ok, anyone else have to get a pup to not eat poop??? Does the stuff that you add to their food to make it taste heinous work?? (as if it could possibly taste good to begin with) at least he seems to be only interested in his own and not the labs...also anyone have those waste containment jobbies that you put in the ground and add enzyme too?

now for my chance to be opinionated about "haltis" while Im at it...they are not a training tool!!!!!! you dont train a dog anything on a halti!! I had/still have a halti from helping a friend move around seriously unruly large dogs that were not trained very well..thats it!! if you give a correction with a halti you have a fairly great risk of seriously damaging the animals neck.....the packaging says this..Im astonished at any vet that would say corrections with a halti..they have their place, training isnt it.

ok...back to the poop...help??

Having adopted a dog who had the poop eating *habit* and having tried everything on the market from more *quality*(expensive) ki**le, to the products such as *forbid* that you add to the food, which I found to be a waste of $$$,I think I am an *expert* on poop!

The only thing that worked with my dog is switching her to Raw Meaty Bones and getting her off of the ki**le crapinabag. Once I did that, she quit eating her poop completely.

Before that the only thing that worked somewhat successfully is following her around with a shovel and picking up after her as soon as she went.

There seems to be a strong correlation between how "meaty" the poop smells and how much they delight in eating it. I mean, look at how fast dogs head for the catbox.

Cat kibble is full of protein and aroma enhancement that gets excreted by the cats. My vet said that's why the dog is so attracted to it.

I would guess the same with dog kibble, and especially if the protein content is high or the dog is not good at metabolising what it's getting. At the kennel when the greyhounds were on a performance diet (horsemeat "stew" without kibble) they didn't eat poop, but when they moved to homes and started on kibble was when they started eating it.

Pups will try anything and dogs are trashcans with teeth (witness the technicolor poop from crayon eating, the occasional embedded GI Joe amputation).

Digesters (Doggie Dooley) only work when it's warm enough. You have to keep them below the frost line, and even then the bacteria in the one we built died when it was cold. Then if you keep tossing in poop it's a mess in the spring, all out of balance. We built ours.

I have to disagree with your vet on the meaty comment- Horse poo is just about all fiber and dogs LOVE it.

Jeesh- my dogs would dig it out and eat it frozen in the winter months! Blitz couldn't understand why I wouldn't let him bring chunks of it in the house to thaw for later... ugh...

The best way to keep a dog from developing this habit is to be with them and on lead. A pup that has been raised in less than clean circumstances may have also already learned this before you bring the dog home. With puppies- feeding a treat of high value right after elimination seems to be enough distraction to keep them from smelling and sampling their wastes.

Doggie dooleys are a waste of time and money.

I got interrupted, but I was going to say the same, the digester was a waste of sweat.

We tried it because the city we were living in would not pick up poop with the trash, no matter how it was bagged. If they suspected you were "hiding" it in other garbage or yard "waste" they ripped the bags open -- and then didn't take the opened bags -- poop or no poop.

We had to haul ours twice a week and put it in our vet's dumpster. :rolleyes:

You, like me, live where the winter is cold and freezes for a long time, which means even if it worked, it would only work 2/3 of the year at best.

ok...yeah, I live in ct, I hadnt even thought of frozen factor. I just remember doing an estate clean-out on a house a few yrs back that had an old cast iron one-like version of what they sell now. The yard was spotless at that house. Cleanliness and poop eating, the pup did come from a litter of ten all kept ina puppy pen.The cleanliness of the place was the only thing I was somewhat weary of when I went to look at him but it was farm (hobby breeder of herding sheps on his farm)but the actual workibility of the bitch and dog turned me on and the guys obvious love for his dogs/the breed.
Anyway, the food thing, Im a reformed Iams user as both my friend's and my own dog died within a week of each other from hemangiosarcoma...this made me suspicious of preservitives and other crap fillers....at the moment Im feeding Natures Balance duck and potato (the lab's coat and eyes cleared up wonderfully in less then three days)Im still tryin to figure out what works for the pup...Im not prepared to do anything home-cooked so if anyone has any suggestions for something commercially available that isnt total junk it would be appreciated or a web site with info so I can make an intelligent choice.
Funny how im opinionated about everyone else dogs but am feelin unsure about the new guy *sigh*

All commercial dog food is total junk.

After trying brand after brand of commercial dog food,each one costing more $$$, and with my dogs becoming more and more unhealthy, a breeder tuned me into a *species appropriate diet* or Raw Meaty Bones, and no vacc's or chemicals. My dogs are finally becoming totally healthy. Last year at this time, I didn't think I would have one of my dogs this year at this time, but he is acting like a puppy again! Both my dogs skin problems are cured and my female Aussie's chronic ear infections are a thing of the past.

Ed feeds his dogs a raw diet and has a lot of information on this site on how to do it.

I feel this is the best thing I have ever done for my dogs.

There are some good lists on rawfeeding and no vacc's too if you are interested in learning more about it.

Lois
I do not agree with your statement that all dry foods are junk. I have fed an middle of the road 30/20 (maximum nutrition)for years now with some supplementation and occasionally some meat and my dogs have done great. My opinion is that people need to kick their dogs out of the house and let them be dogs and you will see a lot less health issues. Especially allergies.

Mike, have you ever met a dog that was fed raw? You only think that kibble fed dogs are healthy until you see dogs that are fed raw. Some kibble is better than others, but none of it comares to the real thing.

I feed California Natural, cottage cheese and some home made (raw isn't an option right now) with generous suupplementation. Auster doesn't compare to when she was on Proplan, Purina ONE, Science Diet, etc. Yet, she is still not as healthy as she could be on raw.

Lauren
Yes I have seen several that were fed raw and I also tried it just so I could compare it. I don't have anything against raw foods, and as a matter of fact, I have been speaking out for unprocessed or less processed foods for years. I do know that dogs can do well and thrive on good dry food if you supplement them and keep them fit and living like dogs should.