need help scheduling the feeding

Question
hey jaz...my sister and i we been having a problem quite sometime now. we have 3 dogs 1. shiba-inu almost two years..2. jack Russell terrier she about three years 3. a Chihuahua he is almost six years old in DEC.
we have a problem with their pooping all around the house...we put pads and still pee in the pads and crap in the floor...and since we have multiple dogs a lot of time they pee in the floor cause the pad is already use by one of the dogs..but 2 make story short ..my sister and i wanna put them in a schedule 2 kinda prevent over eating and pooping 2 much around the house and so they can learn more how 2 hold them because they been trained 2 before 2 hold also we can take them out...please help on how 2 schedule the food and their pooping proxy. how long it takes for them to digest theirs food etc...thank you hope to hear from u soon..thank soo much..i need the help...

Answer
Hi Jansill,

Based on the size and weights of your dogs, you should divide their daily feeding into two meals per day. For example, your 3 year old Jack Russell should probably eat about 1/3-1/2 cup of food 2x/day. Your Chihuahua probably only needs 1/4-1/3 cup of food 2x/day. I assume you have been 'free feeding' your dogs, meaning you put some amount of kibble in a bowl and place in on the floor where your dogs are able to graze all day long.

The first step to housetraining is to immediatly stop free feeding. You put each dog's allocated amount of food into his own bowl and give him 10 minutes to eat it. Whatever is left in the bowl, you pick up until dinner time. Give the dogs their evening meal. Whatever they don't eat goes away until breakfast. Do not give more than the allocated amount at one meal. In other words, for your Jack Russell, if you decide to give her 1/3 cup 2x/day, she only gets 1/3 cup in her bowl at any given time.

Dogs are different in terms of when they poop after eating. Some dogs poop almost immediately. Some poop 20 minutes later, some poop an hour later. It depends on your dog. After they eat, let them outside and watch them to see which dogs need to go right after eating.

Since you have allowed your dogs to use the inside of the house as their toilet area, you really should consider crate training them to teach them that cannot soil inside the house. When you take them out, and they relieve themselves, warmly and enthusiastically praise them (a tiny treat wouldn't hurt either). If they don't relive themselves (meaning you did not witness it) they go into a crate for 20 minutes and then you try again. The crate should only be big enough for one dog to sleep in.

The dogs should only be allowed loose in your house if you know for a fact they they are empty.

Good luck.