Any Way To Change Bowel Habits?

[Guest donatella]

Mine goes very regularly, sometime in the early hours of the morning, problem is I think ive shot myself in the foot with these puppy pads, as she has one accessible in the laundry for emergencies overnight and she's decided to use it for her bowels which leaves a steaming stinky surprise for me when I get up.

Is there anyway I can train her to hold on and wait for me to wake up and let her outside? If the puppy pad isn't there she just goes on the tiles. She's 12 months old this month she should definitely be able to hold her bowel and bladder now until I let her out right?

[Tentapride]

Mine goes very regularly, sometime in the early hours of the morning, problem is I think ive shot myself in the foot with these puppy pads, as she has one accessible in the laundry for emergencies overnight and she's decided to use it for her bowels which leaves a steaming stinky surprise for me when I get up.

Is there anyway I can train her to hold on and wait for me to wake up and let her outside? If the puppy pad isn't there she just goes on the tiles. She's 12 months old this month she should definitely be able to hold her bowel and bladder now until I let her out right?

You have inadvertantly trained her that that is her toilet spot and it will be very hard to break.

I would suggest crate training. A dog will rarely soil its bed unless it is extremely desperate, especially at that age.

[Guest donatella]

She's a funny old thing, she chooses to sleep on the tiles even with her and my bed at her avail, I just wonder how I'd get her to take to a crate, but it might be my only option as I'm never awake when she toilets so can never catch her.

What size for a Pom?

[Kavik]

When they toilet is also partly governed by when they eat. What time do you feed her? Have you tried changing the time you feed her to see if this helps?

[Tapua]

When they toilet is also partly governed by when they eat. What time do you feed her? Have you tried changing the time you feed her to see if this helps?

Yep just about to say the same thing - I know a number of people who feed only in the morning and I tend to feed my guys no later than 6pm in the evening - they go for a run before I go to bed and then generally no poblems until I am up which is still ealry about 6am.

[Christina]

Little dog. little insides, can't hold on for as long as a big dog.

You know yourself when you have got to go you have got to go, can only wait so long.

If she goes on the floor if there is no puppy pad she will go in the crate too, which is distressing for the dog, they don't hold on if they can't.

Unless she barks to wake you up, then will you wake up ?

Some of my adults will bark & scratch on my bedroom door to go out at 5 or 6 am. 2 younger ones go on the fake grass dog loo.

With toy breeds I think they need 2 feeds a day.

Maybe just hold breath & shove stinky puppy pad in plastic bag quick in the mornings. Could be worse.

[Guest donatella]

I'm one if those feeders that let's her graze all day on kibble at her own leisure (not ideal I know, it's just how I've always done it), with a frozen chicken neck most mornings and an egg a few times a week.

Her bowels in all other sense are great, I just wish she timed it better.

I see what you're saying christina, which is why I have the puppy pad there, shes inside 23 hours a day so she needs sOmething, I just wondered as she enters adulthood if there was any alternative. Might try and spend more time outside with her and if she goes in the garden do a happy praise dance to see if she gets the picture. She's a smart cookie.

[Kavik]

Can you try feeding at certain times of the day instead of free feeding? That should also help with keenness for training and eating. It is harder to know when they will need to toilet if they are allowed to graze all day, also hard to know how much they are eating. My adult dogs are fed once a day in the evening (unles GSD is on medication, then twice a day for him for the meds).

[Guest donatella]

Keen to try kavik, but I think she needs to eat twice a day. So maybe when I get up in the morning and 6pm? (this may shift and change a little being a shift worker doing early, lates and nights in one week)

[Kavik]

Sure, try morning and night, see what works, experiment with the times.

[dancinbcs]

Dogs need to defecate after a meal and 9-12 hours later, depending on age. At 12 months she shoudl be able to go closer to 12 hours so you need to work on those times. Feed in the morning and at night about 10 hours before you get up in the morning.

[❤LovesPoodles❤]

Coco waits until the morning to go to the toilet anywhere from 8-12 hours but she sleeps on my bed or in her crate and if she has to go during the night wakes up OH (got her well trained :laugh: ) but that rarely happens now. Maybe you could try a doggy door, or if you rent one of those insert doggy doors?

Edited April 8, 2012 by krystal&coco

[halfthewords]

I have a dog smaller than a Pom who holds on for 9+ hours a night. Carl and Misch get fed around 7AM and again at 6 or 7PM; of course, this can vary depending on whether I'm late coming home from uni or going out. Sometimes they eat at 10AM in the morning and then at 9 at night, and I just take them to the bathroom before we go to bed and they always manage to hold it. Occasionally Mischa will ask (i.e. scratch on my door) to go out earlier, but that's very rare. She's 9 years old.

Have a play around with her eating times and see if that helps, but expecting her to go elsewhere may just confuse her with how you have trained her.