Greyhound Getting Up Through The Night To Poop

[Beverley]

Join our free community today.

Connect with other like-minded dog lovers!

Login or Register

Hi, I am new to this site and looking for advice and suggestions please. I have a retired greyhound 7 in May. He has been with us nearly 18 months. Over the past couple of months he has started waking me through the night ususally once but occasionally twice to go out to poo and pee. He is fed on Burgess country value greyhound food (less protein for reitred greyhound) this is what he was used to in the kennels. I have tried altering his feeding times. Used to have a light breakfast, perhaps cereal or egg and a large lunch 2 and a half mugs of dried food with the addition of tuna, mackerel, sardines in oil or small amount of liver, kidney, minced beef. Tea time was a couple of treats and a dentastix. That seemed to be fine but he was always hungry early evening and still got up through the night to poo. Monday to Friday he goes out around 10.30pm to 11pm and always "performs". Weekends it can be later than this. I changed his food routines one month ago to breakfast, lunch 1 mug of biscuits with additional food as mentioned above and at 4-5 pm 1 mug of food with additional food ie maybe splitting a tin of tuna between both meals. After this he only has his daily dentastix. Still no change in him getting up through the night. He can go out at 11 and be up at 3pm or out at 10.30, up at 12 and up at 5. The only different things he has been having for a few months now are plaque off for this teeth and flexible joint 1 tablet daily? Also he has terrible wind :nuke: enough to empty a room!!!!! each evening. I have tried natural yoghurt for this to no avail.

I obviously would prefer that he didn't have to wake me up each evening - but I feel I must be held responsible for this as I am the only feeding him! He has lots of exercise, big walk in the morning, off his lead in the fields and woods around 1hour and the same at teatime. He generally has four poos a day - is this normal?

My other question: He is not left alone much at all and when he is maybe just a couple of hours. I find when I return he usually has taken some of my belongings to his bed, perhaps a handbag, slipper, which is quite sweet. However we usually find the carpet in a corner has lots of his claw prints on it, as if he has been scratching for a while. Is this separation anxiety? How can I prevent him from doing this?

Any advice would be gratefully received. Many thanks in advance.

 

[gypsysmum]

Hi, I am new to this site and looking for advice and suggestions please. I have a retired greyhound 7 in May. He has been with us nearly 18 months. Over the past couple of months he has started waking me through the night ususally once but occasionally twice to go out to poo and pee. He is fed on Burgess country value greyhound food (less protein for reitred greyhound) this is what he was used to in the kennels. I have tried altering his feeding times. Used to have a light breakfast, perhaps cereal or egg and a large lunch 2 and a half mugs of dried food with the addition of tuna, mackerel, sardines in oil or small amount of liver, kidney, minced beef. Tea time was a couple of treats and a dentastix. That seemed to be fine but he was always hungry early evening and still got up through the night to poo. Monday to Friday he goes out around 10.30pm to 11pm and always "performs". Weekends it can be later than this. I changed his food routines one month ago to breakfast, lunch 1 mug of biscuits with additional food as mentioned above and at 4-5 pm 1 mug of food with additional food ie maybe splitting a tin of tuna between both meals. After this he only has his daily dentastix. Still no change in him getting up through the night. He can go out at 11 and be up at 3pm or out at 10.30, up at 12 and up at 5. The only different things he has been having for a few months now are plaque off for this teeth and flexible joint 1 tablet daily? Also he has terrible wind :nuke: enough to empty a room!!!!! each evening. I have tried natural yoghurt for this to no avail.
I obviously would prefer that he didn't have to wake me up each evening - but I feel I must be held responsible for this as I am the only feeding him! He has lots of exercise, big walk in the morning, off his lead in the fields and woods around 1hour and the same at teatime. He generally has four poos a day - is this normal?

My other question: He is not left alone much at all and when he is maybe just a couple of hours. I find when I return he usually has taken some of my belongings to his bed, perhaps a handbag, slipper, which is quite sweet. However we usually find the carpet in a corner has lots of his claw prints on it, as if he has been scratching for a while. Is this separation anxiety? How can I prevent him from doing this?

Any advice would be gratefully received. Many thanks in advance.

Hi

I would gradually change his food to a good quality one like Burns, James Wellbeloved, Hills etc. They seem expensive but you feed much less of them because they have good quality protein (but not too much of it). It sounds as if he has too much bulk in his bowel or his stools are too oily for him to hold on to.

I would feed just a good complete diet for a while and then try the odd added ingredient to see what happens.

As far as his separation anxiety goes it is very important not to fuss a dog when you leave it. He will miss you much more if he has had a fuss than if you have ignored him for about 15 minutes before you go out.

Also do not respond to his attention seeking. Wait until he settles down and then give him attention. He won't miss the attention when you are out if he is not used to getting it "on demand".

It is better if he does not sleep near you at night too. This teaches him to cope without your scent being close to him all the time.

Hope this helps.

 

[Hula]

I agree , I would change him over to a good quality complete food . feed him twice per day with the last meal being no later than 5pm .

I would not add tuna or anything else to the food ( it is after all a complete food )

At bedtime just give him a couple of small biscuits .

I don't think his scraping in the corner and taking something into his bed is full blown separation anxiety. He may get some compfort from doing this but full blown separation anxiety is where the dog shows real distress when separated from his owner and may completely wreck the house , pee and poo everywhere and generally show signs of extreme distress .

 

[Beverley]

Many thanks to you both for the swift replies. I shall take on board your advice and gradually change to another complete food. He has only had complete food today with a little water added. Not impressed but did eat it.

 

[Nicola]

My only other thought is that he might be cold, which can trigger a need to go to the loo (long shot but you never know). Perservere with the new diet first and then maybe try a coat on him at night, if he's still waking up. I know my male whippet needs the loo at night if he gets cold. He's taken to wearing a woolly jumper in the house now, and it's a big help. I know the two breeds do feel the cold, and we've had some very cold nights over the last few months.

 

[TTT]

I agree that a good quality complete food may help, fed in two small meals per day. Some of the cheaper brands are bulked up with cereal products that make for big smelly messy poos.

You could leave him an old worn item of clothing to comfort him in his bed.

 

[Happy Humber]

I dont think it does any harm to add a VERY small amount of tinned food or something just to tempt a fussy dog to eat ,but it is easy to start putting on to much if you are not really careful.

Also if the change of diet does not help it might be an idea to get your vet to check his prostate gland as my old dog had similar symptoms and he had a problem with his.

 

[FeeFee]

Burgess Supadog is affectionately known in some circles as Burgess Supapoo because of the quantities it generates, so would definitely agree with the advice to try a different food :thumbsup:

Just a thought, but if this has started suddenly it might be worth getting him checked over by the vet in case there's anything physical going on (prostate problems are a possibility as suggested though less likely if he's neutered).

Unfortunately with some dogs it can become a bit of a habit to want to go at night, and it can be a hard one to break. You seem to be trying all the right things changing his routine and feeding times - good luck, I hope it all settles down and you can get him back to sleeping through the night :luck:

 

[Beverley]

What a great website!!! Thanks to you all for some informed. good advice. I am off to the pet store this morning to look at other complete foods. I have a supa greyhound bag to collect but perhaps they will let me off if I buy another brand!! Am I right in thinking I mix a new food in with the supa greyhound just for a few days so that it is the new is gradally introduced? Well, after giving him only dried food yesterday, letting him out at 11pm he got up at 2am for another poo. That makes 4 in a day again. He had a check at the vets in December - they now do this when going for annual injections for an extra fee of course? She asked if he was neutered (he is) but didn't check his nether regions!

That's also a good point about him being cold- we don't have the central heating on through the night and although he has a duvet and blanket on his bed is not covered. I will put on one of his softer coats tonigt as we have a covering of snow here again today.

Many, many thanks again to you all for the much appreicated advice. I will keep you POOSTED:thumbsup:

 

[Esty]

Some great advice here! Can I also add that we feed our whippets on James Wellbeloved and I swear it works out cheaper in the long run (if you buy the biggest bag). We add a little bit of tinned food to help it go down (they don't like it completely dry), just about a quarter of a tin each per meal. Also, shop around for your dog food - Jollyes sell their big bags of JW at 44.99, petplanet (online) for 39.99 and no postage, but our local market pet stall sells exactly the same stuff for 34.99, ten quid saving per month! Ours are fed at about 8am and again at about 4pm and we don't really give them snacks other than training treats (liver cake etc) when we are out. If they wake up in the night it is as others have said, because they are cold and want their blanket putting back over them, or to sneak into bed.

 

[wilfred]

Just side-tracking a little, on the subject of dog food (and which foods produce most poo :blink: ) - we used to feed ours on a Burgess food (I think it was the Wellbeing/Kind and Sensitive) which always went down well and we had no problems with. However, Burgess have recently stopped making this food and we moved on to a different variety of theirs which the dogs ate but I took against - the by-product of this was lots and lots of poo!

We're now giving the Wainwright's a try and immediately we've seen a reduction in the number of times they need to poo (and quantity!!) - it has reduced to the levels they had before.

Sorry to hijack the thread a little, and I hope you get sorted with your greyhound.

 

[woody]

Hi

Ive had this problem with my whippets before. I find if you give them there main feed about 12 noon

and restrict there water intake after 6 o clock at night. I find this works when training pups to go alnight

as well ive givin this info to lots of puppy owners who have had this problem and it works. Good luck.

Regards

Woody

 

[Beverley]

Once again A BIG THANKYOU FOR THE SUGGESTIONS. I HAVE WRITTEN THEM DOWN AND AM OFF TO THE PET STORE, MORE KNOWLEDGABLE TO LOOK AT THE VARIOUS OPTIONS. So pleased I found this website.

 

[oakmoorehill]

Have you tried giving him something of yours? William my show greyhound was a devil when he was younger for pinching clothes from the washing basket. I wore then gave tohim an old T shirt and he was happy with that. He also has a collection of teddies that he used to carry round all the time. That had tobe stopped when we had my ex racer Button as there is nothing she likes do more than destuffing anything teddies or dog beds she doesn't care they have to be destuffed.

As for getting up in the night William did this too. Then one day when he was upstairs with us I noticed he was shivering we don't have central heating. To start with I made a coat out of an old curtain now he has a fleece coat he wears at night if it is very cold although now he has Button to cuddle up with he's not so bothered about his pyjamas as we called them.

William was at one time called the 4 legged alarm clock as he barked at exactly the same time every night.

 

[Beverley]

Yes, today when I left him for two hours I gave him one of my t-shirts. I usually do this when he is in the kennels when we are on holiday. He didn't scratch the carpet - yippee and had taken my slippers and one of my husband's shoes to his bed. He doesn't chew them fortunately. I know what you mean about destuffing toys. I can only buy Micky the heavy duty toys nowadays, if not he is not content until the squeaker, eyes and stuffing are removed. I love hearing other people's tales about the idiosyncrancies of their pets! I am putting him to bed tonight in his soft fleece lined coat as it is quite cold here with a covering of snow.

Update on the food. I went to our regular pet store and by chance there was a royal canin representative there today. She overhead my story to the owner and gave us some good advice. I went in with my list of suggestions from the forum and to be fair she agreed with the choices of food but naturally said she used royal canin for her whippets (although she had to pay the retail price). James foods are apparently a sister company and so she also recommended this and other premium foods. On balance, we have chosen Royal Canin Sensible and apparantly there will be no need to use plaque off and give a joint aid tablet as I am doing now. Yes, it is costly, but because I won't be giving him other foods I think (or I hope) he settles on this. She said it may take three weeks until we see an improvement and to introduce the new food slowly with some of the old food over the next week. He has had his first small amount this lunchtime so watch this space!!!!! He certainly seeme to like it. Also there was an offer on for the next two weeks of £10 off. :thumbsup:

 

[Lal]

My whippet has always taken one of my shoes or a slipper to his bed when I go out. Never chews it, I think it's just his little bit of security. I gave him an old jumper of mine which he loves but still has to have the footwear. Do you think this means my shoes are heavily 'scented'? :- :lol: