response to our pooping pup.

Question
our lab eats the Purina puppy chow. I take him out at 5 am then his dad takes him out at 8 and 11 when I get home at 4 pm he goes out again and then at 7 and 11 pm for the night. we stop feeding him around 5 pm. he does free roam because where he was before he was abused and locked in his kennel so he barks and growls. he only eats his food none human, we have a vet apt Tuesday for a check up. We have had him for a week now and he is looking tons better. I don't know if its just because he don't bark at all so he can not wake us up or I am doing something wrong. Thank you so much for your help.

Answer

Hi Sheanna,

Thanks for getting back to me with the additional information.

It's good to hear that you aren't letting your puppy outside to roam alone. Having your puppy for a week isn't very long. It can take a couple of weeks before a new dog or puppy can feel at home in their new home. It's possible that in the coming weeks, as he begins to feel more a part of your household, you will see improvements.

I still don't know if your new puppy has the run of your home, either overnight or any time you're not supervising him. A dog or puppy that isn't house trained needs to be contained to either part of a room, or to a dog crate whenever you aren't able to supervise him and also overnight. If he's having accidents in his crate, you need to contain him with either an indoor dog pen, or use a couple of child gates to contain him to part of a room, rather than using a crate. You may want to reread the portion of my original response to you where I address containing a dog.

You should not expect your puppy to bark, or "ask" to be let outside, because he hasn't been trained for that behavior. It's up to you to provide scheduled walk times. If the only time he's having accidents in your home is during the overnight period, it could be due to some form of stress or anxiety (I can't say what that might be). This comes back to containing your puppy. If you're crating him, and he's having accidents in the crate, use one of the other methods I've discussed, lay newspaper down over the entire containment area so clean ups will be easier.

Exercise encourages pooping and gets the bowels moving. Active play before his last walk of the day at bedtime can help ensure that he'll be truly tired, and may not feel the need to poop again during the night. An exception could be if your dog has stress or anxiety for some reason about being alone over night. If your dog isn't being contained in your bedroom and is alone in another part of your home, try moving his crate or dog pen to your bedroom overnight, it might help.

Purina Puppy Chow is not considered to be a very good quality diet because of the ingredients it contains. The primary ingredients in Purina Puppy Chow are:

1. Whole grain corn: it's used instead of a more expensive alternative, namely meat. Corn is more difficult to digest than meat.

2. Corn gluten meal: it's used to provide a large proportion of the total protein in the food rather than more digestible forms of protein such as meat.

3. Chicken by-product meal: by products are any part of an animal not acceptable for human consumption, such as head, feet, entrails, lungs, and spleen. Ingredients listed as by-products are not required to include actual meat.

4. Animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E): The problem is, they aren't using an animal fat from a named source, such as chicken or beef. By saying "Animal Fat" it means they're using low-quality inexpensive sources of fat from unknown sources.  When the animal source of fat is not specified the fat is not only from "slaughtered" animals but is rendered from animals obtained from ANY source. Fat sources can include rejects from the slaughterhouse, horses, vermin from traps, dead animals from the side of the road, pets put to sleep at shelters, and the meat discarded from restaurants and supermarket refuse. Fat is an important part of a dogs diet, they have a greater need for dietary fat than we do.

5. Soybean meal: compared to meat, this ingredient is considered an inferior plant-based protein.

The Purina diet also contains artificial colors. Your puppy doesn't care what color his food is and doesn't need these unnecessary chemicals.

High quality dog food should contain superior sources of protein.  This means a either a named whole meat, or single source meat "meal", such as chicken meal rather than chicken by-products. A whole-meat source should be one of the first two ingredients listed on the package. High quality dog foods do not use animal by-products for a food's main protein source. By-products are indicative of a low-quality dog food. Better quality dog foods do not contain any generic fats or proteins. Everything needs to be a named source.

Read about what to look for in a better quality dog food here:

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=betterproducts


You can see what different brands of dog food contain, and see how they're rated here:

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/brand/

Like I said before, if you decide to change your puppy's diet, do so gradually over a period of 5-7 days. Abruptly changing a dog or puppy's food can cause diarrhea.


I hope this helps,

Patti