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Eating poop

Kemal Can

Kemal Can

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Ladies and gents

My dog lives in the garden and mostly he is unleashed and free. It is a half year old Sheep dog.

Around 45 days ago he got sick and the vet said that he probably caught flu virus. After that she got antibiotics for a week and got well but then the nightmare started.

I think it was 4th day of antibiotics, I was going to the neighbor for something and I saw his poop on the ground and 10 min later I came back, no more poo on the grass.

Then I started to watch him. When i saw him going and eating his poo, suddenly all my love to the monster deteriorated... Talked to the vet, read a lot of stuff but nothing really helped much. I found some powder which I added to his meal once a day for a few weeks along with some pineapple then all got better. Lately (i believe) that he did not eat his poop. I also gave him yoghurt and some probiotics.

I feed him with Brit Rice and Lamb & Salmon-Potatoes mixture. I also give him boiled beef once a week.

I try to clean the feces as fast as possible but I cannot do it all the time.

And today, my wife got him eating again... He did some pieces and he ate only one piece of it and walked away. Slowly I am getting the feeling that he starts to like it.

I have a four year old girl so that it started to disturb me a lot. I do not want to send him away but if this continues I think I might have to think about that. After all this thing he does, he jumps on us and gives big kisses ( he loves to be hugged and kissed so whatever you do or say not to let him kiss you is nearly impossible). I dont want anyone to catch something out of his poo especially my little daughter. Anyone had any proper way to deal with this kind of situation?
 
Aggie eats poo, mostly from other dogs rather than her own. It is getting less common and we are hoping she will grow out of it (currently 6 months old) but we still have to be very vigilant on "danger zones" of the walks where poos are likely to have been left. Apparently it is more common with female dogs than male? We have tried adding some live yoghurt to her diet in case this helps.

I try to be philosophical and tell myself most humans have gross habits too, but really it is disgusting especially when she tries to kiss us afterwards. "No thanks poo mouth" is a common refrain in our house :rolleyes:.

One its happened, when we get home we give a dog chew or something that we know she will want water afterwards so then she drinks to "wash out" the mouth a bit and then we change the water in her bowl. (Tip from a sympathetic dog walker we met).
 
I have just read your post again.
You mention that your puppy was fine until she had a course of antibiotics and that the problem started after this time.
Antibiotics will kill good bacteria and enzymes as well as bad ones.
It may be that she needs a boost to help replace these. I would suggest that you do not cook or boil his/her raw beef but to feed this raw and if at all possible can you get any raw tripe to include in the diet. It's very smelly but very nutritious.
.
 
I used YuDigest Plus after my dog had stomach problems, and it was really effective, so might help if your dog's stomach isn't yet 100%: YuDIGEST PLUS for Dogs

The good news is that dogs do tend to grow out of poo eating (or become more discerning, ignoring dog poo and eating cow or horse poo instead...). With my dog this seemed to happen when I changed him to a raw diet, but that may have been coincidence.

You could try working out at what times your dog poos, and then aim to be there at the time, or restrict your daughter's access to when it's likely to be some time after he's pooed. Also, keep up training, say by stopping all interaction as soon as his tongue touches skin. You'd have to be consistent, and it might not show results till he's more mature, though.
 
excuseme said:
I just wonder if this may help you.


16 Reasons Dogs Eat Poop and What To Do About It | Dogs Naturally

A better balanced diet may help:oops:
.
Click to expand...

Alec Littlejohn said:
Ya It definitely seems like improper construction if that is happening already. I was looking at a few houses for my dog as well, let me know if you end up getting a new one. Would like to see what you find.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot! I read similar stuff but as we do not really know the reason, it is hard to go further. I tried some powder which the vet recommended, seemed to be helpful but this habit came back after few weeks unfortunately.

About giving raw meat etc, I am against that only because the dog can catch parasites and all can get worse.

I started to cook for him again mixing beef, chicken liver and some veggies. I just cook the meat to some point and add veggies. I will see if it helps with any good change.

Also changed his kibbles to a different one. His poop seems to come out in smaller pieces each time now, he was doing like a horse :)
 
JudyN said:
I used YuDigest Plus after my dog had stomach problems, and it was really effective, so might help if your dog's stomach isn't yet 100%: YuDIGEST PLUS for Dogs

The good news is that dogs do tend to grow out of poo eating (or become more discerning, ignoring dog poo and eating cow or horse poo instead...). With my dog this seemed to happen when I changed him to a raw diet, but that may have been coincidence.

You could try working out at what times your dog poos, and then aim to be there at the time, or restrict your daughter's access to when it's likely to be some time after he's pooed. Also, keep up training, say by stopping all interaction as soon as his tongue touches skin. You'd have to be consistent, and it might not show results till he's more mature, though.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I will look into this. It is not available in Poland as far as I can see but I can order from Amazon
 
Kemal Can said:
About giving raw meat etc, I am against that only because the dog can catch parasites and all can get worse.
Click to expand...

There's a lot of different views on this, but I would point out that (a) dogs' digestive systems are similar to wolves' and wolves have evolved to eat raw meat, including scavenged meat that has been hanging around for a few days, (b) freezing raw meat will kill many of the pathogens, (c) commercial raw food, at least in the UK, has to go through stringent testing, and (d) most of the studies that raise this concern are funded by, or have links to, the commercial pet food industry.

It's very hard to identify information that is completely unbiased, and for every report coming to one conclusion there will be another coming to the other. But I've been raw feeding my dog for years and have known a lot of people either in real life or online who have fed raw and have never had a problem. Of course, there has been the occasional tummy upset (mine has had two in the last 8-9 years, I think), but that would be the case in kibble-fed dogs too.

So you might want to look into raw further, if you haven't already researched it thoroughly.
 
My previous dog, started as a pup with horse poop and I never minded some kisses ;)
But yes you dont wanne have lick after eating poop. I just started to say "Gadver" (dutch for nasty) the minute he sticked his nose anywhere near and walked on.
That said our previous dog did have a food allergy so we were on a elimination diet, he couldnt handle the vet kibble so he did came some sort on nutricion. So a proper dieet is not bad look at.

About your four year old? You teach her to ignore him. Turn around and dont respond at all when she does not like his behavior. He just wants to play and the more she moves and screams? He sees it as a toy. Better to go for walk with your dog and daugther, double the reward. They both get tired.
 
Just thinking aloud - is there no way to take him on walks so he poops while walking rather than in the garden?
 
Anouk said:
My previous dog, started as a pup with horse poop and I never minded some kisses ;)
But yes you dont wanne have lick after eating poop. I just started to say "Gadver" (dutch for nasty) the minute he sticked his nose anywhere near and walked on.
That said our previous dog did have a food allergy so we were on a elimination diet, he couldnt handle the vet kibble so he did came some sort on nutricion. So a proper dieet is not bad look at.

About your four year old? You teach her to ignore him. Turn around and dont respond at all when she does not like his behavior. He just wants to play and the more she moves and screams? He sees it as a toy. Better to go for walk with your dog and daugther, double the reward. They both get tired.
Click to expand...

About getting both of them tired, i would be really happy about it :) she knows how to ignore him and also tells him to go away. But doggie dog never goes away without a kiss ( at least 1) :) cargo guys, garbage men, the neighbors, noone is able to run away :)
 
Ari_RR said:
Just thinking aloud - is there no way to take him on walks so he poops while walking rather than in the garden?
Click to expand...

I tried to get him used to poop outside but he never wanted to do it. He pees only outside but he keeps it as long as he can. He does not even try to poop on walks.

And he does it 3 times a day at least. I do not have time to take him out 3 times and wait for him to go for it. Somehow in different way we need to make him stop.

I ll look deeply into what Judyn mentioned about the raw meat thing and order this Yudigest to see if it helps
 
The trick is to find the time he poops and right before that you take him out. And he does need exercise just a garden isnt enough. This might also be why he is wild on people with kissing. Maybe a afternoon walking service will help?
About the raw dieet, the poop will get smaller but still be there and please make sure you inform yourself. Raw dieets can be tricky cause they will need atleast five types of meat and supplements.
 
Anouk said:
Raw dieets can be tricky cause they will need atleast five types of meat and supplements.
Click to expand...

I've seen that said before but I don't think there's any hard science behind it. It does, though, make sense to feed a good range of protein sources. If you're interested, there's more on raw feeding here: Raw feeding
 
Anouk said:
The trick is to find the time he poops and right before that you take him out. And he does need exercise just a garden isnt enough. This might also be why he is wild on people with kissing. Maybe a afternoon walking service will help?
About the raw dieet, the poop will get smaller but still be there and please make sure you inform yourself. Raw dieets can be tricky cause they will need atleast five types of meat and supplements.
Click to expand...

I try to take him once in two days for an hour walk. He meets different people and dogs on the road so he is used to them

We generally have someone coming in and out so he sees many people. There is also a golden retriever next doors and they used to get together and play. We had to stop it for sometime because he had cracks in both front legs, injured while playing, but in 1-2 months they ll start to meet again.

About jumping, it is one of the things i have not been able to stop with training but we will get there. He is just way too friendly and i give it to the trauma that he got seperated from his mom and siblings when he had 3 weeks.

Nornally these dogs are known to be hostile against the people they do not know, mine is the exception :)
 
An hour walk every two days isn't much at all - it's possible he's over-friendly because he's quite simply bored and underexercised, and not getting as much company as he'd like. Even if he's free to roam in the garden, that's not very exciting.
 
JudyN said:
An hour walk every two days isn't much at all - it's possible he's over-friendly because he's quite simply bored and underexercised, and not getting as much company as he'd like. Even if he's free to roam in the garden, that's not very exciting.
Click to expand...

I try my best but Agreed that its not enough,

i give him 30-60 min an hour to play and train apart from walks (whenever i can) i mostly have some time during weekend. Unfortunately i m not able to take care of him so often
 
When my dog was a puppy, he had the same problem with eating his poop. He lived with us at home, but she was taken from an intervention, where the woman kept her in the basement and she practically did not feed her, so wanting not to eat my baby food to survive. When she came to us, she learned quite quickly not to do it and regular bullets helped. If your dog lives in the garden, he realizes that the problem may be harder to solve, but it may be that he lacks some vitamins.
 
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