Delilah has a nasty habit.
I really thought we had broken her of the habit, in fact last week at obedience class I proudly said, “She doesn’t do that anymore.”
This Thursday she proved me wrong by burping in my face, I can’t even begin to tell you how disgusting the smell was, it lingered for at least five minutes.
I had been using Solid Gold S.E.P (Stop Eating Poop) but the supplement was expensive, and since we feed them raw well I had to cut expenses somewhere. I heard that pineapple will make the poop undesirable so I’ve been packing their kongs with pineapple chunks.
Someone suggested that I should put hot sauce on the poop, but I figure if I’m going outside to sprinkle hot sauce I might just as well pick up the poop.
Which is what I did this afternoon.
This is our yard. As you can see (which somehow we missed when we looked at the house) it’s really not all that functional. It is fenced in so the dogs can be outside without us. But it also has a lot of low, scrubby growth out there so we really don’t use it a lot.
I’ve told you before I am a lazy busy dog owner.
My friend Sherri once told me, “I don’t worry about the poop, it dissolves on its own.”
Well that doesn’t really seem to hold true with my dog’s poop. At least if you are judging by the amount of poop I picked up today.
I’m pretty sure there is still some poop out there, but I got a LOT of it up. After about a half an hour out there my back was killing me and I’d had enough. Plus we were leaving for my grandson’s 4th birthday party. (Between picking up poop and an hour at Bounce Town, I’m just about ready for a hot tub.)
So now my treat bag, and clicker are next to the back door along with my boots and I am going to see if I can teach Delilah to “leave it.”
After picking up so much poop I told Hubby today
1) I want a pooper scooper
2) I want one of those Doggie Dooley’s
3) I know why she eats it, there are bones and chunks of carrots in there, it is just another food source for her.
I realize she will probably always eat deer poop, she couldn’t possibly pass that up. But I thought we’d broken her of the habit of eating dog poop.
Hubby said it best today, Delilah is in survival mode.
ALWAYS.
Knowing she came from Louisiana around the time of Katrina and Rita it’s very possible she had to survive on her own for a period of time.
How do you help a dog with these issues overcome them?
I’m open to suggestions.
jodistone 
Comments on: "She’s At It Again" (25)
I wish I had a suggestion! Almost every lab I’ve ever met, most of whom have been looked after in loving homes from day 1, have eaten poo. It’s why I chose ridgeback over lab. And guess what… ridgebacks eat poo too.
A long time ago I heard dogs that do that are missing something in their diet, but I don’t think that is the case. I think they look at it as another food source.
I’m sorry that ridgebacks eat poo too. We are rowing the same boat! LOL
Ah I wish I could help you out, ha I could use some help in that department too. Both puppies do it too, funny thing is I think it is only their mothers they are eating. They do not eat their own. I have heard if you put Adolph’s meat tenderizer on their food that will make the poop taste bad. I went out the other day and put a ton of black pepper on the poop I caught them about to eat and as far as I know they left it alone but I am with you, if I am going to walk out there I am picking it up! some dogs just do it. Riva and Cheyenne do not but my first Chessie did, her own, so much that one day she gorged on it and then promptly came in the house and puked it all over the carpet, now if that wasn’t the worse thing in the world to clean up!
I didn’t want to put that in the post Misty, but she did that this past summer. OMG it was so disgusting, my nephew who was on leave from Afghanistan had to leave the house. She did it twice, that is when I started them on the supplement. Sampson would bring a frozen one in the house once in a while but not to eat. I’m not sure if she eats her own or not, but I caught her at daycare on Friday eating some and I know she eats it in the yard. I will be going out with her to insure she doesn’t do it. At least until I find another solution. Thank you for sharing, I hope you break the puppies of it early.
I did a post on this and one of my readers said her vet gave her drops to make the poop smell so bad that the dog wouldn’t eat it. No, I can’t imagine what that would smell like either. Dogs need constant reminders, maybe daily pineapple doses?
They do get daily doses of pineapple, in their Kongs I put pineapple and either peaches or pears and some yogurt. I will ask the vet when we go next Jan, thanks for the tip.
My Foxy is a recovering poop addict. And like some addicts, she has relapses sometimes. Foxy used to be horrible with eating poop! Especially when she was still not potty trained. I’d come home from work & be so pleased that she didn’t have any accidents. Until she threw it up afterwards. And Foxy doesn’t discriminate when it comes to poop – she eats ALL poop. My other dog, Hefner, use to look at her in disgust as I used to chase her around the yard as she had a mouthful of Hef’s business. I tried EVERYTHING. The only thing that works is picking up the poop right after she goes (& when I had my other dog, his too). It was a pain in the butt b/c I had a fenced in yard & I could no longer just let her out & go about my business.
I now live w/my elderly roommates (aka, the ‘rents) and they don’t have a fenced in yard so I automatically pick her poop anyway. But we have a lot of neighborhood cats that like to poop in our backyard & she’s tried to get it. I give her a stern “Leave It” & it usually works.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you just have to pick up the poop 😦
I remember your advice from the last time I wrote about it Meesh. I will continue to work her with the clicker and the treats but will do my best to go out there and pick up after them. It’s not always easy but you are right and she is not discriminatory either!!
Sadie eats Maggie’s poop. Nothing has worked so far – including SEP and pineapple. She just loves her some Maggie poop. She has taught Hurley to eat poop. Not sure who’s poop Hurley is eating except for sure Maggie’s. If I catch Sadie and knock on a window, she’ll stop. Hurley doesn’t. He continues enjoying his poop while looking right at me. Truly awful. We just started them all on SEP a couple weeks ago after pineapple failed to curb Hurley. The pooper scooper is my best friend.
It took the S.E.P. a LONG time to work. But once it did, I really did notice the difference, it was just too costly for me. Someone else told me sometimes raw zucchini will help. I haven’t tried that yet. 🙂
Good luck with your poop eaters, it’s just so disgusting.
I can tell that you are getting tons of advice here. Ernie and I Both eat Rabbit Poop. It is soooooo delicious. Butt we don’t eat OUR poops. Mom goes out with this spatula thingy and a thingy that she flips our poops on. She LOVES our poops. She has a special place that she takes them and she is building a HOOOOOGE Poop Sculpture there. Since she TREASURES our poops so much we would not consider recycling it. Wouldn’t want to deprive her of such a beloved experience and medium fur her creative needs. I’m just sayin.
OMD you did make me laugh on that one you two! I don’t have a special place for a poop sculpture yet, but I will make one and I will find one of those spatula thingys too.
I think they love the deer poops like you guys love the rabbit. :-0 thanks for weighing in on this one Frankie Furter!
Good luck with your problem. We don’t have that issue AFAIK, but we scoop as we go. Storm will eat any sort of other animal poop if left on her own, (not dog, but wild animals). We don’t because…YUCK!
PS I can’t wait to hear about whistle training. 🙂
LOL Yes, I need to start scooping as we go too. I think that is the only way this is going to work. They will both eat other animal poop and especially love deer and cat. GROSS.
I will write a post about whistle training, I promise. 🙂
Yep, I’ve had a poop eater. It’s disgusting. And unfortunately the only surefire solution I’ve found is scooping the poop immediately. Yes, I know it’s not a very fun thing to do barefooted in the snow wearing a nightie. But your neighbors will find it endlessly amusing. 🙂
BTW, I bought a Doggy Dooley when I was living in Philly and couldn’t use it. Once we got it home we found the instructions that said you had to have well-drained soil to a depth of six feet. If you didn’t the poop wouldn’t compost. With our heavy clay soil, it just wasn’t going to work.
It’s vile and you are right, scooping will help but that won’t stop her say at daycare or the park. Somehow I don’t think my neighbors would find me amusing. 🙂
It is good to know about the Dooley, we have a very rocky yard so that might not be the best solution for us!
Oh god – she and Toby ARE related, and because of that, I know nothing that works. We’ve tried everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. My condolences.
Thanks Donna, scooping will keep her from eating in the yard but it won’t stop her anywhere else. Why, why do they do it?
We had decent luck with a bromelain supplement. I found that Koly could eat enough pineapple to make a difference on it’s own, but the supplement was good. Thankfully, he utgrew it because yah, um…gross dude.
Thanks Jodi, I will check out that supplement, do you have a recommended dosage?
I must admit I held my breath after you revealed that Delilah had burped in your face and I didn’t let go until the end of the post! I wish I could give advice Jodi but I have no experience of this. I hope you find a solution soon.
You poor thing! I couldn’t hold my breath it was right there in front of me. So gross. And I just don’t get the appeal.
oh boy, this does not sound like fun. the only other thing i can think of is the theory that dogs sometimes eat poop just to get it out of the area–like if you never clean up your yard, the dog will not want to go in a poop-filled yard and will have to clean it up himself somehow.
but your yard is HUGE, so i really cannot imagine it’s filling up with poop and you literally never clean it up.
i hope you figure it out soon!
I really thinks she considers it another food source. It has chunks of carrot and bone it, why wouldn’t it seem that way? I’ve heard other people with dogs on raw that have a similar experience.
I hope so too, thanks for checking in and commenting!
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