This is a situation that’s starting to make me crazy. I’ll take Daisy out in the morning to do her business, and she’ll actually go both ways while she’s out there. But I bring her back in, and five minutes later I have a pile on the floor.
This morning was the worst yet. She went outside and then within 15 minutes of coming back in left THREE piles in the house.
I’m keeping her out there for a while, so it’s not like I’m interrupting her in mid-squat. Anyone have any ideas what’s going on and what I need to do before it becomes her “normal”?
I had a similar problem with my mastiff boy as a pup, i found changing food was the answer, he was doing many small poos as it was passing through him too quickly and irritating his gut, changed to a different (better) brand poopey passed slower and solidified more…yum
Yeah, dog food. Several months ago we switched our girls to home made dog food (yes, I know that’s insane, but hear me out) and we often dog sit dogs on regular dog food. It’s absolutely shocking how much they shit. Our dogs have one, small, only slightly smelly poop a day. Dogs on regular dog food crap all the damn time. Plus they smell like dogs. Our dogs do not. So either switch to a very high quality dog food, or make your own.
Really? My Lab goes two or three times each morning, alone. I wish I had the time to research and make a good food for her to see if that helped. She’s already been on a couple of different good kibbles.
Honestly, it’s so simple. Takes maybe 10 minutes a week, cost about what Iams or similar costs, even here in Okinawa where food is expensive. My basic recipe is about 1 cup rice, 2 cups water, 2 lbs ground beef and/or pork, and a couple of cups of frozen veggies. Pinch of salt. Sometimes add beans. Put the rice in the pot with water, dump meat and veggies on top, cook as you would plain rice. I supplement vitamin e capsules and calcium every day, although I’m not fully convinced it’s necessary. It has made such a difference in the dogs–much less shedding, much, much less poop. Their teeth look great. I know it sounds like a pain, but I’d rather spend time cooking than picking up dog crap in the yard, you know?
Sometimes just being up and moving around more can stimulate the need to poo. So whatever would have needed to come out even if she was just lying around comes out when she goes the first time, but all that walking around sniffing kind of gets more of it mobilized. This explanation is more common in middle-aged dogs and older, but I’ve seen it with puppies, too.
Some puppies just don’t have enough of an attention span to finish shitting before they come in the house. They make one little pile and get distracted by a smell or a squirrel or something shiny, and then they get all involved in coming into the house and whatever else is going on. Then when they’re alone and have nothing interesting going on, it occurs to them that oh yeah, that’s what they were supposed to be doing. So they do.
If it’s at all feasible (I know you crate her while you’re at work and hate to increase that time if you don’t have to), I’d take her straight from the door to her crate and leave her in there for 10-15 minutes. By this point, she’s figured out that messing in her crate is icky, so she’ll do her best to hold it in till you come back and get her. Then take her back outside and let her do what she needs to do. Eventually she’ll catch on. A pain in the ass, I know, but she’s a puppy. It’s her job to be a fuzzy, adorable pain in the ass.
I’ll try this tomorrow. I might try to put a couple of minutes into sort of jogging around our (tiny) backyard with her, too, before I direct her over to the potty corner, to get things moving.
Yeah…I’ve already figured out that there’s a reason puppies are so incredibly cute. It’s the same reason babies are…to keep you from killing them before you’re completely in love with them.
Now if only I could get our Queen Bee cat to join the Daisy fan club. I think Daisy thinks the cat’s a dog…she wants to wrestle with her and the cat is having NONE OF IT! We have at least two hissing/barking matches a day around here.
It may just have become part of her routine. As far as she can tell, you’re taking her outside for a ten minute playbreak. Hooray, run around and explore! Then you bring her back inside. And she’s come to associate coming back inside after playtime with taking a dump. To her mind, the kitchen floor is the place for crapping on - it even smells like it. She’d probably feel guilty if you left her outside and she was finally forced to crap on the nice clean lawn where she knows she’s not supposed to go.
jayjay, if you’re in the habit of bringing her in immediately after poop, she may have decided pooping means going inside, and therefore, delay the poop to delay going inside.
Do you have time to walk her instead of just taking her out? My dog doesn’t really take a dump until he’s been walking for ten minutes or so, and the longer I walk him, the emptier he gets. (I walk him first thing when I get up and when I get home from work - as soon as he’s “uncrated.”)
(Also, I am reminded of the one piece of advice that was offered as a solution to 95% of dog problems - more exercise! I have found this to be very helpful for a diversity of dog-related issues.)
Also I second Renee’s comment about the real food. On one occasion, in the kibble days, I stooped and scooped five separate times on a single walk with my dog (it was a long walk, but still!). Now it’s once or twice a day, max.
Taking her out is not enough.She needs to go for a walk/run. I always carry two or three poo bags for my dog when we go on a run,all used within the first five minutes.
Definitely look at the food she’s getting. Most dog foods contain a lot of filler, so even though you might pay more for a higher quality food, you can feed them less to get the same amount of nutrition. Plus, they’re less likely to develop allergies. Dogs aren’t really designed to eat grain, especially corn. Look into Innova, Frommes, Merricks, and such.
And CrazyCatLady’s advice for retraining is good, too. We’ve had to do that with a few dogs that wanted to play rather than do their business.
Yeah, it seems like the answer every dog behavior problem is “exercise!” and this is no exception – getting her moving should work things out. Literally.
If not, the recrating/second trip idea is what I’d try next. But time spent exercising with your puppy is good for more reasons than just regularity. I lost 18 pounds when we adopted Simone.
We fed our dogs Eukanuba and they never had any pooping problems. One Papillon, one Czesky, and one Collie. The Pap (only one still alive, 15 years old, bless his heart) likes to pee in the back room from time to time, but other than that, none of them had any bathroom problems, nor did they poop anymore than I’d expect a pup to poop.
