Does a dog need water at night?

Do you also wonder if your dog needs water at night? Should you leave the bowl or take it away? Because if he drinks too much at night, he may wake you up or pee in the apartment. But what if he is thirsty?
Water is also essential for dogs to survive. For this reason, it is important that your dog drinks enough to be healthy. A basic rule is that a dog must always have access to fresh water. Always to me means that your dog must have access to fresh water even at night.
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Should a puppy have water at night too?
Puppies also always need water. Of course, this can cause problems. After all, if your puppy is not yet housebroken, he may need to go out more often at night if he has constant access to fresh water.
Potty training will be a bit more difficult this way, of course. But leaving your dog thirsty just because it’s more convenient for you is not an option in my opinion.
Besides, time passes very quickly. So that would be out of the question for me. For example, I sometimes drink water at night, and I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep peacefully if I couldn’t drink anything at that moment.
You may be able to get your puppy to drink plenty of water beforehand, so he won’t be thirsty at night. You can do this, for example, by soaking his food in water. Ideally, your puppy will then absorb so much liquid that he will no longer be thirsty at night.
Before you go to bed, you should go out with your puppy to let him pee. If you are still in the training phase, you will have to take him out regularly. Also at night.
Does a dog always need water?
Dogs always need access to fresh water. Just like us humans, dogs are made up of over 70% water. The entire metabolism, every cell is dependent on water to function properly. So water is essential to life.
Since you can’t know when your dog is thirsty, he should always find water in a certain place. For this reason, I don’t think it’s a question of whether your dog always needs water. The answer should be “YES”, of course. So even at night your dog always needs fresh water.
How much water does a dog need?
How much water your dog needs depends on several factors. Decisive factors include size, weight, activity level and, of course, the weather. On a hot summer day, just like you, your dog will naturally need more water than on a cooler day.
As a rule of thumb, you can calculate approximately 60 ml of water per kilogram of body weight (60 ml per 2 lbs body weight) per day. So a 20 lbs (10 kg) dog needs about 600 ml of water a day.
Another factor can be the food. If you feed dry food, your dog needs more water than if you feed him raw or wet food. Both barf and wet food already contain a certain amount of water.
If your dog drinks not enough (The consequences)

If your dog drinks not enough, that is, less than he should in order to be healthy, there is a risk that he will become dehydrated.
Symptoms of water deficiency can be the following:
- Your dog is listless and not as active as usual.
- He sleeps more than usual
- Urine is less
How long can a dog not drink?
As already mentioned, the dog is dependent on water so that his entire metabolism functions smoothly. If your dog does not drink anything, you have to take him to the vet at the latest on the 2nd Day with him to the vet. Then there is a danger to life.
Dog drinks at night and pees in the apartment
If you have a puppy that is not housebroken, drinking at night will obviously make potty training more difficult. But taking away your puppy’s water can’t be the purpose. Before resorting to this remedy, consider other methods.
If your adult dog is peeing indoors at night, you should first rule out health problems. A urinary tract infection could be the reason your dog is peeing in the apartment at night, not the water bowl.
If your dog actually has a urinary tract infection water deprivation would make the problem worse. For this reason, a visit to your veterinarian is recommended.
Tips on how to keep your dog from peeing in the apartment at night
If you also don’t want to deprive your dog or puppy of water at night, you could use the following tricks to avoid an accident in the living room
- Give him his food with water in the evening to meet his fluid needs and he may not want to drink anything later.
- Take your dog outside just before bedtime and let him do his business.
- Avoid salty treats in the evening. If you practice some commands with your dog in the evening and use salty treats (as well as those little stinky fish) you can be relatively sure that he will still be thirsty later and drink water at night.
Conclusion: Does a dog need water at night?
Whether your dog needs water at night or not, I can’t say. But he should definitely always have access to fresh water, even at night.
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