Is this normal?

[Samantha & Bennett]

I have a ten week old F1 goldendoodle. He is cute as can be and sweet sweet sweet, but he sure poops A LOT. I'm talking like 8-10 times a day.

He poops when he wakes up at 7am, again after breakfast, and about every other outing he has all day long. He is served one cup of Merrick grain free puppy food in the morning, 1/2 cup at lunchtime if his bowl is empty, and a cup at dinner. He grazes throughout the day. Sometimes he gets some plain yogurt in his bowl as recommended by the breeder.

His stool isn't super firm, but it isn't runny or worrisome looking to me. Is Merrick a good choice for Bennett? My vet and local food gurus said it was one of the best.

He was 12lbs at 8.5 weeks and 14.2lbs at almost 10 weeks. And he sure looks like he's growing to me! Any confirmation or advice you have would be greatly appreciated!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I prefer to discuss food brands and choices in our wonderful DK Food Group, where we have tons of information on the subject, lol, so I'm not going to comment on whether Merrick is a good choice or not. 

One cause of the frequent, not-so-firm stool may be the free-feeding and grazing. With food coming in constantly, it's also going to be going out constantly, lol. That's also going to make housebreaking harder in the long run.  IMO, It would be much better to feed three times a day, give him 10 minutes to eat, then remove the bowl and do not offer food again until the next scheduled mealtime. According to the Merrick feeding guidelines, he should be getting no more than 2 cups per day at his age & weight. Overfeeding might be contributing to the frequent pooping as well.

Pooping 10 times a day is not really normal, even for a puppy. 

[Ginny Nightingale]

I agree with Karen--and think that he should be getting 2 cups total and just three meals a day...you need to get his pooping on a schedule.