The other day I caught Nero eating his poo. Since then I have spotted small bits of poo when I wake in the morning so I think he is eating it overnight. Why do you think he has started doing this? Is it harmful at all?
Re: Eating poo I think I read some where that all pups will tend to eat poo if exposed to it for a while. It's probably not harmful, lots seem to do it, but it's not nice. Yuk. He might be developing a habit if he is pooing over night. Maybe concentrate on why he is pooing over night? Maybe you need to get up and put him out?
Re: Eating poo I think a lot of dogs eat their own poo and agree that the more chance they get, the more difficult it is to stop. It can make them pretty loose. I would also look at the issue of pooping in the house - sounds like you need to work on the house-training some more. Do you use a crate in the house, or another confined area? Definitely the best way of sorting this out I think.
Re: Eating poo He is confined to the kitchen at night as we have tilled floor and theres nothing there he can chew/damage. He always goes outside for pee/poo when we are here but if we are in bed when he goes to the back door he doesn't bark and pottys on paper we put down in the kitchen. We leave him out b4 we goto bed around 11pm and we wake around 6.30am. Should we be getting up sooner to let him out?
Re: Eating poo Well, if he is pooing and then eating it over night, then I'd say yes, you need to be getting up in the night to take him to the garden. How old is your pup now?
Re: Eating poo Look also at the timing of his meals... you might find you can stop him pooing overnight if he has his last meal earlier or later? How long after he eats does he need to empty his bowels? You do need to try and stop this as soon as possible, because the longer the habit goes on, the harder it will be to break. You say you have paper down inside overnight? I would also consider removing this. As long as it is ok for him to go indoors, he is not going to ask to go out... and if you make it ok for him to poop indoors, then unfortunately you are also making it ok for him to eat it. Good luck. Clare
Re: Eating poo He is almost 4 months old now. His last feed is 6pm. He usually poos a good few hours after eating. Even if he poos b4 bedtime he usually goes again overnight. Yes I think we will remove the paper overnight to see if that gets him barking to let us know he needs to go out. He doesn't always eat his poo but he has done it a few times over the last week
Re: Eating poo [quote author=Deano82 link=topic=4133.msg48773#msg48773 date=1390257797] I think we will remove the paper overnight to see if that gets him barking to let us know he needs to go out. [/quote] Will this work do you think? A dog needs to have a strong motivation to want to go in the garden, and not the house, before he will "ask" to go out. Will the absence of paper do this, I wonder? You might just have a mess on the floor.
Re: Eating poo Well when we are awake we dont put paper down and he always goes to the back door to be let out for the toilet. When he goes we always praise and give him a treat. If we dont see him going to the door though he will not bark to be let out. How do we get him to ask to be let out?
Re: Eating poo You can train him to ring a little bell, there's a thread about that somewhere but that will take a while. It's hard work getting up in the middle of the night to let him out but it's probably the best way and in the grand scheme of things it doesn't last long. At the moment he's got a perfectly easy option of toileting in the house so you may need to take action in the immediate term Good luck!
Re: Eating poo Hi, I've had 2 labs in the past but this is the first time I've used a cage indoors. I would definitely recommend it as they don't tend to dirty their own sleeping area, also a safe place when your out, when your home leave the door open and you'll find they enjoy going in by themselves, at night they don't need water in the cage. Hope this helps.
Re: Eating poo Our last two Labs ate their poo when they were puppies. In both cases we cleared up immediately after the dog so there was no poo in the garden. We also changed the mealtimes to try and get them to poo before bedtime, but there was still the occasional overnight poo that was eaten. As they got older and able to get through the night the habit died out.
Re: Eating poo Lots of puppies eat poo. Some grow out of it; some don't. We changed Poppy to a raw diet and she stopped eating her own poo overnight. Her sister is still fed 100% kibble, and still eats her own poo at nearly two years old. When I asked the vet about it, she said there is very little you can do (other than be vigilant, and clear anything up out of the garden, obviously), but just to make sure your dog is wormed regularly.
