Please help!!!! Its disgusting,

My 10mth old lab, Male is eating the faeces of my 2 year old lab. I have caught him a few times and smacked him to let him know that this is not on but as I work during the day I can only keep an eye on hime in the evenings and at weekends. I have heard of a suggestion of perhaps putting pepper on her mess so that if he goes near it he won't like it.

Thanks

Tristan

It's probably easier to pick it up than to put pepper on it.  It is absolutely disgusting to us humans but perfectly normal for dogs.  If they have access to the garden when you are not there then I doubt you can do anything about it.  It is said that putting pineapple or grated courgette in the food will make it less appealing.  I have tried this in the past but not convinced :)

If you smack him when he does it he'll still do it when you are not around and he'll learn to be sneaky when you are.  He will also possibly become frightened of you and not understand why you are angry with him and this will have repercussions.  Coming when you call will probably be the first thing that'll go down the toilet pan ;) 

Sally

Have you ever seen one dog smack another ? No therefore to smack your dog will gain you nothing Coprophagia is a natural behaviour in dogs, you can try putting this in the search on here & see what has been written before

I'm afraid that Labs will eat anything whether we find it repulsive or not. Mine do it and I tried all sorts but mainly running faster to pick it up first and pineapple chunks and deter but nothing worked :(

The problem with running faster to pick it up first is that the dog thinks you want it for your stew and then they will want to eat it even more because of it's increased value :p

Sally when you think about it, we do rush to pick it up, so maybe that's why they think it must be yummy ;)  Mine now prefer it straight out the oven rather than chilled :)

I have Labs that poo eat and don't poo eat :)

I have tried everything and the only solution is to pick it up !

We tend to try and do poo patrol twice a day and also if we see them doing it inbetween.

Smacking him will not deter him I am afraid.

What do you feed them on and how often ? What sort of poos do they do ?

My two poo eating Labs only eat the one type of poo which is the oldies poo. She is fed on Nature diet. She has colitis and so doesn't absorb all the nutrients and so it is like a tasty snack for them. :)

It is disgusting but that is dogs for you :)

Thank you for your advice. I went into the back garden yesterday and did a full clean up, - not that I don't normally, but have decided that I will clean up daily and when I see either of them enjoying the comforts of our rather large toilet.

In answer to what they are eating they are both on Royal Canine and truly enjoying the better foods in life. I will not be introducing them to human foods such as steak or mince unless I get a considerable donation from a kind person who is willing to feed my dogs the better foods in life

Coprophagia is a problem of animals on processed or cooked diets. Dogs are designed to eat raw natural food. Processing or cooking food removes important nutrients, thats why some dogs improve when 'pineapple' or other cures are given, its because the missing nutrient is being replaced. If you feed a completely natural diet of raw meaty bones like lamb or chicken necks (never cooked), offal (once a week), mashed vegies and ripe fruit with a little rolled oats or rice you will be providing close to what a dog would catch in the wild. I usually add the following for the first twelve weeks of this diet every day(lab size), 3 drops of cod liver oil, 1/2 teaspoon of kelp or seaweed, 1/2 teaspoon of brewers yeast, 1/2 teaspoon of rosehips (using the contents of a herbal teabag is fine), 1/2 teaspoon of chamomile, a few drops of unpastuized apple cider vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of cold pressed, raw or organic honey. After twelve weeks give mix twice a week. On a natural diet like this dogs stop eatting poo, doggy breath goes away, teeth don't need cleaning, anal glands stop blocking up, the coat is shiny without using special products. Second part, do not tell your dog off, if you catch him ignore him, put the dog away if you see something to clean up so no attention is accidently (good or bad) given. Be patient, it can take time. Good Luck

Where do you get unpasurised apple cider vinegar?

It is true that raw fed dogs metabolise their food correctly and little nutrition is therefore available from their waste (especially if they do not eat grain).  Pineapple does not provide a "nutrient" as such but an enzyme which helps breakdown certain foods in the gut; hence the suggestion to add it to the diet so that the resulting stool will have less "available" food.  Providing rice or oats will not be close to what the dog had in the wild as, to my knowledge, they had no knowledge of sowing, growing, harvesting, processing the grain :D

Brewers yeast may cause problems in those dogs predisposed to fungal overgrowths, the B vitamins can be provided from elsewhere and the same may be said of honey because of the sugar content.  Unpasteurised ACV is available in health shops and is again used sometimes in some dogs as a digestive aid.

HTH