Dog needing a poo in the night

[JanetandJohn500]

Please help! Our puppy was fab, slept all night in his crate with no fuss but about 3 weeks ago, he was castrated and then had a bit of an upset tummy. His poos are much better now but he's still getting up in the night for a poo (he seems to save them up for the night times 😂)
At first, we were then having to sleep on the couch with him. He does now go back in his crate with minimal fuss and back to sleep but I'd like to break the cycle add get him back to daytime poo-ing!
All advice on how to achieve this gratefully received. I will respond if I don't doze off because I'm so tired at the broken sleep 😴😴

How old is pup and on how many meals a day? Moving food time could help.

He's 11 months and we try to front-end his food but he's never been a gobbler, he's more of a grazer so even though we put it out, he can leave it all day and then eat it at about 5pm. I could possibly put it out and then lift it until the morning but I haven't thought to do that yet

How many poos in a 24 hour period does he do?

It may be that if he is busy during the day he just forgets to poo and then is desperate at night.

So maybe give him time to poo, when nothing else happens, no games, no walks , just time to sniff and poo.

He does 1 in the night, 1 in the morning and at least a small one on each walk (2/3 a day). When his tummy was upset he was also doing them at other points too.
Until his issue this last few weeks he hasn't poo-ed in the night since he was about 15 weeks old. I do think it's a little bit of a habit now!

I don’t leave food down. We feed morning 7:30 ish and 5pm ish. That helps to regulate toilet activity!
11 months is quite young to neuter. Was there a medical reason?

Had to be neutered before 18 months to go to daycare and as we were all at home it seemed like an opportune time to get it done when he could get lots of TLC. He had no issues with the castration at all, didn't even look at his stitches and all healed well. He's a happy chap all of the time, even when he had diarrhoea and stitches!

Also worth looking at diet. Is he on good quality food?

He's on Royal Canin. Before his op he liked wet food mixed with a bit of dried 🤢 and I thought I was being kind giving him chicken when he came home to make up for his lack of testicles but it seems to have backfired 🤣
He's now happy with just dried and I'm happy to not have him on wet food now. It's never upset his tummy before

Does he have a late walk? Had a similar issue with my dog - he just got so, busy on a walk he forgot to poo. We take him out just before bedtime for a routine round the block, fairly dull walk. Seems to work.

Been in the garden with him for 20 minutes now. All he wants to do is eat stones and run away from me 🙄