Dog Poop Consistency: From Hard to Watery—What Does It Mean?

Why does it matter what your dog’s poop looks like?

The longer I’ve been a dog mom, the more attention I’ve learned to pay to poop. It started with Jasmine who had ongoing poop issues from the day she came to us. After years of being left in the dark, she was finally diagnosed with IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease). Every time her stool was normal, it made my day brighter.

Dog Poop Consistency: From Hard to Watery—What Does It Mean?

Our guys get a bad poop every now and then. This is more of a reflection of what they got into than an actual health issue. If the abnormalities continue though, I look into figuring out what’s behind it. When the stools are consistently or chronically abnormal, you need to investigate.

Dog poop consistency

What I consider ideal poop could be best described as hand-rolled chocolate cookie dough—brown, well-shaped, firm but not hard, kind of segmented.

Dog Poop Consistency: Purina Scoring System
Purina Fecal Scoring System

To some degree, consistency can depend on the dog and their diet. However, the stool shouldn’t be consistently too hard or too loose. Which brings me back to the cookie dough.

Diarrhea

Diarrhea is a more common problem than constipation for dogs. In fact, people often think that their dog is constipated when in fact they have diarrhea. Lots of straining with nothing coming out can be a sign of large bowel diarrhea as well as constipation. It is important not to try to treat constipation without having a solid confirmation (pun kind of intended).

Constipation

Constipation may simply be caused by insufficient fiber and water intake but can also have a more serious underlying cause.

With Jasmine, I kept a detailed chart where I entered day-to-day information, including her stool quality and a number of bowel movements. There are official fecal scoring charts out there, going into various amounts of detail. For Jasmine, I was using 5 values with 5 being ideal and 1 being watery (Jasmine didn’t have problems with constipation). The most typical scoring system goes to 7 with 1 being constipated and 7 being watery. (I came up with my own scoring back then before I knew there were systems in place already)

Stool observations

Nothing

It’s not good when a lot of straining and hunching doesn’t produce any poop at all. Your dog could be constipated or even blocked up. As mentioned above, though, severe diarrhea and colitis can cause similar symptoms. In either case, see a vet.

Small, dry, hard pellets

Yes, that’s constipation.  A couple of times Cookie got hard stools from eating too many bones and not enough vegetables. I immediately corrected that and things went back to normal. Constipation can have serious causes and effects. If Cookie had hard poops for more than one or two bowel movements and it didn’t resolve with adjusting her food, I’d take her to the vet.

Firm but not hard, dry logs that look segmented

That’s a good poop in my books. With Jasmine, every time she had a poop like that, we celebrated.

Moist and soggy but still formed

This kind of poop gets me in an alert mode. Something isn’t quite right. JD and Cookie get these every now and then with the next poop being normal again. Something didn’t sit right but all is now good. When Jasmine got these, it meant her IBD was starting to act up. If my dog had these types of stools consistently, I’d investigate.

Pudding

Poop that loses its form once it hits the ground; there is texture to it but it doesn’t hold shape. The gut isn’t happy. When it continues for more than one or two bowel movements, it’s time to do something. It could mean intestinal parasites, such as Giardia, intestinal infections (bacterial, viral or fungal), immune/inflammatory disorders, metabolic diseases (e.g., liver failure), heart disease, cancer, and more.

Watery

The gut is really unhappy. When Jasmine got these, her gut was in trouble. Large volumes of watery diarrhea, with or without blood in it, can be an emergency, particularly in smaller dogs and puppies.

Related articles:
Dog Poop Color

Further reading:
Why Does My Veterinarian Want a Poop Sample?

Categories: Conditions • Constipation • Diarrhea • Dog health advocacy • Poop • Symptoms

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Jana Rade

I am a graphic designer, dog health advocate, writer, and author. Jasmine, the Rottweiler of my life, was the largest female from her litter. We thought we were getting a healthy dog. Getting a puppy from a backyard breeder was our first mistake. Countless veterinary visits without a diagnosis or useful treatment later, I realized that I had to take Jasmine's health care in my own hands. I learned the hard way that merely seeing a vet is not always enough. There is more to finding a good vet than finding the closest clinic down the street. And, sadly, there is more to advocating for your dog's health than visiting a veterinarian. It should be enough, but it often is not. With Jasmine, it took five years to get a diagnosis. Unfortunately, other problems had snowballed for that in the meantime. Jasmine's health challenges became a crash course in understanding dog health issues and how to go about getting a proper diagnosis and treatment. I had to learn, and I had to learn fast. Helping others through my challenges and experience has become my mission and Jasmine's legacy. I now try to help people how to recognize and understand signs of illness in their dogs, how to work with their veterinarian, and when to seek a second opinion. My goal is to save others the steep curve of having to learn things the hard way as I did. That is the mission behind my blog and behind my writing. That is why I wrote Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog, which has turned out being an award-winning guide to dog owners. What I'm trying to share encompasses 20 years of experience.

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