poo eater

[heather331]

I can not get my 15 week old puppy to stop eating her poo! she is not house trained yet but we are working on it. If she goes outside i can catch her if she is trying to do it but she gets sneaky inside and will go into the kitchen or away from me where i cant see her and she will poo. then when i call her she will come running around the corner with a poo in her mouth like its a treat. does anyone have any experience with this or have any suggestions?

[K9Friend]

patience and a routine is what you need.
How many times a day do you feed your dog?
Most pups will poo 15 min to 30 min after eating first thing in the morning.
When your pup poos outside - PRAISE, and give her a small treat.

[Lucky Rescue]

This behavior is so common it could be said to be normal.

You aren't going to get her housetrained if you allow her to go around the house and relieve herself. Your goal is to prevent mistakes and accidents and not try and correct after the fact.

Inside, you must either confine her or tie her to you with a leash and take her outside at regular intervals, also on leash so you can stop her from eating her stools.

Take her out after she eats, plays and wakes up. Stand there until she goes, then praise her and if she tries to eat it, say "Leave it" and direct her away.

[heather331]

i dont allow her to potty in the house...i am working very hard on potty training, but she does have accidents. as far as feeding (i already know im going to get lectured for this) she doesnt get fed on a set schedule. if i notice her bowl is empty ill fill it up. later if she wants more she will bark at her bowl or bring it to me.

[Prin]

Free feeding is fine as long as the dog is at a healthy weight. But, I hope you realize that it is much harder to judge when your dog will want to go out if you don't know when she ate, and that might hinder the housetraining process.

You can try charcoal cookies (they sell them at dog food stores). Those supposedly take some of the tasty smell away.

Otherwise, what food are you feeding? With foods that are high in fillers (like corn), a lot of unabsorbed food comes out the other end and the doggy can smell the proteins, etc, and will try to give it a second go to try to absorb as much as they can (not a good thing, as along with those nutrients comes E coli and other harmful bacteria from the colon....). You might want to think about switching to a better food if yours has fillers in it.

(Just from experience, my doggies were on the best food at my park and when the poopie-eater used to come to the park, my doggies' loads were the only ones she didn't care at all for... Just a little anecdotal evidence, but sometimes it's not about the food at all.... )

[Lucky Rescue]

Free feeding a puppy is going to make housetraining very tricky and impossible to set a schedule. It can also make dogs overweight and very picky eaters. I really suggest you feed her meals at set times, and take the bowl away if not eaten within 15 minutes or so.

gets sneaky inside and will go into the kitchen or away from me where i cant see her and she will poo.

If you confine her when you can't watch her, or tie her to you, she wouldn't be able to do this. Every time she poops in the house, the behavior is reinforced because it feels good!

But of course, it's your choice!

[heather331]

she eats purina puppy chow...is that ok? if not what is better for her? I would like to start feeding her on a set schedule but she is a nibbler. she will get a mouthful of food and then lay down and eat it and then go back for more later. she never stands there and eats alot at one time. do you still suggest i take up her bowl. how many times a day should she eat and when?

[StaceyB]

She should be supervised at all times and if you are unable to she needs to be in a safe room or crated. She should not be able to leave your sight, use gates. As for the other, as gross as it is as long as it is her own it doesn't pose a health risk. You can get deter, I believe she is old enough to take it. The best solution is to clean it as soon as it happens.

[technodoll]

Puppy chow (and any other stuff you can pluck off grocery and pharmacy shelves & walmart) is the lowest-grade dog food on the market and IMO, no dog should be submitted to it So, no big surprise that your puppy is not a big eater... it is fillers, preservatives, meat by-products and low-quality grains. Better to dump that bag and go get her a some holistic kibble, i am pretty sure you will see an improvement on her appetite. adding a bit of canned food to the dry food at mealtimes will ensure she eats her meals when you put the bowl down. Twice per day should do it for her age. if she does not eat after 20 minutes, pick up & put away until next mealtime. Your puppy will quickly understand that she either eats when the food is there, or it will go away. this will help you twofold: she will not feel the need or desire to eat her poop anymore, and her housebreaking will be that much easier since you will know exactly what needs to go out, based on what went in, and when.

here is a great resource to get you started: The dog food project: identifying better foods
http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood/index.php?page=identify

(hint: the better dog foods are only available in good pet shops)

another good article: http://www.boxerworld.com/feeding/

:queen:

[heather331]

could someone give me a few brands of food that are good for her

[Prin]

These two are the best two I have found so far... You can look at them and compare with the ingredients in the puppy chow. Which would you eat?

Merrick Puppy Plate

Wellness Super5Mix Puppy
If you have a large breed doggie, this one is great too: Solid Gold WolfCub

[technodoll]

here you go:

http://www.iei.net/~ebreeden/kibble.html

(IMO, Iams and Eukanuba (pukanuba!), Pro Plan and Science Crap (diet) should NOT be on that list, but the rest looks ok)

top would be: California Natural, Nature's Variety, Eagle Pack, Flint River, Wellness, Go!Natural, Merrick...

[StaceyB]

You will find that she will actually eat better meals on a schedule. Take her food off the floor now and only leave water. Tomorrow give her the food for no more than 20 min. After the 20 min take the food away whether she ate it or not. Don't leave it longer and don't place it down again until the next scheduled feeding. She probably won't eat much for the first few feeding, don't worry. She will start to get hungry and begin to understand when the food appears and when it doesn't.
Free feeding dogs especially puppies can affect all areas of training.

[heather331]

im not very familar with alot of those foods. i know of science diet and iams and those were listed. ill try either of those. thanks for the help!

[Prin]

No, Science Diet and Iams are nearly as bad as Puppy Chow. You should head to the dog food forum to learn about how to read ingredient labels.

[technodoll]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

No science diet and no iams!!! they are bottom of the pile. please read the links i posted to get a better understanding on how to read dog food labels, and you will see what i mean!!!

[Prin]

Originally Posted by technodoll

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

LOL Technodoll, I held back on my reaction.

[technodoll]

ya gotta let it out sometimes, LOL!

man i hate those dog food mega corporations

[Prin]

I hate how the ones who advertise the most and have their names at the tip of everybody's tongue are the crappiest and most horrible foods out there! I hate how the price difference is a deterrent for people to switch when in the long run it costs you less because you feed less and you don't have to bring your dog to the vet for little things all the time. If only people knew. It only takes max 6 months to figure it out and to never go back.

[heather331]

geeezzz....im lost
the only two i was familiar with are bad? where can i find these other kinds? i didnt know this was so complicated. Ive had dogs all my life and we always fed them "normal" (grocrey store) food. ahyayaya

[Prin]

You may have always fed grocery store foods, but that is because you didn't have us to show you that there are way better foods! Usually those foods are in dog food stores or stores that sell the higher end foods and toys (like a pet shop without the pets...). The Solid Gold website has a store locator on it.

[technodoll]

oh darling no worries, i too had to learn (the hard way) and remember that knowledge is power, the more you know, the more you can make great choices for your beloved furkids. and knowledge is right here, at your fingertips! and it's very easy!

first, you need to spend a few minutes reading.

please read these two articles and then let's take this over to the dog food section and continue chatting... ask questions... you will get fantastic answers from everyone i'm sure.

http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood/index.php?page=identify

http://www.boxerworld.com/feeding/

you'll see this is FUN! and your dog will thank you for it!

[heather331]

i just checked online at petsmart and they dont carry any of those foods. there are no other petstore where i live. what should i do?

[Prin]

Here's a short crash course:

IAMS puppy food (first few ingredients):

Chicken, Corn Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Chicken By-Product Meal, Fish Meal (source of fish oil), Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E, and Citric Acid), Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed), Natural Chicken Flavor, Dried Egg Product, Brewers Dried Yeast,

Wellness Super5Mix Puppy (ALL ingredients):

Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Oatmeal, Ground Barley, Salmon Meal (natural source of DHA), Canola Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols, a natural source of vitamin E), Ground Brown Rice, Rice Bran (from brown rice), Tomatoes (natural source of lycopene), Natural Chicken Flavor, Rye Flour, Ground Millet, Flaxseed, Carrots, Apples, Spinach, Blueberries, Sweet Potatoes, Potassium Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate

The ones I put in bold are ingredients you should avoid if you can. Corn meal is dehydrated corn. "Chicken" is not dehydrated, "Chicken Meal" is. Even being the second ingredient, there is probably more corn than chicken because the weight of the chicken drops down after cooking when all the water evaporates out of it.

"By-products"- all the stuff that is too disgusting for any humans to eat- they can contain decaying/rotting chickens too...

"Fish Meal"-- what fish? Trout? Salmon? Guppies? Ingredients should be more specific.

Beet Pulp is another filler. It's in there to harden the stools (there is a thread about stool hardeners in the dog food forum from a couple of weeks ago). Hardeners make your dog seem healthier because it takes a lot more to get diarrhea (something that isn't pleasant but is very helpful when judging how healthy your doggy is).

Egg product- eggs not fit for human consumption.

Brewers' anything (rice or yeast)- whatever is left after processing for human foods (i.e. not many nutrients).

You get the picture? Now look at the Wellness- there's not much in there that a normal person would not eat.

[technodoll]

ok give me the petsmart link and i will find a good food for you in their list, ok ?

[Prin]

Originally Posted by heather331

i just checked online at petsmart and they dont carry any of those foods. there are no other petstore where i live. what should i do?

Call me naive, but if there's a big enough market for a petsmart to open up, I'm pretty sure there will be a few smaller dog food stores around. Have you tried the store locator on Solid Gold's site? Store Locator

[technodoll]

great crash course Prin!

[Prin]

I have to keep up my foody reputation... (It's expected of me at this point)

[technodoll]

i am soooo happy to have an ally!

so what do you feed your furkids?... and how did you get passionate about this subject (as i obviously am too, LOL)?

[Prin]

Solid Gold Wolf King (I have one allergic to wheat and corn and the other has a chicken intolerance...)