[Dianaleez]

Normie's a five-month-old mini. He wakes us each morning around 4 AM to poop. We assume that we should modify his feeding schedule. What do you suggest?

He eats Royal Canin poodle puppy dry chow and currently nibbles on his full ration during the day, sometimes finishing it off by 3 PM, sometimes going a bit later. What time should we be picking it up?

 

[PeggyTheParti]

A puppy of that age should really still be eating three meals a day. It's very possible he's waking up because he's hungry or has an acidic tummy.

But also, his little body still needs frequent toilets. This should get better in the coming months, as his physical ability to hold it continues to grow, but you can keep things moving along by waking him up BEFORE he wakes you. Right now he's trained to wake you instead.

So set your alarm for 15 minutes before his usual wake-up, take him out quietly and then back to bed, and then slowly start pushing this time back. The key is that he should be (and stay) sleepy each time. So use that as a guide.

 

[fjm]

I would try shifting him to regular mealtimes, if you can. Breakfast, lunch and supper would give three meals a day, and make it much easier to adjust timings as he gets older - as PP says, he is still too young to be expected to be completely reliable, and he is likely to still need to empty his bladder at night for some months yet, even if he can control his bowels.

 

[Dianaleez]

8 12 and 4 for meals?

 

[fjm]

Perhaps push the supper a bit later, to avoid hunger pangs in the night - I found 6pm or even a bit later worked for mine as pups. And breakfast when you first get up, immediately after going out for pees and poos. In our house that meant around 7am, then lunch at 12.30ish, supper at 6pm, and perhaps a snack before bed. You will soon learn how long he then needs before pooping, and can adjust accordingly.

 

[Dianaleez]

Thanks, we'll try 8, 12, and 6 for a few days. I'm not getting up before 8 even for Brad Pitt.

 

[PeggyTheParti]

?

Unfortunately that's puppy life.

If you really don't wish to get up, you could train Normie to use an indoor toilet area. But I find this just complicates housebreaking.

It's really such a short period of his life. And if you put in the effort now, you'll have a dog that doesn't wake you up in the morning because he's learned that the humans do the waking. Totally worth it.

 

[Dianaleez]

?

Unfortunately that's puppy life.

If you really don't wish to get up, you could train Normie to use an indoor toilet area. But I find this just complicates housebreaking.

It's really such a short period of his life. And if you put in the effort now, you'll have a dog that doesn't wake you up in the morning because he's learned that the humans do the waking. Totally worth it.

My husband's up with him by 6. But it's the timing of that last feeding that we're trying to work out.
And I assume that as his digestive system ages, whatever time we discover now may change. Add to that the daylight savings change coming soon.

 

[vandog]

For my spoo, she gets fed kibble in the morning (around 8) but she won’t eat it until 12:30-2:30 ish. She might graze a bit or eat a little bit of kibble from her treat ball but won’t eat a full meal until later. She’ll also eat dinner around 10 and then we’ll go out one last time around 11 and she will poop and then sleep until whenever I get up between 7 or even 10. It’s been this way since she has been a puppy.

 

[PeggyTheParti]

Not to belabour the point, but 3pm was already unusually early for a last feed. So I don't think the dinner in his belly is what's making him need to toilet at 4am.

If anything, you want to push his last potty back to a later time, so his mini-sized digestive system can manage longer into the morning hours.

But that likely won't change the fact he's been trained to wake you. That's why I recommend getting ahead of that sooner rather than later.

I, too, value my sleep, so this was a top training priority.

 

[PeggyTheParti]

(In my experience, minis and spoos are very different beasts when it comes to housebreaking. But when Peggy could not yet make it through the night, a sample schedule was 5:30pm dinner, 9:30pm snack, 11:45pm last toilet, 4am wake her up to toilet, back to bed until about 8:30am. That 4am wakeup got pushed slowly back until eventually she was so reluctant to wake up, we were able to skip it altogether! Now not a peep until we wake her, even if it's not until 10am.)

 

[Dianaleez]

(In my experience, minis and spoos are very different beasts when it comes to housebreaking. But when Peggy could not yet make it through the night, a sample schedule was 5:30pm dinner, 9:30pm snack, 11:45pm last toilet, 4am wake her up to toilet, back to bed until about 8:30am. That 4am wakeup got pushed slowly back until eventually she was so reluctant to wake up, we were able to skip it altogether! Now not a peep until we wake her, even if it's not until 10am.)

I take him out when I go to bed between 11 and 12. We'll pick up his dish after meals and see that he eats around 6. Our vet discourages letting dogs have food still being digested when they sleep (I know that it's bad for humans but have never studied canines). Daylight savings time may move him to waking at 5 to pooh.

Thanks for the suggestions. I just feel guilty that we have his feeding schedule wrong. We owe it to him to get it right.

 

[PeggyTheParti]

Don't feel guilty. Every dog is different. It can take a while to figure out what's best.

We got in the habit of feeding a bedtime snack because my mini mix had bilious vomiting syndrome, which is quite common in dogs. Just keep an eye out for it if you do decide to withhold evening food.

 

[bluegirl1997]

I'm in the same boat and I too am not going to get up earlier than my pup's current first potty at 4 a.m. I intend to just wait until my pup gets a little older and can wait until 5:45 like the rest of them, lol. I can't remember how long it took the rest of the dogs to mature a bit in the potty department but eventually they all did.

Sent from my VOG-L04 using Tapatalk

 

[Rose n Poos]

Two mini boys here. I've mostly already forgotten our puppy potty particulars, but we were on three meals daily thru six months then transitioned to two meals a day.

DH and I are on somewhat offset schedules so when they went out was not as big an issue since one of us was almost always awake.

Figuring out when to feed them was a bit more complicated. I'd get up around 9am with them, pop outside for P&P, then back in for brekkie. Neo ate readily, Remo was a challenge. Back to condo's for a bit more sleep then lunch was about 1pm, after I actually started my day. Dinner was around 7p. Last out was 2am-3am before condo time, complete with treats/small snack per our vet, so they weren't trying to sleep on an empty stomach. I don't remember ever having to take them out after condo time til Remo would start peeping (not a typo lol) in his condo around 9am.

Fast forward from six months to not so long past that, as they were physically maturing and routines were stabilized.
We still get up about 9a for the 1st P&P then come back in and sleep some more. Well, I do. They hang out with DH downstairs but still mostly napping. I get up later, fix their brekkie about noon, they go out for 2nd P&P again just before or just after. We try to walk every day and their 3rd and usually last Poop for the day comes around 3pm, during or after the walk. If we don't make the walk, the last Poop can be anytime up til condo time, which is now usually about midnite.

How they come up with three poops a day given only two meals now is a bit of a mystery but it's pretty predictable so long as we're on our regular schedule. We're fortunate to be in a house with a backyard so they're actually in and out a lot most days, monitored or accompanied and depending on weather. Still their poop times are very predictable.

Regular mealtimes will make for regular poop times. Eventually with physical maturity and regular mealtimes you'll get predictability. So, if he's now running 10+ hours from last feeding to 4am poop, push the last feeding later by 2 or so hours. And to shoot for no poop soon after bedtime, mid day meal to be 10+ hours earlier than bedtime.

Which is pretty much the times for the 3 meal schedule you mentioned trying .

Very generally:

"What is the dog digestion time?
The dog digestion time varies, depending on factors like the dog's breed, body weight, size, health status, how much water he consumes, the type of food he's eating, and any existing conditions or illnesses he may have, according to My Pet Needs That.

Usually, your dog will digest dry dog food within eight to 10 hours of eating it, and wet dog food within four to six hours of eating it.

According to Pet Health Network, if your dog has ingested something he perhaps should not have had, it can take 10 to 24 hours for him to excrete it. Some objects can even take months to go through the digestive process."

 

[fjm]

For years my dogs were fed twice a day, and Sophy usually pood once, Poppy at least twice and often more, so I gave up expecting number of meals to equal number of poos. The advice not to have food being digested during sleep slightly surprises me - the more usual advice is a snack at bedtime to avoid hunger pukes in the morning, but perhaps your vet has reasons based on personal experience. As a general rule if your puppy is happy, healthy and growing at the recommended rate you are getting feeding right - getting the timing adjusted to best fit your schedule just needs a bit of trial and error, so you have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about.

I am remembering the sleepless puppy nights now Poppy has slight night time incontinence due to the steroids she is taking. As I almost always need to go to the loo in the early hours myself my solution is to wake her and let her out at the same time - it means switching on lights, waiting till she is awake enough to respond, finding my dressing gown, persuading her downstairs, slipping on the night time flashing collar, waiting by the open door in the chill night air till she has done, then climbing the stairs with her again, instead of the 30 second stumble to the loo and back without quite waking up to which I am accustomed, but at least it is only once!

Spring daylight saving is much appreciated by my dogs - meals come earlier. They are far less impressed in the Autumn, and it can take several weeks to shift mealtimes to the "new", later time!