bowel movements

Question
I have a tiny toy poodle, she weighs 4.3lb how many bowel movements should she have a day. She licks her paws and scratches at the right side of her face, scratches at her body. She has no fleas her fur is dull and feels dry. I keep switching food to see if the itching will stop. Is duck and potato dog food good? Also any food with fish in it. I bought her liquid vitamin that has vitamin e soy oil other vitamins but she does not like it. What to do to help  

Answer
Hello Renee,
Normally a dog will have around 2 bowel movements a day depending on the food they are eating.  A higher quality food should produce smaller stools less frequently.  Lower quality foods tend to contain fillers that will produce more bowel movements more often.  
If her coat is dull, you should go with a food that contains Fish Oil as its beneficial to her coat and skin.  You might look for a Pet Store in your area that sells the Wellness line of foods for your dog.  They are natural, holistic foods that tend to not contain as many grains, but rather more meat for the dog.  They make alot of exotic flavors, such as Buffalo, Elk, Duck etc, but I would stick with a Chicken or Lamb food + the Fish meat (or Oil)  as its more easily digested.  Also, while the liquid Vitamins sound like a good idea, most quality dog foods have your dogs recommended daily amounts of vitamins and when you give your dog more than what she needs, her body just flushes out the excess, which means you are wasting your money on those extra vitamins.  

If you can't find the Wellness brand foods in your area, or would rather use something else (the Wellness brand is rather expensive), I would suggest Iams for Small Breeds, Eukanuba, Royal Canin for Poodles (yes, they make breed specific formulas), Bil-Jac, or Nutro Natural Choice.  You should be able to type in the name of the food in your search engine to find out more information on each food.  

I hope this has helped you some.  If you have other questions about this, or other Poodle questions in general, please feel free to ask me.

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim