How often is normal for a dog's eliminations?

Question

My one and a half year old Shih Tzu will poop 3 times a day. He lets me know when he needs to go out, but isn't that kind of often to go? He weighs between 17-20 lbs, big for the breed and I give him a cup and a half of dry food a day, part in the AM and the rest at suppertime. No table scraps, occasional dog treats but not on a regular/daily basis.
Sometimes he will go twice on one walk too. It just seems like a lot. They are normal poops.

I feed my dog Evolve dogfood. The ingredients are as follows:
INGREDIENTS: Lamb, Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, Ground White Rice, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols with rosemary extract and citric acid), Rice Bran, Tomato Pomace, Beet Pulp, Menhaden Fish Meal, Yogurt, Farmer’s Cheese, Dried Skimmed Milk, Menhaden Fish Oil, Canola Oil, Dried Kelp, Potassium Chloride, Dried Egg Product, Brewers Yeast, Green Peas, Garlic Powder, Yucca Schidigera, Choline Chloride, Beets, Spinach, Parsley, Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product Dehydrated, Bacillus Subtilis Fermentation Product Dehydrated, Bifidobacterium Thermophilum Fermentation Product Dehydrated, Bifidobacterium Longum Fermentation Product Dehydrated, Enterococcus Faecium Fermentation Product Dehydrated, and lots of minerals which takes up too many characters to list, but you get the idea. This is not junk food.

Answer 1

Dogs normally go alot. Usually they go everytime after they eat. It is not uncommon for your dog to go that much.

Answer 2

The more grains that are in the food will produce a ton a crap. Feed him something better. Find a quality food with no more then 2 grains listed in the first 5 ingredients.

Take your cup and a half of food and put it in a bowl of warm water and look at it tomorrow. You will see that it swells to huge volume. The dog is not using all that filler/grain and can't. You need to feed a better food and preferably one that doesn't swell and has NO CORN. His system has to work overtime to process the bad diet.

JoV is right that most dogs go that often and it is because their diets are awful. We feed raw and my dogs go a very small amount once a day and I have Danes!

Answer 3

It depends on the dogs diet, the premium dog foos produce much less waste than the cheaper foods.

Answer 4

I guess he's just "full of it" isn't he?

I would be concerned if he never went! I guess that three times a day is normal for your dog.

take care.