BC 2 year old diet advice wanted again.

[JudyN]

Join our free community today.

Connect with other like-minded dog lovers!

Login or Register

Have you tried taking her for a walk immediately before bedtime?

 

[Zoomies supplements]

how old is your dog? if your garden is enclosed I don't understand why you have take the dog in the garden with the lead on I let ours last thing at night give the dog time in the garden sometimes its 15 minutes or so before he has finished doing what he needs to do can you not be out there with a torch just to make sure your dog has done its business also do you feed you dog and then take it out for a walk in the evening

 

[deka]

Got water filter today, water looks so much clearer didn't realise how cloudy it was in comparison lets hope it helps.

She did have a poop accident Tuesday but since then she has been asking out around 3.30am for a poop outside so that is better she isn't having accidents and at least shes doing it in garden again.

I did think of a new possibilty the issues started about 6 weeks ago when she heard fireworks I took her in garden and often she could be mid toilet and then hear a firework then run to my door so may be spooked and associate it with the garden.

And no I don't really take her for a walk in evenings though Monday - Wednesday I took her to corner shop and she pooped here but still pooped Monday and Tuesday.

I also just realised for about 3 days before she came back she was on a different food and I did hear some indegestion sounds from her i.e like gas.

 

[JudyN]

I would take her for a walk every evening and give her plenty of praise and reward when she poos and/or wees on the walk.

 

[Hed50]

Had a nightmare getting her to have a balanced food since I got her, she has/had phases of accidents and this seemed to slow down about 8 months ago when she was changed to a different brand and given food supplement then recently having accidents again.

But last week I had some chicken breast I need used up so cooked it and diced it and just had a literal few pieces of kibble and also added a drop of fish oil to her meal, zero accidents, tiny poops, she is calmer and a big one is on the dry food after her main meal around 5pm she could then drink as much as 2 pints of water in evening sometimes more and that meant she wants out during night for a pee, I'd actually say closer to 3 pints of water just in evening but daytime when she didn't have food she ignored the water bowl.

She was on Asda chicken flavour kibble.

Before the advice seemed to be just look for best food within budget but I don't know what is best for her, dry food or tinned, or raw.

I have a similar problem with my dog Ace and because my border terrier has to have hypoallergenic food I changed to Sainsburys hypoallergenic food and I use wet and dry mixed together. They will drink more on just dry food as they need the water for it to dissolve in their stomachs. I also use multi vitamins and probiotics.

 

[deka]

Interesting thing to note, I bought dog calming chews last year (still in date) and gave her one a few hours ago before I went out for 2 hours and she has been extra calm, didn't even want to jump on me when I came in but also didn't want to eat her dinner and yet normally she has a endless appetite.

EDIT - I think she may of gotten into kitchen when I was out and got into her kibble bag, she had 5 huge accidents last night each big enough to fill a dog poop bag she just wanted to nap all night and didn't want to wake up today but is fine now and still did a huge poop on lunchtime main walk.

 

[deka]

And another poop accident, only shampoo'd the carpet where she had an accident yesterday only a few hours ago.

She was only out about 5-10 minutes before she had her accident, but for some reason shes now stopped having them in hall and doing them in living room again though as I say I shampoo'd the floorboards in her regular spots.

 

[Flobo]

I can't remember if we've covered this before, but can you give us an outline of your usual daily routine with her? If it is anxiety related, especially her being a BC, we might be able to offer advice on maybe tweaking her routine a bit, rather than just her diet.

 

[deka]

Routine varies a small bit by if she wakes me up in middle of night I then sleep in more in morning assuming it's not a work day but if not I wake around 9am assuming she doesn't wake me before that take her to garden aiming to be a few minutes but most of the time she just wants to do a pee and then walks back in and if I try and lead her back into garden she tightens up, then she often wants out around 11 - 11.30am I try and put it off because it's just after 12 I take her out as that is my lunch break from work, if she wanted out early i.e 10.30am I take her out at 12 still but if it's after 11 I wait until 12.30-12.45 at which point I take her out again about 3.30 to garden and give her dinner around 5pm-5.30 depending on how hungry she is. And then I take her out about 8.30 pm then again about 10pm give or take as it's when she asks as it's the evenings when I ignore her she poops. If I stay up late i.e midnight I take her out one last time if I go to bed at say 11 I don't take her back out.

I do only feed her once a day though, this is how my relatives always did with their BC's and a few people I know with BC's agree with once a day in evening and I rarely give treats but I do admit to give her a tiny amount of things off plate sometimes (as relatives did with no issues) difference is when they gave her food it was like mince, potatoes, fish, chicken and basically a few spoonfuls on top of her dry food (and then reduced dry food by a tiny bit)

I honestly don't know what her issue is, I take her out and the times I do take her on evening walk and she poops she still has poop accidents.

She does sleep under my bed though rather than beside me and on and off changes between them during the night.

I could possibly be making her anxious as I do get grumbly when she does it even though I know I shouldn't I say "oh (her name" sometimes softly but other time's it's a more stressed version and I can get mildly snappy with her such as she has stolen food from me a few times recently

Also weirdly where I have her water bowl she keeps looking in corner where it is and is spooked.

 

[excuseme]

Could you possibly be over feeding her? this could be the reason for why she is pooing so often and all in the wrong paces how much does she weigh and how much do you feed her (weight), does she eat her one meal straight away or does it last a long time.
If a lot goes in at the front end there will be seemingly loads more coming out of the back end.
Does she get plenty of off lead walks or are they all for only a few minutes on lead just to do her toilet!
Border collies do enjoy exciting walks, just 10 minutes here and there and under such restricted control may not be right for her. Maybe she does not like the idea of being watched so closely.
How old is she?

 

[Tinytom]

Can you feed her half of her food in the morning and the other half in the evening....

 

[deka]

She eats her food in one, shes always hungry though any excuse to eat something.

The main walk of the day is around 30 minutes

She is around 16kg the amount I go by what the packaging says I thought it was too much before so weighed the amount I give her and its exactly right, I could cut it a little as I think relatives gave her a little less.

No accidents last night but she was at dogsitters all day and had her meal split into 2.

I don't take her off the lead at moment even for garden as last week she ran off down the street and ignored me it was more a lesuirely jog than a run but it was because that day I was taking her out later as was waiting for a parcel to went to take her into the patch of grass next to my flat and she just rushed off and ignored me calling her back and the place she walked was the exact route I take her on her walk.

 

[JudyN]

It sounds to me that she's understimulated and underexercised. The amount on the packet is just a guideline - different dogs, even of the same breed and size with the same amount of exercise, will need different amounts of food. You need to go by what she looks like. if she's not getting much exercise, then obviously she will need less food.

I would either feed her early in the day or, preferably, split her meal in two (the timing of the second meal could also make a difference to when she poos). Make your garden secure, play with/train her more, walk her more, & investigate enclosed fields in your area.

I'm sure we have given you much of this advice before... it only works if you put it into practice.

 

[deka]

Yeah, various things with my life such as when I broke my leg meant things were hard to impliment.

I used to walk her more before I broke my leg it's just uncomfortable to do so these days, weight wise each time she has been checked vets tell me she is just right. So 30 minutes is the average though can be 40 for main walk, and that doesn't include the times she sits by side of road and watches the world pass which when she does that she seems calmer just as letting her off lead she is calmer those days shes been biting the lead a bit more again in garden which she stopped doing when I let her in garden off lead so she seems to be telling me she wants to be off lead but I don't want to risk it.

I have been planning to move to a home with a proper garden for over a year, it's the current market that makes it difficult that way I can be with her when she plays in garden and shes not in house as much.

 

[Flobo]

As her walks are limited, could you maybe try and set aside some time to offer her some mental stimulation in the house? I'm sure we have some info on that somewhere on the forum. If not you can pick up some really good books on Ebay or Amazon, usually for a couple of quid, that have some really good ideas in them for enrichment.
I would definitely split her meals into two, as already suggested. I think that would make a difference to her need to night poo. Worth a go eh and an easy change to implement.

 

[JudyN]

Here's the info on mental stimulation that Flobo mentioned: Mental enrichment for dogs

 

[deka]

Will keep an eye on it thanks, since Wednesday she has improved since I cut down a little on her food i.e rather than 4 fist fulls of food its more like 3 or 3 and a half, she didn't want out during the night on Wednesday or Thursday at all and last night she did but not until 4am and has calmed down a lot and even when she does go on her main walk of the day shes pooping about half the amount.

 

[deka]

Aaand it didn't last long

Took her out around 9.45 for a walk and she did a pee but no poop and a few minutes ago noticed she went into my bedroom smelled a strong scent of poop and saw a wet patch there but no sign of poop.

I know from past experience when she poops indoors she eats it so she likely ate the evidence but this is distressing for me as I was outside for about 15 minutes in the cold and she did just a pee.

It's always in the same spot in my bedroom with some give or take

I am distressed as theres no real reason for her to do this.

EDIT : however I also just realised I gave her a few tiny treats today, I know in past talking around a year ago certain brands of treat made her poop a lot but that won't explain why she is choosing not to poop outside.

 

[Flobo]

I think I would be inclined to try her on half her food in the morning and half at teatime, as already suggested, rather than giving her all her food at teatime. (As well as the enrichment as advised)

 

[deka]

Today has been a terrible day for me, from about 11am onwards she kept wanting out, but she did do a few smaller poops today in garden but wanted out at least once a hour and sometimes back to twice in a short period and it's a bad day for it as I was swamped at work so stressed so didn't need it.

Though this time it may be because I was defrosting some meat yesterday and left it wrapped on side and heard her in kitchen and came back to see her biting the frozen meat, not sure how much she got if any but I assume at least a little.

I live in an upstairs flat, sure it would be no different than say if I was upstairs in a house and taking her out but it's draining walking up a flight of steps taking her out and her asking me again

EDIT : She keeps sneaking into kitchen every chance she gets and I just found her with her face in her food bag not sure if she got anything but would explain many things, I have it under a chair and back and never caught her with face in it before now but can't put it past her doing it, she is always hungry.

Caught her jumping onto side and managed to reach a plate of leftovers I had she manged to get a few crumbs.