# 9 month old puppy pees in sleep after swimming



## lisahillerysmith (Jun 27, 2009)

Hey everyone!

I have a 9 month old female puppy that has recently started leaking water/peeing in her sleep for about 1.5 hours after she is in the pool. The vet has checked her out and she is fine health-wise. She isn't incontinent at any other time and holds in her urine all night long. It is ONLY after she has been swimming that this happens. I am not really concerned for her health but just curious if anyone else experiences this.

Thanks!

Lisa Smith


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## Oaklys Dad (Dec 28, 2005)

Welcome to the forum. I wish I had some good advice for you but that is a new one to me. My first thought was urinary tract infection but if she has a clean bill of health from you vet....Did you explain the peeing to your vet?


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## Finn's Fan (Dec 22, 2007)

Lisa, young dogs especially tend to swim with their mouths open. They take in a ton of water when they're not seasoned swimmers. Simply having an overly full bladder from inadvertent water consumption could be the cause of the leaking. See if you can keep her awake for a while after that particular exercise and have her outside. I walk my boy after he's been lake swimming, and good grief, he pees a river


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## MurphyTeller (Sep 28, 2008)

Ditto to what Molly said. Even experienced swimmers take in a lot of water - when my guys swim they generally have to go immediately following a swim and then a couple more times before bed - with varying amounts of urgency. Add that to what sounds like a new swimmer who is probably quite tired following a swim and my guess is that she's just full and sleeping through it.

I'd suggest no swimming within 2 hours of bedtime and an extra outing right before bed - even if it means waking her up to go outside.

Erica


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## Heidi36oh (Feb 27, 2007)

I agree they take in Lot's of water when swimming.


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## BeauShel (May 20, 2007)

I agree with everyone else. It could be also that she is so tired she just doesnt wake up to go pee. Maybe you can wake her up alittle while after she goes to sleep to take her back outside.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

I had an enthusiastic swimmer (boy) who'd do that after too much swimming. He never had any other kind of issues holding his bladder or with housebreaking at all. He was just really tired and really over-hydrated and it leaked out. I wouldn't sweat it—just take precautions to avoid the situation.


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## Doglove2 (Jun 15, 2016)

We have just had the same problem with our one-year old English cocker. She has been swimming twice this week and it has happened. She never has accidents but has peed in our bed in her sleep. On the days she didn't swim, she did not pee. My husband swears she doesn't even know she is doing it.


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

Two ideas:

1 - Swimming can cause a UTI. Worth having her checked.

2 - My dog takes in a LOT of water when she is swimming, as she is always holding something in her mouth. She pees a LOT - I'm talking every half hour for the first two hours if she's been swimming for an hour or more. It could be that your pup is just drinking a lot but is so tired, it doesn't wake her up.


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## Yaichi's Mom (Jul 21, 2012)

Is your pup spayed?

Since your girl has been cleared by your vet for UTI, I would keep my eye out at other times other than swimming for for any signs of a wet vulva, wet fur around the vulvar area, small drops of urine on bedding, other sleeping spots etc.

I am dealing right now with "spay incontinence" with Brisby. Brisby's did not manifest until she was 2 1/2 years old when I noticed she was leaking urine when in a deep sleep. In her case it could have started earlier, however I may not have noticed until the volume of leakage increased. 

Brisby has always been an avid swimmer and has been swimming everyday in the summer months when she was a pup to currently. I personally have found no correlation between swimming and urine leakage. 

I hope this is not the case with your girl. 

Wishing you the best of success to resolve this.


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## Dennis Thomas DVM (Oct 9, 2015)

If she pees while sleeping, she has urinary incontinence. The fact that she does this after swimming means that she has a factor (increased intake of water or increased depth of sleep from exercise, etc) but the normal bladder should be able to handle this. You did not mention whether she has been spayed or not. But, this is often a factor. If she has not, hopefully as she ages her bladder sphincter will improve with its function. I suspect that if she is spayed she will be headed towards being diagnosed as spay-incontinent (estrogen responsive urinary incontinence).. If so, your vet will want to use Proin to control this. If this happens, please talk to your vet about potential side effects of this drug. Good luck and I hope that she resolves this on her own.


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## cgriffin (Nov 30, 2011)

This happened with my boy around the same age when he was swimming a lot. I agree with all that said it is because of the increased water consumption. I seriously doubt it is an incontinence problem if this only happened once or twice and following swimming.
Suggestion: don't let her swim too late in the day so she can still pee out all the access water before bedtime.


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## Yaichi's Mom (Jul 21, 2012)

Dennis Thomas said:


> If she pees while sleeping, she has urinary incontinence. The fact that she does this after swimming means that she has a factor (increased intake of water or increased depth of sleep from exercise, etc) but the normal bladder should be able to handle this. You did not mention whether she has been spayed or not. But, this is often a factor. If she has not, hopefully as she ages her bladder sphincter will improve with its function. I suspect that if she is spayed she will be headed towards being diagnosed as spay-incontinent (estrogen responsive urinary incontinence).. If so, your vet will want to use Proin to control this. If this happens, please talk to your vet about potential side effects of this drug. Good luck and I hope that she resolves this on her own.


My wishes echo the above...that your girl resolves this on her own.

I refused to put Brisby on PPA ( Proin, Propalin etc) Proin is poison and has killed many dogs only after a few doses, altered their temperament etc. 

We have made great strides in treating Brisby's via the guidance of a homeopathic veterinarian.

I sincerely hope that what you are dealing with is not "spay incontinence" and/or any other urinary/sphincter related issue. 

I totally agree with what is written above. There is no correlation to the amount Brisby leaks or doesn't whether she swims or not...and she is the water for many hours during the summer months.

A normal bladder/sphincter will not be affected by swimming. 

Best of luck.


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## Successissimpleone1 (Mar 1, 2021)

lisahillerysmith said:


> Hey everyone!
> 
> I have a 9 month old female puppy that has recently started leaking water/peeing in her sleep for about 1.5 hours after she is in the pool. The vet has checked her out and she is fine health-wise. She isn't incontinent at any other time and holds in her urine all night long. It is ONLY after she has been swimming that this happens. I am not really concerned for her health but just curious if anyone else experiences this.
> 
> ...


Having something similar
Our 6 month Vizsla is a water pup and swimming all the time, but we are noticing that after she has swam and comes onto our bed she starts to pee?
Yelling at her seems to startle her more.
Maybe she is so be excited still because the family was playing ball with her and she is still calming down?
I thought not letting her into bedroom for an hour until she is calmed down might help. Wish us luck


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

1, she's probably swallowing a lot of water while she swims, and then needs to pee more than usual. Have her go potty twice before bringing her in the house.
2. don't let her on the bed until you know she has peed at least twice

Stop yelling at her, you are just scaring her and she could start thinking peeing in front of you is wrong.


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## Nora&Stella (Jul 5, 2021)

lisahillerysmith said:


> Hey everyone
> I know I'm a tad late to this pee pool party.
> However, I noticed that my frenchie (female, spayed) has the exact same issues. However, she's not swimming. I have a small kiddie pool - 4ft round and 2inch water - where she will jump in it, lay down and cool off. So she's not swimming or taking in extra water.
> I thought she was making sucking in some extra water into her back end, then leaking it out when she layed down to nap. As it only happens when we have a pool party and she takes a nap. It leaks once and then she's good.
> ...


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