Adjusting Puppy's Schedule

Q: We have a 12-week old Havenese puppy. We got him a week ago and aside from some initial diarrhea, he is settling in fine. He loves his palace and does his business in there. However, he mostly poops at night when we cannot always clean it up right away and because he goes more than once, he always walks through it so that we often have to bathe him. We feed him first thing in the morning and leave what he doesn't eat throughout the day as a snack and then feed him again at 6 and take the food out at 8. Should we change that schedule? Is there anything else we could do? Also, he tends to cry and bark at night. We would like to ignore it if it wakes us up to not start bad habits. But at the same time he may have poop in his cage. What should we do?

A: At his age it should be fine to move his feedings to accomplish your training goals. It is not clear from your description what happens between his 8pm feeding and bedtime. It should include vigorous play and also a return to the palace for elimination before bedtime. You should consider moving his feeding earlier or the addition of additional space or both.