My Lab has issues

[Rob]

Me and my wife took the kids and went to Lacey WA to check out the new Cabelas store(awesome) for 4 days and we left our 7mos old Black Lab "Abby" with the vet (they boarder dogs). When we got home on Tuesday and I picked Her up, they said(with rolling eyes) that she barked all weekend, Ive only heard Her bark probably twice before that. Thats not that bad but when she was home she started eating Her turds, shes never done this either, anyway My question is, Is there anything the dog is missing in Her diet to make Her eat the turds?(besides ketchup for Her poop). Her Barking has slowed now that she is back home with us.Thanks, Rob

[calvin L]

My female at time will eat her crap also I have no clue as to why! I also know that she will eat horse crap also . I think it is just a dog thing .

[Marc]

I've got a female that's been cleaning the back yard for me for the past 9 years. Some dogs are just poop eaters. I think the biggest cause onmy part was that my female was a bit over weight so we put her on low cal food so now she supplements her diet with at hot turd once in a while if I don't clean it up before she gets at it. You have to love it when you're laying on the couch and she comes up to you and burps in your face.

[Chuck]

Sounds like what I did to my pup many years ago. She'd never been out of our family circle since we got her from her birth mother. We left her with friends for a week while visiting family and she absolutely went berzerk. We had no contact with her till we got back. We assumed all was well. How embarrassing for me and my wife to find out that our friends were almost driven crazy by her behavior and it definitely put a damper on our friendship. Poor pup too - thought that we had really let her down by abandoning her. Good news is that she eventually got over it. I should have known better and taken her with us, but our kids were small and we had a small car full as it was. Live and learn I guess.

[Rob]

Well it all sounds about right, mine also was pickin at horse turds on our walk tonight, we just cut Her food back about 2 weeks ago as we seen She was getting to much.Thanks for the info. I guess its less cleaning for me and the kids. Rob

[srupp]

Our one lab also ate poop, we asked the vet, he said it wasnt good for her..DUH......the vet said he had a powder that they sprinkle on the poop so it and I quote.."TASTES BAD TO THE DOGS" Im no rocket scientist but what in the HECK can you sprinkle on Sh#^T to make it taste bad??? or worse?? By definition when something tastes bad we say "it tastes like sh##%^t "

Apparantly it is not that unusual for some dogs to eat poop...


Steven

[Steeleco]

I had a Shepard/Lab bitch that did the same thing her whole life. Our vet at the time called it the "Dening instinct" They do it in the wild to clean up after the new born pups so they don't roll in it. It's an instinct that some dogs get an overdose of. They ONLY thing you can do it pick it up sooner than later.

We tried all the tricks, yeast in the kibble (makes the poo taste bad??) Tabasco, cayenne peppers you name it. I actually think she liked it seasoned more than plain!!

[RBH]

I am wondering if you are talking about related events (eats poop because you left her) or two separate things - 1) distress because you left her, and (2) eats poop.

Lots of dogs eat poop. You can talk to the vet but I'm not sure there is any consensus on why this is -- just is. Not what you want your pride and joy doing in the park and that will definitely be the end of face licks! Anyway, not that uncommon.

As for the distress, I guess it was tough on the dog. I figure future trips to the vet will not be happy times. Looking back on raising my dog, we tried to have him sleep in a cage in the kitchen. Did not like that one bit and had a hate on for the cage forever. In retrospect, I have heard that with puppies the cage is OK but better to put it in the bedroom when the dog is real young (and new to the house/away from momma) so they can smell and hear you. Later the kennel can be moved to another room. The point of that is that it is important to be sensitive to the dog's needs when they are young or it can create problems. Hopefully your girl is ok and will forgive and forget.

[newhunterette]

feed your dog Certs mints - the retsin in certs deters them from eatin poop - our vet told us to do this - our dog never ate her poop again - the retsin does something to the poop and gives them good breath

by the way our poop eater is a female black lab (okay non-poop eater now)

[memphis]

try the tabasco sauce. you'll hear it from lots of people how there dogs eat sh$t but all in all it aint good for them, or their insides. yall should make a morning of putting tabasco on it and do it a few days that'll sort it out. problem is she could start eating duck and bird sh&t and thats when the dog will get real sick. the horse sh&t aint all that bad, its sick... but not harmful.