Poo eating

[rzs]

Our new girl Ruby will quite often, but not always, try to eat her poo. It's just her own not other dogs'.

When she had her first poo in the garden I told her she was a good girl etc but then she quickly turned round and ate it. "Ooops" I thought and decided against praising her after the next one and that went OK, she made no attempt to eat it. So I was thinking that she was a nervous pooer and have tried to give no indication that I have noticed her doing it, look away when she squats down etc. She is clean in the house, as far as pooing is concerned anyway, so I thought I'd just leave it at that and save the praise for the wees that are still a bit of an issue. This seemed to work the majority of the time.

However, I have noticed her doing it again a few times now, despite the not saying anything. I'll let her sniff it but when her mouth opens to lick/eat it I tell her "No". I don't yell "no" at her I just say it calmy but firmly. Sometimes I'll have to tell her over and over before she'll leave it alone - as in I'll say no and she'll lift her head up, pause for a second, look at me anxiously and then her head will go back down and we'll do his 2- 6 times before she'll walk away from it. Last night I wandered off for a minute after noticing her begin to poo but when I came back she was in mid-eating. I told her "no" and she just stood at the bottom of the garden looking very worried.

I don't know whether, if it's a nervous thing she might settle down after a while (she's only been here a week yesterday) and I should continue to ignore pooing or whether I should go back to trying "Yay, good girl, well done " again and try to intercept her eating it by giving her a treat to show that I'm not mad at her for pooing.

She's not showing signs of nervousness in other respects, although everything is new to her - she is taking it all in her stride. I don't know whether any anxiety she is feeling is being channelled into this area as an outlet. She hasn't been in a house before so I can't imagine she's been in a situation where she's really been told off for pooing.

I'm taking her to the vet tonight and will ask him to worm her. She's on a complete dried dog food (similar to what she had beore). She's just 18 months old.

Any advice would be appreciated

[cadbury]

I'm affarid this is a common problem and there are all sorts of thories as to why dogs do it, the main one is that they are diffecent in something in there diet but as complete food is complete that sort of blows it out the water. Worming will help if she is doing out of hunger which worms would cause, cheack her poop and if it is heavily infesed with what look like bamboo shoots she may need another dose in a couple of weeks.
To help her stop eating the poop add pinapple chunks to her food for some reason they won't eat it. If she is an ex racer and is used to wearing a muzzle pop it on her to stop her eating poop . Or you can go out armed with a squeezy bottle filled with a mixture of water and strong mustard to douse the poop with to stop her.
Continue to praise her for pooping outside to distract her from eating it and to reforce the house trianing but slowly cut the treats back so she dosen't get one everytime and winde it down to priase only eventually.
It stands a good chance though worms are the route cause.
Also if your out and about and horses use the area you walk in keep her muzzled as she will probaly be attrached to their droppings too and if a horse has been recently wormed the dosage that remains in horse poop is enough to make a dog either very sick or die if your not aware of the problems it can cause.
I hope i've been of some help and ruby stops poop munching soon.

[rzs]

Thanks cadbury.
She was a non-chaser and she's not used to a muzzle but I have started to introduce one so she can go in the garden wearing it.
Had her wormed and her anal glands emptied. The vet said that this was common in dogs that had been in kennels and to not let her see me pick up after her.
I'm now giving her hotdogs as soon as she's pooed to distract her and then luring her back inside so I can go out and pick it up without her seeing. She doesn't do it if she poos outside on a walk so I'm wondering if she is "tidying up" the garden after she's made a mess, considering it part of her "kennel", if so she'll hopefully get over it when she's more settled.
I'll try feeding her pineapple for occassions when I can't intercept her.
Fortunately there aren't any horses round here but I'll bear that in mind if we are out and about!

[cadbury]

RZS i'm sorry i seem to have confused you about the pineapple, you need to add about a ring of it in chunks to her food to make her poop less apertizing.
Your vet has made a good point i'd never considered before about Ruby keeping her kennel clean, i'll file that away for futre referance.
Yesturday I dicoverd that Lexi my bull lurcher has taken to poop munching after being here since before christmas so your in good company.

[just jackie]

I'm not 100% sure about trying this as a deterrent, but I recall watching a programme recently where the owner of a dog who had an inclination to eat poo was advised to sprinkle the poo with chilli powder.

Jackie
x

[Lisa]

I find unless your prepared to add pineapple for the rest of the dogs life it doesnt stop them. The minute you withdraw the pineapple and they suss it they start again. Also she may then unless you add pineapple to all their diets start eating the other dogs.

I think you will find that with most kennel dogs or dogs from a kennel environment especially bitches as it seems to be bitches that do this more its based around keeping their area clean. They dont like to soil their kennel but there are times when they have too and as it upsets them they usually clear it up after themselves. Bitches also clean up after their puppies so may be something along these lines, they do it to keep the scent down and other dogs away also, basic instinct. Queenie was a swine for eating poo and Scarlett is a nightmare not just hers but any of the other dogs here and strange dogs more worryingly out on walks, I put hers down to a bad start in life, and a bacteria inbalance.

The most effective thing you can do is supervise toiletting times and pick up the minute they pass a bowel motion.

As un natural as it is or as gross as it seems to us its actually quite a natural thing for dogs to do. It tastes good they like it end of

[rzs]

That's OK Cadbury I knew what you meant - it was just me phrasing it badly
That's a good point though about feeding pineapple forever hmm... had hoped that after a while she'd just kind of get over it.
Well, I'll just have to stalk her round the garden armed with hotdogs, mustard spray, poo bags and a blindfold so she can't see what I'm doing .
It wouldn't be so bad but she's a really licky, kissy girl so I realy want to nip it in the bud if poss!

[loopylou]

my old collie Tess used to do this, she'd also eat our other dog Glen's, I didn't really find a solution she just stopped as she got older.However she would still eat cat poo if she could find any as does Suggs.Unfotunately this has happened as he becomes more affectionate and likes to kiss me ;)Needless to say his teeth are brushed regularly

[elliebear]

hi, my greyhound ellie did this when she was younger, I found the best way to deal with it is to ignore it, i found the more i drew attention to it the worse it got, i think ellie saw it as some kind of trophy, i tried the pineapple thing without success as ellie wouldn't eat it. She did grow out of it so try not to worry about it too much.
hope this helps