How Many Times Should My French Bulldog Poop?

Monitoring how often your French bulldog or Frenchie poops is not one of the more glamorous aspects of living with Frenchies.

However, knowing how often your pup poops and what that poop looks like is a major way to quickly and effectively monitor your dog's health.

The Straight Poop, or The Least You Can Expect

French bulldogs or other small dogs do not poop more often than dogs of other sizes or breeds.

According to The Whole Dog Journal, all adult dogs move their bowels at least once every 24 hours. Twice a day is also normal.

It is normal for puppies to poop many more times a day because they eat more often than adult dogs do. After nursing her pups.

The mother Frenchie will lick the bottoms of her youngsters in order to stimulate them to urinate and defecate. She usually does this after every feeding.

Determining Your Frenchie's "Normal"

As your relationship with your Frenchie develops, you'll get to know a lot about how your dog behaves when he or she is feeling good. This includes how often your Frenchie will poop. Frenchies most often need to poop when:

• They wake up after a long sleep
• After they eat a meal because eating more than just a few bites stimulates your dog's entire digestive tract
• During exercise such as walking or playing in the yard.

Over time, you will instinctively know when your Frenchie isn't feeling good. When talking to your vet, one of the first questions asked you is, "Is your Frenchie pooping normally?" The answer helps the vet diagnose your Frenchie's health problem

Factors That Increase Frequency of Pooping

It's nearly impossible to determine the average amount of poop a Frenchie will produce in a day because so many factors go into how often a Frenchie needs to poop. It's like trying to determine the average times you need to poop.

Frenchies may go more or less often due to:

• How often they are eating
• What is in their diet
• What they are eating and if that food can be thoroughly digested
• If they are getting enough water
• If they are getting enough (or too much fiber)
• If they have started a new medication
• If there has been a major change in the dog's life, such as the death of an owner or a move to another home
• If they suffer from a health problem which causes them to suffer from either diarrhea or constipation or why they farting so much
• If young Frenchie puppies suffer from a malformation of their digestive tract.

A Warning for French Bulldog Puppy Owners

Part of a Frenchie's appeal is the short tail. This can be straight or curled up like a screw. Unfortunately, puppies with screw tails may be born with hemivertebrae, a genetic defect that causes them not to poop very little or not at all.

Hemivertebrae can eventually kill a puppy or young Frenchie, according to the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare.

This malformation causes other problems such as loss of control of the hind limbs, pain, and urinary incontinence. This needs treatment at once.

What Does Normal Frenchie Poop Look Like?

Each dog's normal poop will look slightly different. If you own more than one Frenchie, you may even recognize which dog's poop pile is.

Overall, normal dog poop is firm but not runny, a light brown which turns black over time and is usually roundish or tube-like.

The color of your Frenchie's poop can reveal how sick or healthy it is. According to the Canine Journal, here are what the most common colors mean:

• Tar-black: your Frenchie is bleeding internally from an ulcer OR drank blood or ate blood-rich foods like blood pudding. Call the vet and bring a sample.
• Grey: If it also looks covered in grease, your Frenchie may have a problem digesting fat called exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. Get a sample and your Frenchie and go to the vet.
• Yellow: the yellow is usually from mucus. Something your dog ate irritated his intestines.
• Orange: Your Frenchie has a liver problem.
• Covered in red stripes: The stripes are fresh blood. Your Frenchie has constipation or a wound under the tail.
• Dark pink or purple: This often looks like blobs of jam. Get your dog to the vet. It could be a serious digestive tract problem.
• Green: this could mean your dog has eaten a lot of green foods like spinach or grass OR it could indicate a medical emergency. Call your vet and bring a poop sample.
• Filled with white specks: Your Frenchie has worms.

What If You Have a Dog Door?

A dog door is a great convenience for many Frenchie owners. The dog lets itself out to do its business.

However, there's a great temptation to ignore going outside to pick up the poop. Not only is this a health hazard to the community, but also a hazard for your dog's health.

Like it or not, you need to look at your Frenchie's poop at least once a day to determine how healthy your Frenchie is.

If your dog keeps going into the yard and you cannot find any poop, this might not mean that your dog is constipated. Your dog could be eating the poop.

Why Would Your Frenchie Eat Poop?

Poop apparently tastes good to dogs. According to the American Kennel Club, dogs have many reasons for eating poop – their own and someone else's. These reasons include:

• Boredom
• Wants to get attention from the owner. This certainly is an effective way to get a human's attention.
• Stress, especially if the dog has been punished in the past for pooping in the home. The dog will eat the poop to avoid getting hit or otherwise reprimanded.
• Bad behavior learned from dogs rescued from hoarding, puppy mills, or that have spent months in a pet shop cage. They eat their poop to keep their cage clean, so they do not have to sleep in poop, which makes the skin incredibly sore over time.
• Confusion with acceptable food from a mother dog. Since mother dogs have to lick their puppies' bottoms and eat the poop to keep the nest clean, puppies may smell poop on Mom's mouth and breath and think poop is food.
• Dogs living with other dogs and must compete for food.

Getting your Frenchie to stop eating poop can be very difficult. A good way to start is to ask your vet to recommend a trainer to help. You also need to clean up your Frenchie's poop as soon as possible so there is nothing left to eat.

Is It Normal For French Bulldogs to Get Excited After Pooping?

One quirk of all dogs, not just Frenchies, is that a poop may suddenly trigger an explosion of joy. It can be alarming at first.

Your Frenchie may bark, wagging what little of its tail it has furiously, run around, or jump about, such as this cute Frenchie on YouTube.

It is unknown just why dogs do this. It could be that they feel good. If you have made a big fuss for pooping outside the home when they were puppies, they may expect you to continue making a fuss all their lives. It is just one of the mysterious joys of living with dogs.

What Your Vet Needs To Know

If your Frenchie is not pooping or is pooing more than usual, look to see if your Frenchie is acting in other unusual ways, such as if the coat looks right, if the energy level is normal or if there is vomiting, if the dog is panting heavily when sitting still or whining constantly.

When you take your Frenchie to the vet, take a recent stool sample, too. If your Frenchie produces a stool sample in the car or just after arriving at the vet's, bring that, too. All of this information will help your vet come to a diagnosis.

The Least You Need to Know

Adult French bulldogs should poop at least once every 24 hours if they are eating regularly. Puppies can poop up to five times a day depending on how often they are fed and exercised. Each Frenchie will have their own normal amount that you need to know.

Learning how often your Frenchie poops and what color and consistency your dog's poop happens to be is a great way to monitor your dog's health and to stop small health problems from turning into big ones.