Quote: pauline stapels

Hmm, I suspected it might be a diet thing but I didn't want to mess with her food if unnecessary. I didn't know that she should be on adult food now.

There is really no reason for a pup to be on "puppy" food after 5 months. The Mal pup I have now has never had kibble, only raw.

If the switch does not help, I would take her in for a visit, since it could be a deficiency of some sort.

Even though the GSD's stopped after diet switch, your dog may be different. Just something to keep in the back of your mind.
Let us know how it turns out for you.

Pauline, I certainly sympathize. My 4-month-old mixed breed is absolutely obsessed with poop. Obsessed. He won't pay any attention to anything until he has eaten some. When he sees another dog squatting, his ears go up and I have to hold him back - he will eat it as it's coming out. He is on lead and he will be so quick.... a fast grab as he walks by and gulp it down before I can even correct him.

My guess is, he observed his mother cleaning up after them - she did this even after the pups were weaned. Three of the four pups in his litter are poop eaters. I wonder if your dog's mother cleaned up after them after they were weaned? Hm.

He was weaned onto Wellness puppy and switched to Innova adult at around 8 or 9 weeks.

I hope a diet change can help you - if not, you can look into a product called "Forbid" that you feed to the dog that makes its poops unappetizing. That's my next step. Good luck! and, you're not alone.

Wow! She's not that bad yet! That's horrible!

After some reading and thinking about what you guys said, it occurred to me that this behavior began over the last week as I switched her from one brand of food to another. (Prairie?) It was something my parents had given her prior to me getting her at Christmas.

So, I still had the empty bag from finishing it off the other day (I had been mixing it with the Nutro all week), and I examined the ingredients. The Prairie has beef as the primary ingredient, and the Nutro has chicken and rice. They don't have Prairie here where I live (500 miles from my parents) but they did have EVO, which has lots of beef, lamb, and buffalo meat. (The day I see a dog chase down a buffalo and eat it as a "natural" diet I'll be impressed). I'll try mixing this with the Nutro and see what happens over the next couple days.

I looked at the recommended Embark, but I really can't afford that. Hopefully this will help. I have some Greenies to clean up her breath in the meantime.

Thanks again everyone! This forum is great!

She goes to the vet on Tuesday, so I'll ask him about it as well.

Be very careful with Greenies.

Honestly, the Embark is not that expensive if you figure it per pound by what it rehydrates to (approx. 4x the bag weight). Orijen is an excellent kibble, too, better than EVO in the long run, IMO.

(Sadly), don't be surprised if the vet knows zilch about nutrition...

 Quote: Jenni Williams

(Sadly), don't be surprised if the vet knows zilch about nutrition...

Of course the 4 hours they got in nutrition training while in school will make them an authority on recommending what ever brand they happen to be selling in their lobby.

 Quote: Jenni Williams

Be very careful with Greenies.

I will, thanks. She's good about chewing up her food really well. It was just a little one.

I'm pretty confident about my vet. He's really great. I'm pretty sure he would tell me if he didn't have solid advice, as opposed to just peddling whatever.

Ugggh!! Now she pooped in her crate overnight and ate it!!

Should I feed her more???

What time of the morning and evening are you feeding her? You could try feeding her earlier in the evening and making sure she goes before bedtime.
And, a vet visit and some blood work and taking a fecal sample with you probably would not hurt.

If you feed her more kibble, she will go potty more and there is more of a chance of this happening again.

She hadn't gone at all yesterday (#2 that is) and it was icy and rainy out in the evening so I couldn't take her for a walk to work it out. I did let her out -several- times though before bed and she was completely disinterested in doing her duty to the snow piles. She is -really- good about peeing though.

Usually she has breakfast around 9:30 am, then dinner at 6:00 pm, and I put her to bed around midnight.

I go to the vet today, I'll ask him about it. Unfortunately I don't have any samples to take with me since she ate them!

A dog that poops in its crate and eats it is tough to break. It's a self reinforcing habit. You need to make pooping outside a bigger reward than eating his poop.

Take him outside and totally ignore him until he poops. No talk, no eye contact, no play. After he does his business outside give him the highest value treat you can find...Stinky cheese? beef liver?...as a marker, then go immediately into his favorite game, for a good 5 minutes.