Hi all. Well, we are now into our fourth week with our 11 week old puppy, Kai, and finding out that in puppy's minds, they rule, and we are slowly but surely trying, very kindly, to prove to him that this is not true. At night, Kai is very good, he understands bedtime, he understands to do a wee on command in the garden beforehand. Trouble is, although the floor is dry in the morning, there are trace of poo stuck to the floor, the rest he has eaten. His last meal of the day is at 6pm and he is usually settled for the night at about midnight. Can anyone give me some tips on this. My main worry is that it will make him ill. Thanks.
Re: Poo How many meals is he having Jane ? It maybe that he is having too much food ? Also, is he in a crate at night ? I didnt use one but I understand that pups are less likely to mess in their own sleeping space
Re: Poo Hi Kate We are giving him 300g of Beta Chicken puppy mix, spaced out over the day (8am, 1pm and 6pm), although he would eat more if we allowed him to. He isn't crated, he has his bed under the kitchen table which he doesn't mess in, but has the rest of the kitchen to roam in as he wishes. Jane
Re: Poo Hi there,we had exactly the same problem with our pup.We would come down in the morning n see the poo marks but hd had obviously esten the actual poo.he did this from about 10 weeks and is now 20 weeks old n zoon grew out of it.we think he only did it for a few weeks.
Re: Poo Jane , do you have a trigger word for poo ? What I used to do was this , when a pup did a poo in the garden , I used to the word poo as they were doing it and then a massive fuss afterwards so that, as you do with wees , he will learn to poo on command , it will encourage the action . It is something that most grow out of, he is still young but I would certainly use a trigger word and say it very excitedly every time he comes up with the goods
Re: Poo Dogs will often eat their poo if they get told off for doing it, it then removes the evidence to them! I found a crate the best thing, not too big as they can then poo in a corner, just big enough for the pup/dog to turn around it.. Try to get him to do a poo before he goes to bed, do as KateinCornwall suggest, teach him to associate the work poo with the action. my two Labs can poo on command now
Re: Poo Thanks everyone for your helpful comments. I will find and use a trigger word now, and hopefully he will grow out of it soon.
Re: Poo I appreciate that many people raise dogs without a crate and have no problems BUT, night time poo eating is a common problems suffered by people that give puppies unrestricted access to the entire kitchen overnight. I suppose it is possible that Poo eating may occasionally be caused by a puppy being punished for pooing indoors, but the fact is, most puppies like the taste of poo. A study done in the USA found that a large proportion of dogs eat their own poo if allowed access to it for any length of time. However gross we think it this habit is. And Labradors seem to be particularly inclined to do it. (bless them ) One of the biggest benefits of the right-sized crate used in an appropriate way, is that not only does it prevents night time accidents, it also therefore indirectly prevents night time snacking on poo. Which is important because whilst some puppies grow out of this habit, others do not.
Re: Poo DEFINATLEY get a crate. wilow is now 14 weeks and from 8 weeks when we had her she was in the kitchen at night and came down to poo and wee every morning. she was really good from day one about going outside for wee/poo as the breeder had already started this, but a few weeks after we got her she started weeing in the house while we were hear. so over a week ago we got a crate and she is now going through the night from 11.30pm to 7am where before she would cry to tell us she had wee'd / poo'd!! and no accidents in the day now. she loves the crate and goes in there for her naps and also when i am at work for 3 hours.
Re: Poo Hi All Following on from my thread about Kai eating poo. He had his final 12 week vaccination last week, and I happened to mention it to the vet. He said that it could possibly be Kai trying to hide evidence, but Im not convinced by that as he is never reprimanded that much, its usually just a cry of *oooh noo Kai, what did you do that for* and he then has fun and games trying to *help* clear up whats left . The vet also mentioned that putting either grated courgette or crushed pineapple in their food to alter the flavour to something not so yummy ??? We did this last night as we happened to have fresh pineapple in the fridge, so we chopped some up very finely and he *woofed* it down. This morning he had 'been', but not eaten it. This morning he seemed rather listless and not his boundless energy self, but did excitedly respond to it being breakfast time and ate at his usual place. I then took him outside so that he would relieve himself and he went into the shed which he has chosen as his poo toilet. Wee normally goes on the garden (my apologies for all this detail LOL, I hope you have all had your breakfast). Trouble is he did what looks like a wee in there, a first, and I thought he had the runs, but im 99% sure it isn't. After that he was very obviously not his usual self. I can open cupboards, go in forbidden bedroom areas, do pretty much anything and he is not jumping excitedly around me. Watching his being so listless is very hard, and I am concerned that it is the pineapple. So far he has kept breakfast down which he ate about 8am. Has anyone else experienced this. We all know excited puppies can be tiresome at times, but this is something much harder to deal with
Re: Poo Pineapple is quite acidic, I'm surprised the vet suggested it in a pup so young. I'd give him a few hours, plenty of water and keep an eye on him. As long as it's coming out the other end it should clear up and he'll be back to his usual self. Make sure he gets lots of toilet breaks too, he may need to go more often if he has the runs. How much did he have? If nothing else, it may put him off pineapple and poo :-\
Re: Poo We only gave him a very small amount, and in the last hour he has finally got back to nearly being himself again, after a whole morning of being very uninterested in anything happening around him. Unheard of! Thank you for your reply. I won't be putting pineapple on his menu again.
Re: Poo I have tried the pineapple on a poop eater. Dog was neither up nor down but must have been atound 9 months at the time. Unconvinced it helped. Courgette was the other one I knew of too but I can't stand it so not normally to be found in my house. I think I have heard that the most consistent solution is using raw feeding, but for most people this is a bit of a major change.
Re: Poo Happy to report that Kai is back to his normal self now. Had a lovely walk this afternoon where we practised walking to heel and coming back when he hears my whistle. It was great fun He is sleeping peacefully now.
