Hello I am new to this forum and I am hoping someone will be able to offer some advice. I have recently adopted an 8 year old lab who is overweight. He is currently on a diet and has lost a kilo since January. For the last week he has started to eat poo while I take him out walking. I haven't noticed whether he has eaten his own, but who knows. When we first got him he was on a diet of wet and dry food, but I have now moved him onto Burns Weight Control. He also has raw eggs, natural yogurt, cooked chicken (not all at once), salmon oil throughout the week. Does anyone have any ideas as to why he would start doing this. Am I doing something wrong?
Re: My dog is eating poo Hello and welcome to the forum! This article may help you understand what's going through your dog's mind! http://www.thelabradorsite.com/why-dogs-eat-poop-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/
Re: My dog is eating poo Thank you Snow Bunny - that really helped. Going to try the "magic word" recall, just need to think of a word. ;D
Re: My dog is eating poo My word is "apple" and I sometimes use apple. My dog is still under 1 so I am hoping she will grow out of it (doing it less now). Good luck!
Re: My dog is eating poo Hi, We had loads of problems with Monty eating poo as a puppy, and as he was infected with the giardia parasite - often picked up through poo - we had to work hard to stop this. We trained him to 'leave it' - first with a bit of kibble on the ground, then progressing to chicken, ham, etc. When he leaves, he gets a different treat, ie, not the one he has left alone. We progressed this to outdoors, and any piece of rubbish he picks up. We also had to teach 'drop it' for when he already has something in his mouth we need him to drop. This was really crucial, as he was, and still is a bit of a womble, picking up bits of litter along the way. He now leaves at least 80-90% of the poo he passes, occasionally he does get hold of a piece. I understand that when a dog is fed on kibble, the poo appears to dogs to contain proper food, so they feel very inclined to eat it! However it can be a sign of a vitamin deficiency too, which might be worth getting checked out. I was told that feeding some pineapple juice to your dog makes their poo taste horrible, and less inclined to eat their own. I guess teaching an 8yr old is very different to teaching a pup, however I think the leave it command is one of the most important you can teach - dropping hot food on the floor, etc. Good luck, it's a horrible and icky problem!!
Re: My dog is eating poo Hi Raziel ,big welcome to the forum and congratulations on the wonderful act of adopting an older lab. My only poo eating issues were cat poo yeeeeeeeuuuuuuk! I don't know a lot about it but I believe a raw diet can help curb the desire time at their own poo.We worked on our 'leave it' and totally avoiding areas of high cat poo popularity areas ;D the tricky thing is at 2.5 years old ,my boy will leave,leave,leave 4 dumps of horse poo and then come across the fifth and give himself a snack....so we still are working on it x When you get a chance come and tell us a little but more about your boy,what is his name? ,keep up the good work dropping his weight down x
Re: My dog is eating poo God yes, cat poo - I think it's the creme de la creme (or c**p de la c**p) in the excrement world... and you can smell it for ages afterwards too.
Re: My dog is eating poo Juno has always found poo a very special delicacy when out for a walk but has never attempted to eat her own. The usual is cow poo or sometime horse and duck poo. By using "Leave it" "Drop it" magic words and extra special treats it is now unusual for her to pick up any poo. What you have to be careful of with an intelligent dog is that they look as is they are going to pick up poo to trigger our response and get themselves a tasty treat for leaving it alone ;D. Patience does win through though.....
Re: My dog is eating poo Thanks everyone for your advice. It really is helpful and also good to know that I am not the only one with a dog who is rather partial to poo. YUK!! As far as I am aware, Rocky hasn't been eating his own waste, but I haven't been watching him out in the garden and I try to clear up after him when I can. He devoured fox poo which was just utterly rank and keeps finding the fresh stuff where others don't clear up after their own dog (but that's an entirely different subject). He tried this morning and I manage to get him away from it. Going to try the "leave it", but he is a lovable stubborn thing and will need lots of rewards for him to catch on. Or he will probably be playing with me, just to get the treat!! I've only had him since October and I just love him
Re: My dog is eating poo You definitely aren't the only one with a poo-eating dog! Lottie spends a lot of time searching out 'delicious' (her word) morsels on walks . I tried having a positive word to distract her (YIPPEE!), which worked for a while but eventually I realised I was shouting 'yippee' in a really cross voice which I don't think was very helpful, so I've stopped doing it –though it is useful to distract her if she's doing something she shouldn't (like eating a £10 note she filched from the hall table!). The puppy trainer suggested putting some keys or stones into a tin, putting the tin in a carrier bag, and, if she starts eating poo, tossing the bag in her direction. This does freak her out but so much so she flinches if the bag rustles as I carry it, so I'm not keen on doing it. She seems to operate in two poo-eating modes –1) fairly calm and will leave it when asked, 2) mega-excited when she rushes round searching it out and eating it. If I try to get her to leave it when she's in mode 2, she gets even more hyper and starts jumping around, biting the lead if it's on etc. I get quite stressed about it as she has a sensitive stomach, so poo is a really bad thing for her to eat and means if she gets a stomach upset I can't tell what's causing it. She's on a raw diet but that doesn't stop her (though possibly a raw diet means they don't eat their own, which she's never done). Sometimes I wonder if she goes into mode 2 when her stomach is feeling odd and she feels driven to eat (though I know most Labs feel driven to eat most of the time!). I'm hoping she'll grow out of it, though we met a 9 year old Lab today who still does it .
Re: My dog is eating poo Hi and welcome to the forum. It's pretty disgusting isn't it!! Does he eat his own poo or poo from other dogs/animals? If it's his own poo there are several things you can try with his diet to help. When I worked in rescue kennels we used get quite a few dogs who ate their poo, for various reasons. We used add a few drops of crabapple to each of their meals which apparently gives the poo a bad taste (!), one of my colleagues at the time also swore by tinned pineapple, but I have no personal experience of using that! I also beleive that a raw diet can help eliminate this behaviour as there is some thought that it is linked to them being deficient in something and trying to get extra nutrients in. Of course none of these will work if he is eating the poo of other dogs or animals. In this case a solid recall and leave command would be the way forward as others have mentioned. I think for some reason some dogs just do it because they like it Penny used to eat a lot cow poo.... I say used to because she ate so much once that she was violently ill for 48hrs and since then she has barely touched the stuff! Her favourite delicacy at the moment is horse poo.
Re: My dog is eating poo I haven't seen him eat his own poo ... yet. The first time I caught him, he found some fresh fox poo and was so excited that you could almost hear him smacking his lips whilst happily chomping on the ... eh ... stuff Allie - I have to say that the "yipee" really made me chuckle this morning. Think I am going to stick to "leave it " Rocky is an 8 years old rescue. I don't know much about his background other than he was taken from his original owners due to neglect. I do wonder if he has been threatened on some point. He is a little round and is just perfect. Love him to bits x
Re: My dog is eating poo [quote author=Raziel link=topic=10309.msg151666#msg151666 date=1427189338] Allie - I have to say that the "yipee" really made me chuckle this morning. Think I am going to stick to "leave it " [/quote] My word of choice was "Bingo". Worked a treat including bringing all our doggie friends to me when out in the forest together once they realised extra special treats were involved. I'm their favourite person on walks anyway as I have the best treats ;D
