Night pooing

[LORRIE PAULUS]

Hi everyone,

Rosie is doing great with potty training at 13 weeks old!  She hasn't had an accident in the house for over 2 weeks.  A question about your Doodles' potty habits though...last week she was going #2 20-30 minutes after getting up in the morning, even before she was eating; or she would start to eat and have to run outside.  For the last 2 days she has been going during the night--she hasn't gotten up to go potty since we got her 5 weeks ago and has been sleeping 6-7 hours.  Sunday night she got up 2 hours after she went to bed and it wasn't her usually whiny "let me out of the crate" bark--it was a constant loud bark, which wasn't like her--sure enough she had to go #2.  Last night the same thing happened about 45 minutes after she went to bed.  She goes out, does her business and goes right back to sleep...she goes #2 no less than 4 times a day!!!  She is fed morning and evening...anyone have this occurrence?  She is crated about 4 hours at a stretch in the daytime and doesn't have any accidents in the crate, but it seems kind of weird that she has gone from 1st thing in the morning to middle of the night...will she eventually get on a schedule???

[Bonne Bouche]

This is a great question. One think I am going to suggest is that at 13 weeks old it is important to be feeding 3x a day. You may find that this will help regulate her a little. Doodle tummys are very small at that age. With the size of their systems, and the amount of calories they need to be eating, it isn't good for them to only eat at two times. Even younger puppies should be eating 4x a day, but at 13 weeks, 3x is fine. When BB was young, if he didn't have his meal FIRST THING in the morning, he would actually vomit bile! (luckly we learned and it only happend once or twice until we figured out what it was).

I would think that adding a meal in the middle of the day, with a lighter meal at dinner would also help so that she doesn't have to go in the middle of the night...

[LORRIE PAULUS]

For the first time since we brought her home, Rosie kept us up last night.  She again woke up at 1:30 to go #2, but then she woke up at 2:30 and 3:45 also.  I went out and looked and the last time it was a small amount, very loose, almost like a small pile of pudding.  She has never cried in her crate after we put her down at night and has been sleeping 6-7 hours.  She has a scheduled vet appointment today, so I will talk to him about it.  Her #2 seems to be increasing, but it has been loose at times, which I think is normal for a puppy.  When I was leaving at 5 I heard her again, thinking she had to go again, but when I took her out she just looked at me and layed in the grass.  The other times she BOOKED from the crate to the door and could hardly wait to go out and did her business immediately--back in bed within 5 minutes...I told my husband to just give her lots of water this morning and not feed her any food and give her bowels a chance to rest...anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

[LORRIE PAULUS]

Just took Rosie to the vet for a regular check up.  The vet says he thinks she has Giardia and her problem during the night wasn't due to food.  Anyone have experience with Giardia?

[NS]

I bet Rose does have Giardia. We have a new puppy as well. He is 11.5 weeks old. When we brought him home the first 11 nights he was up on and off all night. We had the Vet run a test and it came back positive. He has been on meds for the last 6 day and our nights are much better and his poops are much more firm. I will warn you that the first day we gave him the medication I gave him a dose around dinner time and he was beyond hyper that night. I googled side affects for Panacur and for Metro and there isn't much information. I asked my other dog owner friends and they said that they have found that when they give their dogs medication it either makes them tired or hyper. Who knows..... good luck...

[Cynthia, Elvis & Pink]

I think Panacur has fewer side effects than Metro - Pink had giardia for about 5 months and we did many rounds of Panacur.  I did not notice her being any more or less hyper while she was on Panacur.