Hi I am new to this forum and need some advice if you can please as I am running out of ideas. I have a 10 month old dog and he is eating his poo at every opportunity he gets. I supervise him at all times and pick up after him straight away however I seem to need eyes in the back of my head as on the odd occasion if turn my back he's done it and ate it within seconds. I have tried distracting him and rewarding him whenever he comes away from it but it doesn't seem to stop him when he thinks he can get away with it. Everytime I think we are getting somewhere we go back to square one. I have read about feeding him pineapple, pumpkin and even fig rolls. Has anyone done this and it has worked. Thank you
Hi there! So sorry you are dealing with this very distressing issue. You are certainly not alone! Fortunately I don't have a dog that does this but there are plenty of forum members who do, so I'm sure you will get some advice. There is an article on the main site that might help you: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/why-dogs-eat-poop-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/ One obvious thing to do is to pick up the poo as soon as he does his business. At least that way you are not dealing with it in your own yard. This will mean some monitoring him when he goes outside for awhile until you get a feel of when he is likely to go. When you are out and about you might have to resort to a muzzle. I don't know about adding things to their diet to make the poo unpalatable, I'm not sure hat will work. Hopefully someone who has dealt with this will be along to give you better advice!
Welcome to the forum I really sympathise with you - must be hard to watch this happen. What are you feeding him at the moment? I'm wondering if you're feeding kibble. Kibble is a good food, but often flavourings are added to make it tasty, and these make it through to the poo which is then also tasty (if you are a Labrador that is!!).
Hi thank you for replying. He is fed on Dr John silver at the moment. It's awful having him do this. He is always watched when out and picked up after its just the odd occasion when I turn my back. It's horrible not being able to give free roam of everywhere just in case he decides to eat it
So I googled that food and I see that it's a kibble. You may have luck shifting to a diet that is not based on kibble (so, a prepared or home-made raw diet for example) but that is much less convenient than kibble of course. A non-kibble diet won't have all the flavourings in it so it will produce poo that is more like just poo. There is still other dog's poo, but at least it might make his own poo less attractive. I can imagine that it is totally awful having him do this. Did you find any useful training or management ideas in that article that Lisa linked to?
At the moment I am lucky and it is only his own poo that he seems to like (that makes thinks slightly easier) I don't know anything about a 'raw' diet...this is something I will look into ☺ The article was really usefull I am going to try him with the 'special word' training and distraction and see if that work any better. I am hoping as he is just still a pup I still have chance you correct this behaviour.
My girl was never interested in eating her poo, just poo discovered on walks . The 'special' word and high value treats does work with consistency of use. I remember walking round the local lake and other walking areas calling out 'Bingo!' and having Juno run to me for a treat for leaving anything be it poo or rubbish. Over a couple of months I switched from 'Bingo' to just a plain 'Leave' as we had a good leave anyway with no problems. It does seem to be something that they grow out of it more often than not, but In the meantime you need eyes in the back of your head and a sixth seen to prevent the sneaky pick up
Thank you It's nice to hear that it may be something he will grow out of this may sound silly but how did you get her to associate 'bingo' with a treat?
That's got me thinking back as it's some time ago . I think what I did was on lead when she went to smell something I stood beside her and let her have a sniff and then said her name, when she looked at me said 'bingo' in a high happy voice and gave her a special treat (only used with the word), and then after a few days of those just used 'bingo' (in the 'voice') and the special treat, calling 'bingo' in a high happy voice to an off lead dog with people waking nearby can be amusing, but hey we have Labradors - we have a sense of humour
Thank you I will definitely try that, especially using a special treat (I would not have thought of that) if it stops his nasty habit I will do anything
Let us know how you get on. If the special word doesn't work for you, just revert to using 'Leave', one of the best cues you can train and can be applied to so many situations.
I think a raw diet might make his own poo even more appealing! My one Lab had raw food and my other Lab had kibble, a friend who has a Lab and walks with us, will eat the poo from the raw fed dog, but not from the kibble fed dog.
I will, thank you so much for your help. I think I will try the 'special word' first before I change his food as he was poorly with gastroenteritis when we first brought him home and it's took so long to settle his tummy so I don't want to change his food if i don't need to.
Sounds like the best approach since you have had tummy issues to deal with. This article explains how to teach a 'magic word': http://www.thelabradorsite.com/your-labradors-magic-word/
@Oberon Thank you for posting the link on the magic word training, I couldn't find it earlier but then my tablet keeps having a melt down tonight
Hi I'm new here and I've had this problem with my dog. I'm convinced it's sometimes an issue with their digestion that makes them crave something. When I changed my dogs food to a high quality grain free tinned food, and started using dog probiotics the problem resolved within a few weeks. I kid you not! The probiotics you give must be designed for dogs though, the ones I use are Jarrow pet dophulis online from iherb. She had been eating poo for 2 solid years, and I had tried everything, and this is what worked.
I had meant to add, (and this is only my simplistic thinking!), that I find it very interesting medicine is now preforming fecal transplants on humans with chronic digestive disorders. Basically doctors implant a growth source of good gut bacteria into a unhealthy gut, using a healthy persons poo. Maybe dogs are on the right track, it just needs some refining lol!. Probiotics give them the healthy bacteria their system needs.
Haven’t heard of this. Certainly not mainstream medicine. Do you have any bona fide links about this? I would be taking information like this with a hefty pinch of salt. I don't think there is any strong evidence in support of the use of prebiotics generally, certainly not in otherwise healthy humans. Anecdotes maybe, evidence thin on the ground.
