My dog has "learned" to eat poop???!!!

AllenB

Anyone every "cured" their dogs from doing this?

It can happen:

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/dog-whisperer#tab-Videos/05996_00

My Kenya will eat poop if it's hard or frozen so I call her in right after the dogs potty and if they go out for a long time, I go out with them and clean all the poop first.

espencer

AllenB

Anyone every "cured" their dogs from doing this?

 

It can happen:

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/dog-whisperer#tab-Videos/05996_00

 Do you get all of your training advice from CM?

 Eating poop is gross but it is actually quite normal for dogs. But VERY gross none the less! Sometimes adding a mineral supplement such as kelp to the diet can help, if it is dietary. Often it is just because dogs by nature are scavengers and view poop as very edible. Did I mention it's gross?

The worst part of eating their little treats is they seem to get affectionate after and want to lick you hands or face.  Piper started to hit the cat boxes really hard, and I had to put in a gate to stop her.   For a while, I thought I could convince my wife we had a labor saving system going to clean the boxes. 

I was able to train my Border Collie we adopted quite a few years ago (1999) and at that time she was already 6. It was difficult, but we had to work on the "LEAVE IT" command and the "Drop It" command.  It was stressful as we live in the country and it was hard to keep tabs on her all the time when she would scoot behind a building or something and find some...but eventually we were able to "cure" this stinky situation!  Every time she would go near poo I would use the "leave it" command, and if she did start to pick it up I would use the "drop it" command.  We started training her with her rope toy and tennis balls which were her favorite in the house...and used treats to reinforce good behavior.  I certainly don't miss the days of constantly having pockets full of training treats! LOL!  It honestly took me about a good 4-5 months to break her of it, and since I am a stay at home wife it was easier for me b/c I was able to be consistent...the vet I was working for at the time told me it can be one of the hardest behaviors to un-learn.

It can be done, Tess (our BC) lived with us for 7 years to the ripe old age of 13 and after the training never ate poo again! LMAO

RubyandStewiesmom

I was able to train my Border Collie we adopted quite a few years ago (1999) and at that time she was already 6. It was difficult, but we had to work on the "LEAVE IT" command and the "Drop It" command.  It was stressful as we live in the country and it was hard to keep tabs on her all the time when she would scoot behind a building or something and find some...but eventually we were able to "cure" this stinky situation!  Every time she would go near poo I would use the "leave it" command, and if she did start to pick it up I would use the "drop it" command.  We started training her with her rope toy and tennis balls which were her favorite in the house...and used treats to reinforce good behavior.  I certainly don't miss the days of constantly having pockets full of training treats! LOL!  It honestly took me about a good 4-5 months to break her of it, and since I am a stay at home wife it was easier for me b/c I was able to be consistent...the vet I was working for at the time told me it can be one of the hardest behaviors to un-learn.

It can be done, Tess (our BC) lived with us for 7 years to the ripe old age of 13 and after the training never ate poo again! LMAO

Great job. :) 

Ours does this too, including chicken and wild turkey poop.

......but she has also eaten her own!! Well, to be fair she only did it when we had the really big snow storm and when she would not go we eventually resorted to letting her out onto the back deck and she would poop/pee on the snow. I think she knew it was wrong and wanted to get rid of the evidence. She did not appear to want to eat it, it was a slow process but she insisted on finishing even though we tried to stop her. After that we made sure we got rid of it before letting her on to the deck. She never did this with her "ground" poop. We live on a small farm so we don't usually pick up her poop from her "spots", just let it decompose.