My 2 1/2 year old Lab Duke is obsessed with eating other dogs poo at the park - he never eats his own. If he is on the lead I am pulled around the park as he looks for poo. A leave it command is only sometimes successful. I know this is something with I could improve with training. My main problem is if he is off lead his sole focus is running around the park looking for poo to eat. He ignores other dogs to play with. If I throw a ball he will go and fetch it but then drops it and looks for poo. I feel really sad for him when he obviously wants to interact with the other dogs and I don't let him off the lead, but I know if he does get let off he is taken over by his urge for poo. He has sometimes left the park on his poo quest. He only started eating poo about a year ago. I know some may suggest going to a park without poo, but the at the local playing field where there is much less poo he indulges in another bad habit of pulling up chunks of grass (he has completely destroyed our lawn - any suggestions on this one?) I tried spraying an aversive spray on the poo but it hasn't made a big difference.
Hi @Anna Boyd , this is a difficult one, I too have hit a bit of a problem with this, although Cassie is quite picky about which dog poo she eats, not all ! She's always gone through phases of it really. I do find magic hands and distraction games helpful to quite a big extent, in the danger zones. Lately I've been calling her to me for a reward after she does a poo, to discourage her from eating that, and I've noticed lately that sometimes she will look at other poo and then look to me as if she wants a reward, which I do give her, I don't know if it's just a happy coincidence! Sometimes though I just want to take her for a walk without working so hard! Is it possible to take him elsewhere for exercise? I also find going to classes, fortnightly obedience and weekly gundog, when I can make it, means that she gets mental and physical exercise and I don't have to worry about poo eating in that environment.
Ripple, same age, exactly same thing. Continual poo hunting on walks, plus the ripping up (and eating) huge mouthfuls of grass. The only difference is he has always done it. I spend lots of the time trying to play games, do training, throw various balls and toys, but it always comes back to the same thing. We work really hard on leave it, which mostly works ok on the lead, but off the lead its a nightmare, I can really empathise. I am currently trying to train him to wear a muzzle, but it is slow going to get him to accept it. But this is mainly to stop him eating dead things, which he is also fond of, and I worry will poison him. The joys of owning a dog .
