calliecritturs
Posted : 3/8/2010 7:36:29 PM
Nothing works for sure -- I've used For-bid from the vet and it deters her for a LITTLE while but as soon as you stop using it they resume.
You have to do WHATEVER you do to all the resident dogs food -- pumpkin might help, papaya might help (papaya juice works best - and I just stirred it into the homecooked food I made).
DO NOT USE meat tenderizer. it's 99% salt and when I tried it years ago (at a vet's suggestion) I wound up with ALL of my dogs having kidney problems for a while. It's just plain almost PURE salt with some papaya enzyme (which is really what apparently can be effective).
You can use papaya pilsl but be VERY VERY sparing -- like make one capsule do for 4 days for one dog. You have to do it EVERY meal -- literally what you're trying to do is make it taste rancid to them -- and quite honestly most dogs who "partake" don't care about taste.
Now - my theory is this -- the more digestible the food the better. But some dogs are just going to do it.
But if you feed a very high protein food -- then honestly their bodies only use so much of it, so to be honest a premium food can bite you because it's loaded with goodies not used in the waste. We have a very strong trend right now to feeding very high protein foods and most dogs just plain don't use it.
It tends to be the high protein that attracts them -- they smell it in the poop.
The dogs I've had that have been the worst offenders have been starved at some point in their life and they just plain can NOT pass up a meal. Kee Shu was horrible about it. Tink is also. I've seen her make herself SO SICK on it she'll puke -- and go right back to it.
I think there are as many reasons for it as there are dogs who do it -- I think for some they are just driven to consume any protein they find. Some are merely opportunists.
It may help you to put the dog on a long leash even in the back yard -- and when you see them going for it -- it gives you that extra 20 feet of "control" to drag them away from it. That sounds awful but sometimes it's the only thing you can do.
You can NOT use the stuff from the vet and the petstore long term. But avoid meat tenderizer like the plague -- that one is really truly horrible for them -- if you read the label it's salt and papaya enzyme. The papaya you CAN do.