Dog Poo eating

[maggie's_mom]

I can not get Maggie to stop eating dog poo. I have read articles that say it is totally normal for puppies to do this, but she's now 9 months old and still doing it!! Luckily she doesn't eat her own (which I read IS a problem), but I catch her munching away it the neighbors' leftovers. UGH! She knows I don't want her doing it b/c I scold her when I catch her and we go wash out her mouth (if I can catch her before she takes off running). I don't know if that's a fair thing to do, but my neighbors poke fun about it so I am desperate to break the habit. HELP!!

Any ideas or help you can provide will be welcomed!

[bradl]

Step 1. Teach the Leave It command.

Step 2. Keep her on leash and use (and enforce) Leave It until she outgrows it and/or learns the desired behavior

[mayos]

We had the same problem with our puppies, except they loved to go to our cat's litter box for "munchies". We could not get them to stop no matter what we tried. Finally our vet recommended a pill to give to our cat. It worked like a charm! I guess it makes the poo taste to bad, our puppies don't want it any more. He said tht after a time, they may try the "munchies" again, and then it's time to put the cat back on the pills again...poor cat. He doesn't seem to mind the pills though, it's mixed into his food and I'm not sure he even knows it's there. But it did work.

[CathyAnn]

Here's another thread from awhile back.....

http://www.cairnterrier.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=535

Cathy

P.S. Piper is 18 months now and STILL eating poopies! Guess it must taste good......eeeeeeeewwww!

[Eliz222]

Scout used to eat the cats poo, but we put a baby gate on the door where the litterbox is kept. The gate is still up, so I dont know if she would still do this or not.

Finch likes to eat dog poo...yuck! She is kept on a leash, so she can't eat any unless we don't catch her in time. She is learning the command "leave it", which should help with this too.

[fancypants]

Another help for the cat poo problem is to put the kitty litter in a higher rubbermaid-type tub - ours is about 2 feet high and I cut a hole in the lid - for me it was originally just to keep the mess down, but later on I discovered that Emma would get into the kitty poo outside but never in the house!

[maggie's_mom]

I read all the previous threads about poo eating (thanks Cathy), but it looks like it mainly pertains to those that eat their own b/c of the discussion of adding certain things to their diet. Maggie munches on other dogs' poo, and would probably dig into cat litter if we had a cat. I will just have to keep working on the "Leave It" theory that Brad has suggested. Like I mentioned, she knows I don't want her doing it, but she IS a terrier so she pushes her luck. Ahhh, motherhood....

[JRM]

Molly certainly ate her own bt never another dogs - although when she was still eating her own I caught her eating rabbit poo!

[newcairn]

I believe they do this based on the instinct to keep their Den clean. It is really hard for people to comprehend, but perfectly normal for a pup. I just command him to leave it, or stop it or tug his leash when I have him on it.