3am Poop???

[Moe]

My goldendoodle is 13 weeks old. She has been sleeping through the night 8:30 (can't keep her up any later, she just can't make it) to about 5:30-6am since we got her at 8 weeks. The last few nights she has been getting up at 3am to poop. I feed her at 8am, 12pm and 5-5:30pm. I take away the food and water at 6pm. She was getting puppy chow when we got her, I waited two weeks before switching to Orijen puppy food. Right now she is getting 1/2 of each. I'm planning on cutting back the puppy chow to 1/4 this week. She has been doing great with the Orijen.

I read in a few dog books that dogs metabolism shuts down while they are sleeping and they will not go in the middle of the night. So much for the dog books. She is in a crate in the family room. When she wakes up she barks / cries til I take her out. She gets right to business then goes pretty much right back to sleep. I'm usually up for an hour or so after that. :(

My question is, am I feeding her at the wrong times or something? Should I try feeding her later or just wait it out and hope these nocturnal potty breaks just stop on their own. What time did you guys feed your puppies when they were 13 weeks?

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

We always took our dogs for their last outing between 10-11 pm. I still have one dog (2 years old) that sometimes gets us up in the middle of the night. I just think you need to take her out later in the evening for her last poop of the night. Good luck!

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

When my doodles were babies I would only feed 2x a day, 6 am and 6 pm approimately, or every 12 hours.  I would give very small snack at lunch time.  Last time outside was 10:30-11:00pm.  I never had any problems except for now Oliver (18 months old) .... sometimes.... he barks at around 3 or 4 am to go out :(  this went on for a couple of weeks when I first let them out of their crates all night.   Now he waits until I get up @ 4:30 - 5:00 am.  At first I think he was playing when I went to bed which got his bowels moving - LOL.  With Sasha my little princess I NEVER had any problem she adjusted amazingly.  Oliver is a little sensitive to change but adjusted well to not being in his crate at night.  Sasha is 2 yrs old so the age difference between them is not that much.  She is just a more mature dog where Ollie is just a big, happy go lucky kinda guy :)    I think this is just a phase and she will grow out of it.  When is she pooping last?  can you get her to run around before bed?  It seems like my dogs always have to poop after running.  Most dog food bags say how long it takes for the food to pass thru their systems.  Maybe try adjusting the schedule a bit or switch to 2x a day which worked great for me.  Good luck :)

[Ginny Nightingale]

SHE IS SO CUTE!!

I am raising 9 week old puppies right now and I would say that you are doing everything right and sleeping that long at that age  is pretty amazing. I would stick to three meals a day. The only thing I do that you are not doing is what someone else mentioned. Right before you go to bed, get her up and outside --my puppies often go at that hour (usually 10:30 pm) and then go back to sleep until 5:30 or 6 am. Try that and see if it helps. The origen most likely has a higher protein content too which could increase the amount of solid waste she is producing. My breeder (who owns the pups I have here) just switched them from Wellness to Taste of the Wild and they are pooping twice as much with no exaggeration!

[L.M.]

She is so adorable!! My doods did this randomly throughout the process of house breaking, but we worked really hard to break them of the habit because my fear was that pooping in the middle of the night would then turn into a forever routine. I agree with everyone else...definitely try to get her to poop before bed.  If she falls asleep at 8:30, wake her when you head to bed or around 10ish and hopefully she poops then.  I know it's terrible waking a sleeping puppy lol because they get crazy afterwards, but it will probably break the 3:30 wake up call.  

[L.M.]

Also, we feed Taste of the Wild and both my doods (age 1 and 2) go immediately after eating it. 

[Moe]

It is weird, she goes probably 3x a day. I tried walking her at 8 around the block. She didn't go. Actually, she never goes on walks because she just goes in the potty spot in the back yard. Which suits me fine because then I'm not walking around with a bag of poop! I took her out at 10 and stayed out with her for a while, no poop. She woke up at 4:45 and immediately pooped. It is weird that she doesn't go after the evening meal. It's also weird how much I've been talking about poop lately. :)

Thanks for all your suggestions.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

you might want to ask a vet. i always thought dogs' digestive system was very quick, so they would eliminate a few hours after eating. I have no idea what I'm talking about so don't take my word for it. I just thought I'd throw that out there. maybe give her her food earlier, like at 4pm. That might help. Karen should know, she knows everything. I'm sure she'll weigh in sooner or later.

btw, she's ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Carol Brand]

I think it is a bad habit to teach a dog that it needs a "walk" in order to eliminate.  Ideally, dogs should be taught to eliminate on command.  This takes some consistency on the owner's part, but trust me, when you get it down, it is the greatest gift you will ever give yourself.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

especially for the winter!

[Carol Brand]

Exactly!  I was at a dog show last January in Iowa.  It was -5 degrees and the only place to potty was a frozen, snow covered, asphalt parking lot.  I have never been so happy in my entire life that my bitch was trained to poop on command!

[Moe]

We are working on this. She goes out in the back yard to a mulch area and we say go potty. We have been clicking then treating when she gets back inside. So far it is working well. She is really young, actually she is only 11 weeks, not 13. We have had her for 3 weeks.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

I think you have to click and treat when she actually does the potty, otherwise you are rewarding her for coming back inside. You need he to know you are pleased with her pottying, and the only way to do that is to click instantly as soon as she has performed the right behaviour. She will associate the click with whatever she is doing in the moment.