Newborn puppies are deaf and blind, and they cannot move around freely. At this time, they cannot defecate outside the nest. The mother dog will regularly lick the puppy’s perineum with its tongue and eat the feces. This is a maternal behavior.
Around 3 weeks of age, puppies begin to learn to walk out of the nest and defecate elsewhere. By 6 months of age, most puppies can defecate in designated areas, as they have an instinct to defecate in the same place. Before choosing a fixed place to defecate, puppies will often sniff around with their noses. As long as they smell the scent of feces they have left behind, they will return to the same place to defecate.
Dogs (especially female dogs) prefer to defecate in inconspicuous corners and do not want to attract attention. If they are in a garden or outdoors, they may sometimes bury their feces with sand, grass, or leaves. This habit is very helpful for training dogs to defecate in designated areas.
Eight-month-old dogs absolutely do not want to defecate where they sleep, and they will not defecate randomly during long periods of sleep. They can at least hold it for 4-6 hours, unless they are sick or have diarrhea. However, they will definitely defecate within 1 hour of waking up. And within 1 hour after eating, or even less than 10 minutes, due to the stimulation of food on the stomach, pressure receptors can be activated, which can cause defecation.
