Over the last few months Toby has started eating dog poo. Not his own just selective ones when off lead. I let it slip a bit because it became a real battle with my last dog and as Toby’s prognosis isn’t great I decided not to tackle it. However I am feeling more optimistic now we as we are nearing the end of chemo and have started training again. I bought a clicker yesterday and he now knows click means chicken. We walked this morning and I used a click to bring him back to me when his nose went down and I knew he was on the trail of a good one! This worked 8/10 My question is, if he eats the poo and then comes back to me do I click again and then reward him or would I be better going to him and putting him on the lead or something else? I am avoiding areas where there are a lot of temptations at the moment(Why do people have a dog and not clear it up?) Any advise or links to videos would be appreciated.
At the moment he is on Hill’s Prescription Diet Digestive Care as the chemo upsets his stomach. However I am not convinced it is helping that much. He only has one more session next week and then a six week wean off meds. Open to any suggestions to try after that. I saw a Dog Whisperer program once that said to try banana in case it was potassium deficiency but them read that cancers feed off sugar! He gets 1/4 banana in a Kong occasionally x
Have since read the articles on here re clicker training. Decided I am doing it wrong anyway. Back to the drawing board.
One school of thought about dogs eating poo, is that they are seeking microbes and good bacteria to replenish their own guts with because their diet is deficient. Research shows that raw diets result in more diverse and healthier microbiomes in dogs: https://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12917-017-0981-z If you don't want to feed raw, then adding kefir and Dr Mercola's probiotics would be a good start...
