My two young Shelties aged 9 and 10 months have always enjoyed the delights of poo eating.
I know that Coproghagia is a normal behaviour in animals and common in dogs, although I would prefer they ate guinea or rabbit poo.
The problem is that in the younger of the two the habit is so bad that she will even vomit up the poo.

Her diet is not lacking, all of the dogs are on Arden Grange both complete and tinned plus a variety of tinned fish with fresh cooked vegetables and rice. Plus they are regularly wormed, fortunately it is only the poo of my own dogs that gets eaten.

She does however eat so fast that it's almost vacuumed up with very little chewing taking place, I wonder therefore if her food is passing through her before the most nutrients have been absorbed and that she's poo eating to get back some of the nutrients, she is not at all fat infact is more on the side of thin with spine and ribs easily felt.

If I increase the quantity of food her poo's get loose, I feel I need to slow down her eating rate.
My question is has anybody any experience of the 'Eat better bowl'?
It's not a cheap bowl but if it slowed the little madam down and helped with the poo issue I would get them.

Have never come across that bowl, or - thankfully! - had the problem you are having, but I have seen people recommended to put a tennis ball or similar in the dog's bowl to slow eating. I guess this would have the same effect as the bowl you refer to, but at a much cheaper price?

(Rubber ball probably more hygienic actually!)

Perhaps worth a try?

M.

That may be worth a try as the bowl is around £18 to £20, which is a tadge pricey

Also eating together causes competition and they will wolf down food.  May be a breed thing though so only a thought.

That's an interesting thought, I have 5 dogs, the old girls eat slowly and steadily and no-one would dare take their dinner, the two youngsters do gobble their own dinner and whoever finishes first will try to pinch off the other, maybe feeding in seperate rooms might help

Have been chatting at work (still getting my job done mind ;)
A colleague that plays golf has just given me a golf ball so I'm going to try that

>A colleague that plays golf has just given me a golf ball so I'm going to try that

No, please don't! A golfball is far too small, even for shelties, and could easily be swallowed and cause even worse problems.

Feed her in a separate room from the others - if necessary scatter her food over the floor so that she has to find it.

Yes your right, I was just looking at the ball and the size is iffy, if she didn't swallow it I'm sure the Retriever would manage to.

At the moment the youngsters eat out of smallish bowls, I'm going to feed them in very big bowls with the food spread about instead of neatly packed in a convenient easy to swallow pile.
I think as you say they would benefit from being split up a mealtimes.

I'm going to have to take drastic measures with them because I've had to pick up 3 vomits of poo this weekend and she's just eating more and more of it, it's rediculous, every time we go in the garden as soon as somebody 'produces' she's on it and gobbling it up

i would be down the vets getting a blood test. they could be lacking in vitamins.

this happened to my dog and its not pleasant.

best be on the safe side.

I had not considered this as they are extremely lively, bright and alert.
They both had a check up at 6 months and were found to be fine, although no bloods done.

I will bear it in mind, see what happens with changing my feeding regime and if there is no improvement then maybe another check-up may be needed.

Thanks for that point

I was told to put a large flat stone (mug/pint glass sise) on top of the dinner, to try to cure the beastie from inhaling his dinner rather than eating it. I never got around to trying it out, he calmed himself down when he realised the girls had been trained to only eat their own food and so his wasn't in any danger of being stolen.

Good idea with the stone, it crossed my mind if I use a ball I'll never get the Collie (one of the older girls) to eat her dinner as she's ball mad and not dinner mad

My vet told me to give the dog whose poo was being eaten a pineapple chunk daily and that would stop the other dog eating its poo.Dont know if it works though as ive never tried it.,

Pinky,
Have you tried splitting the dinner into 2 smaller portions then into larger bowls?

I haven't, but that is another good idea. I think the trick with her is to make her have to work for her dinner by using large bowls, spreading the food, about feeding her away from the others and I'm even going to bash some of the kibble up a bit as she just swallows them whole. I'll even give the pineapple a go as I've heard others mention it.

I know this poo eating is common but you would not believe the quantity she eats, there can be as many as 6 or 7 a day going down her gullet, from a freshly produced GR sized job to a frozen one from one of the other Shelties from the day before. I do poo patrol in the garden every day but when 5 dogs go out in the dark morning to perform I don't always spot them all.

The throwing up of poo has only started in the past week and it must be because she's eating so much, dirty little moo :(

> May be a breed thing

That's a point - my Mum's last Sheltie used to do that, especially when he was young. None of our Dogues or other breeds in days gone by ever did it. Mum used to put 'Deter' tablets on Dylan's food and it did seem to work. You can get them from Petmeds.
As she only had the one Sheltie at the time, it wasn't a competition thing.

Good luck.

As well as the risk of swallowing a golf ball the gel inside is highly toxic to dogs if it is split open.The only way I've known anyone to cure this habit is to get to the poo before the dogs do ;)

Pineapple is supposed to discourage poo-eating.  It's one of the few things I have not tried at one time or another.  

If she is very extreme - which she seems to be -  you might consider using a spray collar.  It would mean you have to follow her outside and when you notice her about to "indulge" you activitate the spray.   There was a lab on Dog Borstal a couple of months ago with the same problem - and as extreme as your Sheltie - and the trainers were able eliminate the behaviour. 

> The only way I've known anyone to cure this habit is to get to the poo before the dogs do ;-)

Yes pick up quick is by the far the best way.  To the OP here is the list of other things we did. 

*Let the dogs out seperately or to diff areas of the garden to isolate your poo eater from the rest.  *Follow them with a spade and bucket for quick collection. *Train the dog to the 'leave it command' - practise this a lot with treats indoors. *Keep a ball/toy handy for distraction.  *If fun distraction doesn't help make a loud noise instead just as the dog gets to the poo.  *Never let your poo eater outside on it's own.  *Use a long lead/line if you walk in fields with livestock - my boy was very sick after consuming large amounts of cow poo when he was out with my mother in law.

I associated this initially with the very hungry gannet, growing puppy, 'eat anything' phase as we used to notice there were times of day he was more likely to do it.   I was also aware it could become a habit if we ignored it.  We adjusted his food quantities and meal times until we were managing his appetite better and we were very vigilant to reduce the chances of him getting to it.   As a result it became much less of a problem and he seemed to grow out of it.  He will snatch sheep poo in the field if I let him but he no longer eats our other dogs poo thank goodness!! :)

 

Don't worry about the golf ball charlie72 it's already in the bin, as you say much too small and dangerous.

As far as catching the poo's before she does, I have to say I'm pretty fast off the mark and even in the dark I'm there with my torch and seaside bucket and spade. The dark mornings and nights plus leaves on the lawn make it more difficult to spot
It's only our own dog poo's she eats not outsiders so it's not a problem when walking, all of them will eat sheep poo mind.

I have taken to carrying my little shaker pot with goodies in it up the garden, trouble is if I catch her with one in her mouth there is no way she will let me get it off her she runs off and it's the only time when her re-call is bad.

We made changes to the feeding this evening, I have crushed the kibble so at least she's not swallowing whole ones, she had a much bigger bowl with the food spread out and she ate away from the other girls plus I gqve her a little more.
We shall see how things go in the garden later on :)

Maisie and Billy would be terrible poo eaters given the chance.  Their favourite is cat poo and they wait by the litter tray while the poor cat is trying to have a quiet one!  We have to be on call to dispose of the poo before they get to it.  Yeuchy!  I am sorry if this is disgusting and I don't know if this is true, but my very experienced 'doggy' friend says that human poo is the caviar of poo as far as dogs are concerned and to be very careful of this when walking in woods.  Why didn't I stick to cats!!!  They don't do things like this!!!

Regarding slowing down dogs who inhale their food, a treat ball is great for this.  They have to roll it around and WORK at getting the food out :-D  This makes them use their brains, gives them a bit of a work out and slows their eating too :-)  The only downside is that you would have to separate the dogs while they have their treat balls.

I have 2 different ones, a simple round one, bought from Tesco which the pups use and a Buster dog treat ball which is a cube, but with all the corners rounded and is harder to get the treats/food out of, it can also be made even more difficult ;)  All my dogs LOVE to get their dinner in these, even tho none of them inhale their food any more and it's just for fun ;)

Regarding the poo eating, fresh pineapple works best, and also fresh grated courgette, but the pineapple would probably be more popular ;)

It could be that the food doesn't agree with your dog, it may be worth trying a different food, just to see if it helps ;)

Hi Dill
I have two treat balls and 5 kongs, they all love these and use them well, it's odd but when using these my poo eater actually chews the food.

I think the main problem is as a few other posters have said, meal time for Isla is competition, it must be eaten really fast then nobody else can get it and she may also be able to pinch from somebody else.

The eating like a vacuum cleaner must be causing her to not digest and absorb as well as she might hence she is trying to get further calories from re-eating.

This evening tea was less frenetic, I crushed the kibble for both youngsters and mixed in the fish, I used a bigger bowl,(flan dish actually 8inch) normally her bowl is a 4 inch job with food concentrated in a pile I also stuck a washed beach pebble on top of the food to make it awkward to get at, I put her in a different room away from the others and it did take her longer to eat, I also gave her more.

I have been feeding both pups the same sort of amount but infact the younger one is a lot bigger and could perhaps do with a bit more, they're only 3 weeks apart in age but the difference in size is striking.

We've been out in the garden twice since tea and she hasn't poo'd herself yet and I managed to get to the GR poo before she did.

I feel bad incase it's a hunger thing and the poor liitle mare has been hungry, she is a lot thinner than my other pup.

I've had poo eaters before, my GR did as a youngster, a babies nappy would be a delight to her but she grew out of it, my BC never did and my older Sheltie only indulged in cat poo, with these two newish ones the older one used to but she's given it up and it's only become a bad habit with the youngest in the last two months.

I think with giving her more and making her work for it plus feeding her seperately I may get it sorted.

Right back at the beginning of this thread I asked about 'Eat better Bowls' I read about them on Dog World I think, has anybody used them? Mind you they are pricey:(

My current GR puppy is terrible at poo eating.
She mainly eats fresh ones, any dog's, but will sometimes eat dry and frozen ones too. I've got the same problem of not being able to necessarily keep up with poo picking in the garden especially at this time of the year when it seems to ALWAYS be dark.
I will try the pineapple tip, even though that won't help with other dogs' poo.
She's always ready; she'll even manage to gulp hers down before i've managed to put my hand in the fiddly little plastic bag!
She also loves my Guinea pigs' poo and my rabbit's. My older boy loves them too although he's never eaten dog poo. Every time I put the runs away in the garden when my pigs and bunnies have been out, they wait eagerly to 'hoover' the lawn. I swear they look at my pigs as big Tic Tac dispensers!!

That brings back memories, I used to keep guinea's and breed them, I had around 40 at one time. They used to go in the garden every day, except winter of course. I had 4 runs 6ft by 3ft and they used to get moved around the lawn daily, it was great I never used to cut the grass,  my GR and BC would wait for the delicious little morsels every evening when the guinea's went in and the runs got moved.