Changing food--will a dog's poop eventually firm up?

There a a few things you can try...

1. Cut the quantity. Puppies and dogs get "pudding poop" if they eat too much.

First, look at the calorie count of the foods. Dry kibble can have as few as under 300 calories a cup, or be over 500 calories a cup. Find information on calories and ingrediants on the websites for food you're considering, much easier than flipping bags in the store.

So, check the calories on her puppy food and match the calories, not the quantity of food. A calorie dense food is a better choice.

At age one she can probably burn off the extra calories, by age two or three she might not and she will gain weight. You may want to cut her calories in a year to maintain a healthy weight. You can switch to a lower calorie food without sacrificing quality.

2. Add cultured yogurt. A tablespoon of yogurt with active cultures is lactose free, low calorie, they like the taste and is aides digestion and firms poop. Antibiotics and worming medications can get the good bacteria, as well as the bad, out of the digestive system. Any brand, as long as it has active cultures, I like Keifer because I can just pour and stir.

3. The last suggestion is to look closely at the ingredients in all the foods you tried. Spreadsheet them by quantity of the ingredient and calorie count and note which was good, bad, horrible. Look for ingrediants in common in the bad foods versus the good ones. You may find one ingredient in common, perhaps in larger quantities. One of my dogs does not tolerate chicken or beef without soft stools and gas, so she has a lamb kibble instead. She was easy. It may be potato, barley, wheat, flax, or something else. Some kibbles offer a limited ingredient formula, they may be an option if it comes to food intolerance testing.

I know what you mean, I'm having the same deal here, but I'm just on my 3rd food for an 11-mnth pup, been on adult food since the start. I mean, the soft-serve style of poop, that you can't pick up, not the rejection.

The stuff we have now, it's kind of off-and-on soft and firm, not consistently either way just yet. We're using Diamond Naturals chicken & rice, get it at a feed store, $32 for 40 lbs. It looks good on paper (no corn or road kill, etc.).

The other dog, his poops weren't too bad on the other stuff, but they are excellent with this food, so I'm sticking with it. The dogs eat a much lower quantity of it and they poop less, too.

I guess, bottom line, my advice, is stick with it for a couple months. The last alternative (as I see it) is to have him tested for allergies. Or maybe, switch to a raw diet (google it).

I have a Lab/Pit mix that does that on occassion, usually after I feed him certain table scraps. I have noticed that when he does do that, it's cause his poop is too hard and won't come out all at once. That's why he walks around hunch-backed, to try and get it out. There were a few times he even thought he was done, come trotting up the steps only to stop and go back out to finish. Your dog needs more fiber in her diet is all. Talk to the folks at the pet store about your problem and they will help you decide on the right food for your dog. I wouldn't go to the vet about it cause then they will push you to buy their very expensive food which is much cheaper at the pet store.

Idk if you or anyone else said this already but did you try gradually adding the new food? I mean like add a fourth of it and the a half etc.

Their crap does that naturally, but so does ours, silly goose. Sh*t hardens.