, and doesn't have a whole lot of energy. It comes in bursts. But he has doggy play dates, and runs around a lot with my kids, and goes on 3-4 walks a day. But his nighttime wakeups don't really correspond to how much playtime he's had during the day. He goes to doggy day care once a week and plays like a madman, but still wants to go out to pee at night. I don't think he's waking up to play; the play just happens naturally b/c he's outside.

[Anonymous]

Did you do a Cushings panel on him?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you do a Cushings panel on him?

No, we didn't. I just googled it and don't think it's that, but I guess we could run that panel. He doesn't have an increased appetite, and he isn't actually drinking more than usual. But thank you for the suggestion, I didn't have that on my radar.

[Anonymous]

What tests did the vet run? Your dog is so young, I would think this is likely tied to some sort of medical issue. Did the vet take a urine sample? I would want to rule out bladder cystitis/UTI, stones, polyps, etc. It is fairly common in older dogs to get this way as they age, but a 2 year old dog...not usual if he was holding it well before.

[Anonymous]

Is he neutered? He may have prostate problems, if not.