Getting a puppy? Great! You will have so many moments filled with love and happiness.
However, before your puppy arrives, there are some things to discuss first.
So far, you probably know that owning a dog is a big responsibility, which demands your time, money, and energy.
Still, one look at those puppy eyes should be enough to tell you that any investment is worth it.
Puppies are great. They are playful, full of energy, and eager to jump to anything new to explore.
Still, having a puppy means a new set of responsibilities, such as vaccination.
Make sure that you keep your puppy safe during the vaccination period, and that you provide proper socialization.
Once you get a puppy, you also get to ask yourself a lot of questions, such as:
- How often should puppies eat
- How often puppies should be walked
- Is it normal for puppies to sleep a lot
- How many walks should puppies have
- How often should puppies poop?
Dogs can be housetrained at any age, but during puppyhood, they learn the most.
Puppyhood is a period that allows you to teach your dog basic commands and reinforce positive behavior.
During this period you get to see signs of destructive behavior and correct them. During this period you also get to housetrain your dog.
Yes, dogs can be housetrained at any age, but puppies are quicker to learn than adult dogs or seniors.
Puppies are cute and goofy enough for people to forgive them almost everything. Plus, any accident of puppy size is much smaller than an accident that comes from an adult dog.
Housetraining can be a long process, with many obstacles, but it is something that should be done. Housetraining will include a lot of errors and trials before your puppy learn how to behave.
It will be stressful and time-demanding and will probably include extra cleaning, but you should know one thing – a little patience will help you tremendously with housetraining.
Opposite to adult dogs, puppies need a bathroom very often. In fact, they need a bathroom break after every meal, including a nap, and playtime.
Depending on the breed, puppies will commonly eat a few times per day. By providing frequent breaks you are actually preventing accidents, or at least cutting them to a minimum.
Is there a one-stop solution to preventing accidents? The most effective way to prevent accidents is to anticipate when your puppy actually needs a break.
How Often Should A Puppy Poop?
Simply said – a lot. Puppies have a big appetite and they have a strong need to poop a lot.
Learning about your dog’s bowel movements may be uncomfortable and may not be something that many dog owners choose to do, but it’s crucial for the dog’s health.
How often your puppy poops is a strong indicator of your dog’s overall health.
How Many Times A Day Should A Puppy Poop?
As a general rule, puppies poop four to five times a day. Don’t let this stress you out, because as they grow this number goes down.
The reason behind this is simple – they cannot control their bowels as older dogs can.
Plus, they eat more frequently than older dogs do, which naturally contributes to the frequency of their poops.
Poop schedule is important. You should keep track of your puppy’s pooping habits. Why? Any sudden change may be an indicator that something is wrong and that there could be an underlying health issue.
All in all, keeping track of this can be challenging, but it can also be very beneficial.
How Many Times Does A Puppy Poop A Day?
It’s common for adult dogs to do their business twice a day. Opposite to them, puppies tend to have toilet breaks up to five times a day.
Poop is a normal process that occurs in every dog. How many times per day it happens, entirely depends on your dog.
In general, dogs tend to move their bowels at least once a day. Some may do so two or three times a day as a regular occurrence.
Should you panic if your dog poops more than three times a day? As long as the stool is solid, you shouldn’t panic. However, you should always check the stool for any sign of blood.
Of course, if the stool isn’t solid, and your dog experiences diarrhea frequently, contact your veterinarian.
Diarrhea is always a clear indicator that something is wrong with your dog physically.
Puppies tend to poop a lot due to three reasons:
- Fast metabolism
- A large food intake
- Squeaky clean intestines
If you find that your dog poops frequently during the day and that the poo is in any of the following forms, react:
- Unformed
- Runny
- Contains blood trace
- Contains any color that you find unusual
Any of these conditions can dehydrate your dog, or lead to some illness. Your veterinarian will probably suggest that you put a dog on a bland diet.
This means that your dog will have chicken and rice or cottage cheese and rice.
If excessive popping continues for more than 24 to 48 hours, talk to your veterinarian again.
What Time Do Dogs Usually Poop?
Dogs love routine, and toilet breaks are no expectation.
You can probably set a clock by dog’s habits.
As a general rule, you can expect your dog to poop 8-12 hours after digesting their previous meal. For the majority of dogs, this works out to be mornings and evenings.
Bear in mind that different dogs have different poop needs. Yet, they will go when it’s normal for them to do. Sometimes you may rush it by having shorter walks, but this shouldn’t be a rule.
If your dog is slow to empty his bowel, make sure that you provide walks that are longer.
Exercise makes food move faster through the large intestine, making the pooping process easier and faster.
You can also try to encourage this process during the training phase, with an adequate command, such as ‘Go poop’, ‘Go’, ‘Toilet’, and so on.
If you feel like you need support during the training phase contact a professional dog trainer.
Puppy classes can do wonders for connection with your dog and overall boost the training process.
Just like humans, their popping schedule can change. This means that they could poop at unexpected times and even in unexpected places.
Also, this may happen due to several reasons, including stress and a larger amount of food. It can be tricky to refuse them food when they look at you with those big puppy eyes.
Feeding your puppy with extra food or food can lead to issues later on. This is why you should stick to recommended feeding guidelines. There will be enough time for treats later on and tasting human foods.
If your dog has eaten food that is not commonly part of his diet, he might have problems doing his business.
This means that you will probably need to provide an extra walk to keep those bowels moving.
How Long After Eating Do Puppies Poop?
As mentioned earlier, puppies have to poop after every meal. As a general rule, puppies will poop 5 to 30 minutes after a meal.
For puppies, you should wait around 20 minutes after a meal to take the puppy out.
As younger the puppy the sooner you should take him out after each meal. If you stick to a consistent eating schedule, you can expect your puppy (or an adult dog) to do his business.
Talk to your veterinarian about the best treats option for your young Fido. Treats can be a great reward and motivation for dogs to learn what good behavior is.
What If My Puppy Doesn’t Poop After Eating?
Puppies should poop after every meal. If your puppy doesn’t do so, you need to step up in terms of nutrition.
As a first step, think about feeding your puppy 2-hours before bed. Give your puppy a longer time to digest, like an hour, and then take them outside for the poop break.
If this doesn’t help, monitor your dog carefully to see if there are any signs of your dog being constipated.
What Do You Do When Your Puppy Won’t Poop?
If you start noticing that your puppy missed his poop break, you should monitor him even closer.
This could be a one-time thing, or it can turn to constipation.
Opposite to diarrhea or excessive popping, stands constipation. Constipated dogs will suffer, just like humans do.
If this happens to your dog, you should rethink his diet. Add more fiber to his diet. This can be a temporary solution or a permanent approach.
After all, the extra fiber in food cannot be harmful to any dog. Just like with humans, the fiber in the diet can only enhance gut health and make the popping process easier and faster.
Try adding canned pumpkins, carrots, lettuce, and brown rice. Talk to your veterinarian about the best food choices. After all, your veterinarian is the best person to recommend specific diet directions.
Whenever you have any doubts about your dog’s diet or his weight always talk to your veterinarian first. Next to diet improvement, you can try to increase exercise.
Physical activity gets food moving faster. In fact, physical activity speeds up the digestive system.
Just make sure that you don’t over workout your puppy because their bones are still growing. You don’t want to create space for any kind of possible accident.
If you implement these changes, but your puppy still continues to experience constipation you might talk to your veterinarian. This could be a clear sign that there is a serious problem hiding.
Dogs are prone to specific conditions that can make them experience constipation. In fact, inflammation of the ducts of the anal sacs can make popping difficult and painful.
If you notice your dog scooting on their rear, it could be a clear indicator that his anal sacks may need to be cleared.
If you don’t know how to do it, take your Fido to the vet or a professional groomer.
A veterinarian can also provide additional care in terms of dog-safe laxatives, enemas, or prescribed diet. This is a great way to relieve chronic or acute constipation.
Factors That ActuallyY Affect Your Puppy’s Pooping Frequency
Many factors can actually directly influence how often your puppy will poop.
Some of them are external, while some of them come within. They can all appear, influence dogs for some period, and then disappear.
Yet, it can not harm to know factors and see how they influence a dog’s health.
Here are the most common factors that will affect your dog’s pooping frequency:
1. Diet
Have you ever heard of that saying – You are what you eat? It’s true and it applies to dogs as well.
What your puppy consumes, eventually has to come out. Therefore, what your puppy consumes is crucial. Poor quality food leads to many problems.
As a general rule, poor-quality food commonly contains substandard ingredients, which can increase a puppy’s pooping frequency.
Poor quality food is usually packed with cornmeal or grains, ingredients that can easily trigger side effects on your dog’s digestive system.
Instead, you should focus on serving high-quality food, or food of better quality. It may sound pricey, but owning a dog is a serious financial investment.
Plus, food of higher quality will keep your dog healthier and save you veterinarian bills in the long run, which is something that means a lot.
Know how much you should feed your puppy, and always serve him food that is specially designed for puppies.
2. Food Intake
Puppies eat a lot. In fact, they must ingest a high amount of foods so they can grow and develop properly.
As expected, a large amount of food makes them have frequent poop breaks. They have to poop a few times per day.
Dog owners must understand that puppies cannot control their bowels properly. Learn how much food your puppy should eat each day.
Check the food label for direct guidelines. If you have any concerns about your dog’s diet, contact your veterinarian.
3. Outdoor Time
Pets love spending time outdoors. Dogs explore the world by smelling everything. For them, spending time outdoors is much more than just going out for a toilet break.
Taking your puppy outdoors regularly, from day one, teaches him to associate toilet breaks with the outdoor. Add to that a nice treat and you will have a well-trained dog in no time.
The Bottom Line
No matter how well-experienced you are with dogs, you should include veterinarians in every step along the way.
Whenever you are in doubt, reach out to your veterinarian for specific guidelines and advice.
After all, no one but your veterinarian can tell you if your dog is actually pooping too much, or he does it at the expected pace.