Frequent stool

Question
I have read some of your other postings that using a premium dog food (less filler and byproducts)will result in smaller, harder stools.  I have just the opposite, so I'm wondering if he doesn't tolerate the premium food.  I have an 11 month old yellow lab.  We switched him to the Kirkland Super Premium Puppy food because the ingredients looked better than his old food, Iams Puppy for Large Breed.  He now poops 4 - 5 times a day, often in quantity, which seems like a lot.  There is more coming out than going in, so I'm concerned that he isn't digesting properly.  Is this frequency normal?

Answer
The more I learn, the more I wonder about premium chows and ''better ingredients''.  Yours is not the first such post where somebody has moved up from what I might call a mid grade chow such as Iams to a premium chow and had problems.  In my real world experience I have seen nothing to suggest any problems such chows as Iams and Pro Plan with their supposedly poorer ingredients.  They are the mainstay of the very knowledgeable service dog schools.  A quote from the Puppy Raising Manual of a school I have raised puppies for since 1991, ''Stay away from premium foods and special diets like lamb and rice or turkey and barley.''  That is partly based on the fewer protein sources a puppy is fed, the less problem allergies are later in life.  

I divide dog chows into about 4 groups.  The bottom end grain heavy products including Old Roy and Purina, the meat and grain ones such as Purina 1 and Science, the concentrated meat based ones including Iams and Pro Plan, and the premium ones such as your Kirkland.  There is no doubt that Iams produces smaller, firmer stools than Old Roy.  I am not sure there is much difference as you move up scale from there.  Human grade cuts of meat are very similar to the lamb or chicken meal made from the leftovers from the human grade.  

If your dog was doing better on the Iams, it only seems logical to go back to it.  Remember, much of what your read about dog chow comes from people selling it.  You have skilled marketers that know how to push all your buttons.  Logic prevails in the dog guide schools where they have to raise enough money to buy a fine automobile to pay for training replacements for dogs no longer able to work.  The difference in cost between Iams and say Kirkland over the dog's life is nothing compared to the thousands of dollars they would save by getting one more year out of a dog.  That puts no value on the emotional upheaval the person with the dog goes through when a dog must retire.  Iams is the standard chow for the schools.

I would switch to an adult chow now.  Puppy chow gives fast growth at the expense of sturdy joints.  Most of the schools make an early switch to adult chow.  

One more point is to make sure he isn't eating his stools.  Talk about filler.  As disgusting as it sounds, it happens.  They shouldn't have more than 2-3 bowel movements a day once on 1 meal a day.