Weird Potty Schedule

[megbeau2605]

Hi everyone,

I asked a question here back in May about my new puppy and you all were very helpful, so I'm back with another question!

We adoped a 10 month old Lab in May. Since then she has improved a lot - she was very neglected and it took her a while to adjust but thanks to patience and a lot of training she is doing really well. She had never been walked before, now she's great on the leash. We trained her to go pee/poo on a specific spot in the yard (a little rock bed we made with river stones) and that has been awesome for the grass.

Her bathroom schedule is super weird though. She NEVER has done a pee/poop on a walk. Not once, and we walk her almost every day. We let her sniff around a bit on the grass, she just never sqauts. She waits to get home. This was even before we implemented the "pee pit" in our yard.

We feed her regularly, 7:30am and 5:30pm every day. She doesn't poop at a consisten time though. I always take her out at 8:15am before going to work. She pees every morning, and I always say "poop on the rocks". Sometimes she will poop, but most mornings she does not. Btw, she gets rewarded for pooping on the rocks. When she doesn't, she will poop when I get home from work at 5:15.

The evening schedule baffles me. Again, I get home at 5:15. Let her out, she always pees, and will poop if she didn't in the morning. I play fetch with her for 10-15 mins, then feed her. I will let her play outside as I cook dinner, and she pretty much never poops at this time. We walk her, no poop. Then we take her out at 10:30-11:00 pm before going to bed, sometimes she will poop at this time. The problem is, when she doesn't, she will wake up any time between 3:30-5:00am and just walk around the house constantly until we let her out, and she poops right away. If we do not let her out (we tried) she walks around until we get up at 7:00am and does not go back to sleep. It drives us crazy.

It has been worse this last week but we are in the process of switching her from puppy food to adult food (doing the 25-50-75% transition as recommended by vet/pet store food people) so I'm thinking this is a reason that it has been even more challenging. We feed her Royal Canin large breed food.

So basically, my question is, why isn't she pooping in the evenings? I've mentioned this to the vet and she didn't really say anything because her poop is a good consistency and good size, just not regular timing.

Any suggestions/advice?

[Deleted]

I don't know if this is right, but 2 different friends have told me some dogs just don't have to poop that much. One of friend's dog poops about 6 times a week and the other one only poops once a day. On the flip side, my dog is a pooping machine and goes 2x a day.

When I walk my dog she'll poop 9 out of 10 times, but hardly ever in the yard. However, when our friends house sit for us and watch her she'll never poop on a walk, but wait till they get home and go in the yard.