My dog Pearl likes to eat things she shouldn’t. Whether it be batteries, mobile phones, DVDs, stuffed animals, or paper, it’s mostly just an annoyance and I worry about things getting stuck in her stomach. One thing I really don’t like her eating, however, is poop. I have often looked out of the kitchen window to see her wolfing down some doggie leftovers. I have even caught her waiting, MOUTH OPEN, underneath Porter or Rosie.
What’s worse is that she’s taught Porter that eating crap is a great idea, so now he’s doing it, too.
I researched this online, and found a few suggestions on adding things to a dog’s diet to make their deuces less tasty. I thought this was kinda odd, since I figured droppings were nasty to begin with. But after reading reviews on Amazon.com and a few pet Web sites, I decided to give For-bid by Alpar Labs a try.
For-bid is a powder that you sprinkle on top of your dog’s food. It apparently doesn’t change the taste of their food at all, and all three of my dogs chomped their meals down as normal. I gave the recommended four gram dosage to each dog twice daily for six days. I followed that up with the recommended one gram dosage per meal.
I thought the For-bid was working at first. The initial few days seemed good; I didn’t notice Pearl waiting for Rosie to release her hostages. I began to get suspicious when Porter barfed up a bunch of pureed puppy waste paste on the floor, but chalked that up to them finding some treats without the For-bid in it. However, by the time I got to the one gram dose stage I knew Pearl and Porter were at it again.
I still have sixteen grams worth of product left (I bought twenty-four twelve gram packets) if someone wants to give it a try with their dogs. However, I can confidently say that Alpar Lab’s For-bid powder didn’t work in this household.
EntirelyPets (an Amazon.com store) was great with regards to order processing; I bought two twelve-packets packages for about $26 shipped via Amazon Prime.
Unfortunately, For-bid by Alpar Labs is not recommended.
Does anyone have any other anti-poopchomping suggestions?
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Thank god my dogs don’t eat poo. Aiden though does eat wood, and I need to find a way to get him to stop.
As a puppy, O-Monster would eat poop…not his, but others’. Cat poop, dog poop and he LOVED horse poop. But after initial exploration and some scolding he stopped. There are a number of reasons your Pearlie may be eating “the logs of another” and I have an idea of how you can treat it, but I would like to know a few things first, if you have the time to answer them:
1. How old is she?
2. When does she eat it and how often?
3. Is she alone when she does eat it or does she try to do it in your presence?
4. How many times a day do you feed your dogs and? What quality of food do you feed them?
5. Has she eaten other types of animal feces?
6. Does she play with it or full on chowdown?
7. How do you scold her about it and in response to the scolding how does she act?
8. Has she eaten her own or is just someone elses?
9. How long has this been going on with her?
10. Does this situation happen indoors after “accidents” or is it mostly outdoors?
Hey there … thanks for responding, here are some short answers to your questions:
1) She’ll be two this year.
2) Fairly regularly. Especially if another dog has freshly laid an egg.
3) Either, she’s an equal opportunity coprophage.
4) Twice a day, and I feed them Science Diet. I also give them a children’s chewable vitamin every time I take one (twice a day).
5) Not that I’m aware of.
6) NOM NOM NOM. Chowdown only.
7) I normally yell at her from the deck (the back yard is pretty big). She skulks, but mostly because she knows that’s my pissed voice.
8) Just Porter and Rosie’s.
9) Months … not really sure.
10) Outdoors only, never in.
Any advice? :)
These are very helpful responses, Doc. Obviously, take what I’m about to say take it for what it’s worth (meaning take into account what I only know from what you’ve said, and you knowing my own doggie history).
So with her, since it’s been going on for approx months, it’s now a learned behavior. This means short term, or quick tricks won’t necessarily work.
Just as an aside, I’m curious if the children vitamins you are providing are a tastey substance for her and something of nutrient value she feels an urge to have. (Most of the need for eating feces among many mammals is due for nutrients…after that it’s usually a medical issue either physical and/or mental.
Since this is happening outside, I’d do a couple of “behavioral” tricks with her. This means you’re going to have to be brave with…poo. There I said it. When she’s not around you…either inside or whatever, steal some and either insert some garlic or you could do the hot sauce trick, but that’s mean to me. (You can also try to put garlic in their food as supposedly it comes out to be quite repelling). This also works on vampires, but I digress.
After “lacing” the poo, plant it somewhere in the usual spot first and see what happens. Because this is a learned behavior, you’re going to have to provide a few behavioral tricks that aren’t as easy as just doing a food supplement. You’re going to have to catch her in the act. See if she tries to eat the new pile you supplied, scold her right then. 2 things happen-the odor/taste will turn her off as well as the fear of disappointing you.
If she doesn’t quite get it, keep at it. Try putting the pile in different places.
Last…once she finally gets eating poo poo is not a good idea, put some piles in places when you take her on a walk. Let her sniff it if she wants to, but she should keep away from being too interested. If you start to see her get too “intimate” with the pile…like she really wants to dive in, correct her and keep going. Soon she’ll tell you when she’s finally learned her lesson.
Again, just my gut feeling on this, but since she’s got another one of your dogs exploring it now I’d say you need to step in and intervene versus leaving it up to supplements alone.
I hope this helps. Let me know how it goes.
My two monkeys that stay with my parents eat poop. My parents have talked with the vet, and know that the little monsters are getting the nutrients that they need in their diet.
My parents have played around with the idea of giving them stuff that makes the poop taste bad, but that won’t stop Pippin. Like Pearl he has an iron stomach (jalapeños, rocks, banana tree leaves, wood, lizards, tomatoes, etc.) My parents ended up having to lessen the temptation.
That means scooping the poop :) Which has worked a lot.
Sorry, erin clare but the garlic idea scares me because garlic is one of those things like onions that you aren’t suppose to give to dogs or cats because they can have a really bad reaction to it.
Oh, also I read this article awhile ago and it might answer some of your questions about poop eating too.
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2085&aid=155
Don’t be sorry. It’s a good point, Starbuck. I haven’t had a problem with garlic*, but that doesn’t mean someone else won’t. I took it for granted that unsavory dietary items should be at the discretion of the owner’s knowledge of their own dog’s diet and tolerances, as well as approval from their vet (which obviously I am not). Probably should have openned with a larger caveat.
*I should mention garlic powder was used…not chopped up raw garlic. We sprinkled it on dog food and horse feed when our animals became “habitual offenders”
Doc, it will be good to hear how it turns out. In the meantime, can you post a pic of the lil culprit? :) Pleez…and maybe all three of them? I bet they are a trio of ultimate mayhem.
Poop eating (coprophagia) is probably the most frustrating doggie behavior one can have. I saw an episode of an Animal Planet show – don’t remember which – and the trainer demonstrated a method involving flags in the yard which were to mark the poop piles and every time the dog approached one, they made a fuss and loud noises to drive the dog away. At the end of the program, the trainer was praising the family for being consistent in using the “method that worked” – then just as the camera was cutting away, the little devil dog was snacking away on a fresh pile!! Poor editing on the part of the show. In other words, even that method didn’t work. We’ve tried everything on our poop eater and finally gave up. We just don’t kiss her on the mouth anymore!