Apologies for the subject - but does anyone have any idea why my nearly 10yr-old Samoyed has started to eat poo from our garden?! This horrible habit has coincided with me changing her food over, she was on AG Lamb & Rice before but kept getting a dicky tum, so I've changed her onto JWB Turkey & Rice 'Senior Light' which she is doing really well on - but has started eating poo!!

I caught her at it yesterday and gave her some fresh pineapple with her dinner last night, and she had pineapple again this morning but I have just caught her doing it again - I probably need to be more vigilant with my poop scooping but our garden is very big (2 acres) and I dont always see where they poo!! :-(

Also, has anyone else tried giving pineapple to poo-eaters?! Did it make a difference and is there a time before it has an effect ?!

Thanks in advance - and sorry again (I did wait til after dinner time before posting :-D)

No need to apologise most dog people are well used to poo conversations :-D  My oldest did this as a pup and I tried pineapple courgette and Deter which is a tablet from the vet. Nothing worked so I just made sure I picked up then I switched to raw and he stopped but he might well have anyway

Thank you, I guess its to be expected with a pup but a 10yr old?!! Thats why its baffling me, she seems to enjoy it too, yuk :-(

No idea why you dog would start to eat poo at this age, but I used pineapple and courgette and pumpkin seeds.  None seemed to work (they were on it for some monts), but the girls liked the addition to their dinner :-) 

Thanks Trialist, yes Megan seems to enjoy the addition to her dinner, she does like fruit. I think the only answer is for me to be a 'poo spy' and to remove the poo as soon as it's done!! That's going to be fun with 4 dogs and 2 acres - there's my weekend planned ;-)

It can help by adding 10% of fibre to his diet.....such as bran or boiled veg.

Really goldie, thats great thanks, I will give the egg a try!!

I didnt say egg AliceC if you were refuring to my anwser....i said veg.

Oh goodness sorry goldie, that's just backed up my thoughts that I really need to start wearing glasses again!! Sorry!! Will try VEG!!!

Now that's interesting I was feeding added veg with the raw diet

just a thought but is it her poo she is eating or one of the other dogs?  maybe the lite food isnt fulfilling her enough and the other dog's poo are nicer...

DVNbiker I think its her own....but I can never be too sure My Mal is on the Lite too though and her poos remain unscathed...(what a lovely topic!)

I'm going to add veg for definite - which is the best veg to use??

My flattie is 10 months old and has been eating his poo since we had him. We have tried pineapple, courgette and Deter, none of which had any effect at all. He has now been on a raw diet (with veg) for about 4 months and we had high hopes this would work. Unfortunately he will still 'indulge' if given half a chance. We have taught a very strong 'Leave it!', which he obeys absolutely and he will now just walk away anyway if we are in the vicinity. The problem comes if he is running round the garden (we have an acre so I know how difficult your problem is) and it is just impossible to watch him every minute. He will then still eat it if he thinks we haven't noticed.

I have spoken to the trainer who recommended the raw diet and she says it can take 6 months or more before it kicks in and also that he is still a puppy and he may still grow out of it. We are hoping that over the winter, when he is out in the garden less without us around, and as he matures it will stop. But I'm not betting on it! He just seems to LIKE it!

I know this doesn't offer any advice about stopping but I am in every other way delighted with how he is on raw food, so I'm glad I did that anyway PLUS you get less poo and less smelly poo so it isn't so vile when he does manage a nibble! Also, the 'leave' command has been crucial to limiting his intake!

I thought it would be good to let you know that you aren't on your own also as I felt so depressed when Raffi started doing it and it helped in a strange way to know that lots of dogs do it. At least Raffi isn't at all interested in any other dogs' poo, so there is always a brighter side to these things!  Good luck!

Ahh, Trish thank you so much for your reply, that's really lovely of you to take the time to write such a nice post :-)

I'll keep everything crossed that your trainer is right and that after 6 months or so he should stop doing it - plus as you say, age is on his side, he's only a baby really still isn't he! I bet he's beautiful - I used to walk a liver Flat Coat when I was a young girl. He was called Rolo and he was a gorgeous dog, I have always loved the breed!! It sounds like you have your Raffi well trained. That's pretty much the same as me with Megan, she's really well trained and if I catch her doing it and tell her off, she does immediately stop, it's just that she is sneaky and if she thinks I can't see her, she'll do it :-( Isn't it horrible how they do seem to like it though, Megan was munching away yesterday like she was eating sausages, YUK!!! Thankfully she seems to have a pretty low poo output now I've changed her food.

Once again thank you so much and good luck to you and Raffi too!! xx