Bad bathroom manners

One of my dogs has a very bad habit. The vet could not give me any suggestions. Princess was tossed out around a trailer park and lived there for a few very cold winter days about five years ago. A friend of a friend alerted us and the rest is history. That might explain her behavior, but here goes...she eats her stool and the other dog's. No matter how much food you give her she acts like she is starving and will eat almost anything. We must follow her around and scoop up the mess (what we call our poop patrol) immediately. In the winter especially with all the ice we have had difficult time. I have fallen a couple of times in our very sloped and fenced back yard. I injuried by back years ago, so the ice and I are not friends. Anyway Princess is winning on these bad days...any suggestions??? [COLOR=sandybrown]:eek:

There are tablets you can give your dog to make them not want to eat their poo.

here's just one I found
http://www1.petsmart.com/global/prod...=1076178293209

THANK YOU. Any suggestions are WELCOME! We will give it a try.

Welcome to Pet Talk. To answer your question, there are actually several different reasons why your dog could be developing this "nasty" habit.

1. It's instinctive -- a mother dog keeps her pups clean by eating their waste. This keeps the den clean, prevents disease and removes an odor that could attract predators.
   
2. Lack of a nutritious diet/vitamin deficiency. Sometimes it is not the quantity of the food, it is the quality. Switching to a higher quality food with more nutrition and less hard to digest filler could do the trick
   
3. Stress. Any recent changes in your life?
   
4. Boredom. Lack of mental and physical stimulation.
   
5. It simply smells and tastes too good to resist -- it's "dessert"

Some of the thngs you could use in his food that could help:

1. Distaste" (can be found in numerous pet catalogs/stores, or ask your veterinarian)
   
2. "Accent" Yes - the kind you buy in a grocery store.
   
3. garlic
   
4. pineapple
   
5. parsley
   
6. pumpkin - the canned variety, but only a teaspoon mixed in with their food.

Good Luck

Clara,
Thank you. This dog loves to eat garlic, hot peppers, celery, mushrooms...we have tried many small bites of various things, but she will eat it all. The food we give her, the vet said is the best. She is a wonderful pet, full of love and devotion. I wonder why the mothers do not continue to clean up after the pups when they age? Maybe that is the gene my Princess has...the eternal rearing mother.

Wow! I don't have any advice, but I was reading to see what other people said and that is some really really really good advice!! Sounds like you are all very informed! I'll have to remember that if my Little Drake ever develops any odd habits!! :p

Lori,
I agree with you. I was embarrassed to post such a subject, but was glad I did. Now that the weather is much better, the poop patrol is once again in motion everytime the dogs are outdoors! Thank God for spring! :)

Quote:

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Originally posted by gotalonglildoggie
Wow! I don't have any advice, but I was reading to see what other people said and that is some really really really good advice!! Sounds like you are all very informed! I'll have to remember that if my Little Drake ever develops any odd habits!! :p

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Thats what I was thinking to! Sorry I cant help you, except I would have suggested those pills and not to feed her so much. Oh and maybe its people food, do you feed her alot of scraps?:confused: :)

She gets her dog food twice a day, a few dog cookies everyday plus a few bites of whatever I am eating. I am a sucker for the sad eyes. We tried the pills and she likes them, it did not help her stop the behavior. :eek: She is not over weight, just constantly looking for any type of food. She lives to eat.

I have a dog like that as well. Penny Lane (whom I adopted last May) was a stray and has a bad habit of getting into the garbage, jumping on furniture and getting into any food source that is accessable. One time she ate an entire loaf of bread that was on the counter by jumping on a chair - onto a table and pawing a kitchen towel until it moved the loaf of bread within pawing distance. :eek:

The good news about a food obsessive dog is that they are generally easy to train using food rewards. Penny Lane will do anything for a liver treat. :D

The bad news is that if I don't watch her intake, she would be an 80 lb dog in a 40 lb body. ;)

What a beautiful family you have!

Oh my can I relate. Once I was making turkey soup, with the whole carcus being boiled on the stove. My princess was pacing, back and forth, back and forth. For the first fifteen minutes or so, I kept remindering her...no that is not for you. I was budgeting my time, making the salad, getting my rabbits their treat of carrots and celery (dogs were already fed) and setting the table before my husband got up (he works late afternoon-midnights). I FORGOT the soup and went to give the bunnies their treats. While in the bunny room I heard a bang, boom and then I remembered! Holy crap, I ran up the stairs...all over turkey grease! My husband got there before me and got the bird from the dog. What a mess. She had never jumped on the stove before, now I never leave food in her reach. Live and learn. ;)

This behaviour is called copraphagia and most mammals have some individuals that display it. Meat eating mammals tend to seek out and eat vegetarian mammal poop but are not adverse to their own or other carnivore poop. It can become an obsession with individuals and once the pattern is set it can be a very difficult habit to break.
With dogs it is likely that observing the dam cleaning up after pups is the trigger to this behaviour - but not always...
If it is a behaviour copied from the mother then you must not allow any dog to toilet without observing them - then pick up as soon as possible.
If the dog is eating only its own and other pack members poop then it is worth considering what type of food you are giving them. Pet food is often just too overloaded and the animals can't digest all the goodness, or more likely, the taste of the food. The poop still smells like it is worth eating. Change brand to something that has less protein, the most famous or most expensive is not always the best, add bran or cooked greens and stop giving treats. If you like giving food rewards to your dogs try tiny bits of carrot instead of stuff bought in packets.
More than anything break the habit - it is a bit like smoking - don't allow access to free poop for several months, along with diet changes and you should see a difference. Good luck!

Thanks Carrie,
Now that spring is almost here, it is much easier for me to attend to the clean up detail. Even after the clean up my dog searches for any lost droppings. I will look for a food with less protein, currently I use Purina One. My pooch loves carrots, beans...almost any vegetable I am making for dinner. I also have ten rabbits and I think the dog is jealous that they get carrots and celery everyday. :) This dog wants all the food regardless of what it is. :) Hopefully with a food change her behavior will improve. Thanks again.

I have the Baby On Eukanuba Puppy that is the best food you can buy here in Canada pretty much there is Pro Plan and others i prefer the other as too the other dogs eating there poo in spring i thought it was the winter when this usually happens.I also heard that it was a dominence thing but a 11 week old puppy wouldnt really start this soon as too the changes he has been here for a couple days we just got him last saturday could it be the stress of changing homes?

We just talked to the vet last week on this subject. She said it was normal for a female especially if she just had pups. But for our girl, we are guessing since she was abandoned as a pup, she had no food so she ate what she had present. Now that she is an adult it is just a nasty habit, she never got over it. Now I follow our dogs with the shovel to collect it before it gets on the menu. :p

I've got these one tablets that are supposed to make the stuff not smell bad. And supposed to help the dog not eat it. How long does it take to work? lol I have to find something better.

I've had a slight problem with this before, and the main problem is usually over-feeding or something wrong with the food. Have you changed rita's diet recently? Anyway, she responds to smell, and the partially digested food in the stool still smells like food, not waste. hence the re-digestion. This over feeding also expands her stomach, causing a larger appetite, which in turn feeds (to use a horrible pun) the problem.

The best answer for this is to reduce the amount you feed her by about 10%, leave if for a day or two, then by another 10% until the problem sorts itself out. If it doesn't after a few reductions, consider (I'm not sure how often she gets fed) twice a day if she gets three feeds, or just once a day if she gets two (which is quite normal for adult dogs). Just introduce that slowly, over about a week, and see what happens. if nothing happens after halving her food (gradually), then consult a vet. something may be wrong.

Anyway, hope it fixes up, and good luck!

Sharn.