My wife says my dog has what’s called a “dumping reflex” where very soon after he eats, he will need to poop. This doesn’t make sense to me, I would thin it would take him several hours to digest the food before he’s ready to poop. Who is right?
This happens to people too, I believe its just the digestive system kicking into gear and pushing out a previous meal.
He is always one poop behind.
This happens with all people and all dogs?
It’s called the gastrocolic reflex, and yes, humans have it too.
I’ve noticed this in my dog. Soon after he eats, he will go to the door and act if he wants to go outside. I don’t know if it’s a gastro intestinal reflex, though, or just training from when he was being housebroken.
That’s how puppies are housebroken. After they eat, the poo from the previous meal will be ready for delivery. Kind of a “food in poo out” kind of thing; there is only so much room in the digestive tract, when something is added something has to go.
This is of course barring illness causing digestive problems, in which case the entire digestive tract can empty. Then it will take a meal or two before the process becomes regular again.
It doesn’t necessarily happen after every meal. However, if the rectum is full or nearly full eating a meal can trigger the urge to defecate.
Yeah, he’s not pooping out the meal he just ate. He’s pooping out previous meals already in his colon. When you eat something, the muscles in your digestive system start up. It’s called peristalsis. So by eating something, the intestines are stimulated, thus causing him to expel the poo he already has.
i saw a shit eating gut eating dog shitting and gulping at the same time. it had dessert too.
Yep, though I generally think of it as the gastro-poopic reflex.
Unless the meal contains a LOT of grease, in which case it tends to go right through the dog on the Pooper Express.
~VOW
From my dog’s personal experience (pun intended), the reflex can be overruled. I’d feed mine ~ 7:00, when the family ate, so she’d be tempted by her food instead of ours. I’d typically watch tv from 8-10PM, then take her for a walk. On weekends, I’d take her in the morning, but same idea: we’d go down the street to the sewer. I taught her to aim in the holes. The city had recently enacted the ‘clean up after your dog’ rule, & I was determined not to do it while getting her to dump the evidence (pun intended again). So, in the 1st week of training, she obviously needed to go and was scratching the door. I got a doggie cookie, held it under her nose the whole time down the street, then gave her the cookie right when we got to the sewer. After a minute, the natural aromas must’ve inspired her. This went on for a week. Then, I simply rubbed the cookie on my fingers & literally led her down the street by her nose. By the end of the 2nd week, she got it; putting on the leash meant a sprint down the street & holding fire til we were at the smelly grey hole in the ground. Of course, other times when she was irregular or had the doggie trots we let her out in then backyard. But I was amazed how she could be so regularly scheduled as she was. Sometimes she would go twice in 3 hours, ‘knowing’ that she was expected to perform at the grey smelly hole even if she’d dumped in the backyard earlier that nite.
I’ve never noticed needing to poop after I eat…
Never?
How old are you? That’s quite the build-up.
try eating a gut pile and see how soon you’re ready to shit.
- Aren’t there a lot of people that poop less than once a day? What, do they eat less than once a day too?
Huh. I always feed my dog immediately after walks. I hope I’m not inverting the dumping reflex.
A TMI data point: it can kick in even when there’s nothing to excrete, as I found out the hard way after my last colonoscopy. The body will find something to expel. :(.