I have posted this in the feeding section as I suspect my problem has something to do with my feeding regime.

I have a 6 month old WFT ( that is a wire fox who features regularly on other sections here LOL) who is a bit of a handful - but I knew that she would be as they are a pretty feisty and stubborn breed!

I have three other dogs who were perfectly housetrained within weeks but Sophie has been very slow to catch on.  These days she is reasonably reliable but certainly not 100% so I continue to put her outside  very regularly throughout the day.  However,  quite often if we go out say for the evening we will find some poo in the kitchen - but that's not the end of the world.  When we first had her we were having to get up several times in the night to let her out, it could be at 2am, 4 am etc then eventually she improved and didn't bark to go out until 5am and then eventually 6am which is fine (we get up early).  However over the last 2 weeks she has reverted to barking to go out at 3.30 am and this now seems to have become a habit.  She then goes out and poos and wees in the garden but I need to know how to get her to go through the night again as we never seem to get a good night's sleep!  She is fed twice a day on Naturediet, the last feed being around 5pm and is a good eater.  I would just add that when she barks to go out it is enough to wake the dead - good job we are in a detached house with no really near neighbours ....

Anyone any ideas?

How many times a day does she poo ? It seems to be a lot !
Have you considered trying a different food to see if she poos less ?

I haven't counted but I suppose it is several times.  The Naturediet food is what the breeder uses for her WFTs and as she likes it and it is a natural product I have stuck with it.  In fact all my dogs are on it now and love it.  Sophie does have the PuppyJunior version.  I feed her the correct quantities and her weight seems about right.  I do add some terrier mix to hers (as per breeder) - maybe I could stop that as there is rice in the product itself.

I would expect her to come in season soon. Mine tend to go a but "dirty" before a season.

Hmm - I hadn't thought of that, not sure when her breed (or similar) would have first season?

How about making her last feed a couple of hours later, say 6.30 / 7pm ? 

Would that help?  I am a bit confused about digestion etc!  I could try it though and see if that helps.  The thought of getting up and out in the garden in the winter in middle of the night is not nice ......  Sometimes of course when she barks in the night she has already been ......

It might help, I'm not sure :-) 

Obviously give her plenty opportunity to poo before you put her to bed for the night (which I'm sure you already do), but at least if her last meal of the day is a bit later then she might just wait until the following morning.

I have a larger breed and I keep to 3 meals until around 12 months of age.  I do (approximately)  6/7am, 4/5pm, 10pm (smallest portion). It worked for my dogs.  Don't know whether you could split her allowance into 3 meals??

My 6 are all fed naturediet and I find it to be excellent too.

I had been having an issue with night-time poo's from my younger two (boy and girl) at just a year old now.

It was driving me nuts but I cured the problem by changing when they are fed, we have moved from feeding at 4.30pm to 7.15 am, with a small snack at 2pm, this gives them all day to digest,  burn off and poo to their hearts content.
Now no night time poo's  :)

I have also found that all of my dogs have lost weight since I started doing this

Nature Diet includes a lot of rice and not all dogs can tolerate that, so maybe it moves through her digestion system too fast.

Couple of mine had very mucousy poo on NatureDiet

Interesting to know that someone else has the same issues as I have. My bitch a TT also needs to go out at least 2/3 times during the night and she also barks to let us know, with the occasional accident in the kitchen, which also isn't a problem.
So to let you know but she has been like this since very young and is now 11!!! I feed usually morning around 10am and thats it. Maybe a very small snack at 5-6pm ish. I have tried all alternatives of feeding times but it doesn't seem to make the slightest difference :(
Sorry if this is so negative for you and not what you want to hear but if you do get a solution then PLEASE do let me know ;) ;)
the good thing is at least they are letting us know, mostly, when they need to go out!!

With my WT I was told to expect a season at 6 months, but it didnt come until 9. I also have a friend with a 16mth WFT and she hasnt had one yet! So It really can vary!

I feed at 6pm the last meal of the day - and this usually gives time for poo before bedtime. But then again, my WT is crate trained so hops into her crate for a night time biscuit about 10:30 and doesnt shout when shes in there. The OH then wakes up at 6, puts her in the garden and she has a morning poo. It might be late to do crate training? (Not sure, I did it from day one). The first night we had her she did a poo in her crate at night (at 8 weeks) and hasnt done one in there since :D

Agree with the above about the crate. Would also add give her quite a long time in the garden immediately before bed, and would keep her up an hour later than usual, and get her up an hour earlier than usual in the morning (initially).

If she is more tired, and the required time is shorter, she is more likely to sleep through, and thus to break the habit. Often that's what's needed - breaking the habit, rather than anything physical. If this works in the first instance, then you gradually revert the times, obviously.

Good luck. This has worked for me in a similar case.

Thank you for your helpful suggestions - nice to know I'm not alone with this problem!

Although she goes in the crate to travel I think we would have a tantrum if I tried to crate her at night as she likes to sleeps with the other dogs I think.

Pinky,  you said you had moved feeding yorts from 4.30pm to 7.15am - did you mean 7.15 pm and you also said you gave a snack at 2pm.  Do you give a morning feed too?

I think the idea of keeping her up a bit later and giving her a longer time in the garden is good.  It has just struck me that all this has started maybe because the evenings are dark earlier and we are indoors more in the evening (and less active)  - so could well be that she less tired than she was when tearing about the garden on summer evenings?

Sorry if I confused you.

I used to feed mine in the afternoon around 4.30pm but I changed it to the mornings, they now have their full meal at 7.15am, I feed them before I go to work.

My OH works evening shifts so when he gets up the dogs get around a 2hr walk from about 9.30am onwards, they then have all day pottering around our garden. Plenty of time to poo.

They are given a stuffed kong around 2.30ish and that's it for the day. So they get plenty of time to empty bowels and due to eating in the morning and then exercise/activity all day they have all lost weight, and i don't get night time poo's anymore.  Winner all round :)