Amy, this is resource guarding and it is a strong instinct in some dogs — and has nothing to do with the amount of food or water the dog receives.  You MUST go find a trainer (or 2, 3, 4).  Yes, start with your vet’s recommendations, but don’t stop there.  Find a local dog club and ask them for recommendations for a trainer that uses “positive reinforcement” techniques only.  Any other kind of training will lead to more problems as the dog gets older.  And the first trainer you try may not be the right trainer for your family, and your dog — so that is why you need to keep on going until you find the trainer that will really work for you, your son, and your dog.

Be sure your children are involved in the training of the dog.  Find a trainer that will also work with your son.  A 6 year old will not be responsible for training the dog, but he has to understand what not to do, and how to behave with the pup.

In the mean time – LEAVE NOTHING IN THE DOG’S REACH THAT CAN BE GUARDED!  This means no food left around.  Your son can not walk around with a cookie, a juice box, etc.  No bags of chips left on coffee tables.  If he has nothing to hoard/guard, he won’t be biting.  In all likelihood if you don’t learn how to work with your puppy to reverse this behavior now he will start guarding other things — toys, his bed, his favorite place on the sofa, etc.  And be sure to have him neutered when he turns 6 months old – you will avoid another whole set of problems if you do this.

It took me 18 months and 4 trainers to finally have a dog that wasn’t biting me or my husband when he disagreed about who should be on the bed at night.  But once we understood each other, I had 12 years with the best dog in the world.  Truly.  

Your puppy is just being a ……puppy!  Sometimes the art of pet parenting is like the TV show Survivor–Outwit, Outsmart, Outlast.  

Be diligent in cleaning up after your puppy poo’s. Do not give him the chance to play with or eat poo. Try placing the puppy on a leash when you take him outside to relieve himself, and do not allow him to inspect his poo. Distract him from by calling him to you, and when he responds appropriately, reward him with a treat and verbal encouragement (go crazy and act like he is the BEST PUPPY ON THE PLANET!) and then take him inside before you go back to pick it up.

If he hates poo’ing on the leash this is where the “Outlast” portion of the program comes into play. You just have to wander around the yard with him until he does it.  

Some have found that adding meat tenderizer or natural additives to the puppy’s food makes a big difference, since these additives cause the stool to have a particularly unappealing smell that will discourage him from eating it. If you cannot immediately clean up the stool, or if there are some old stool piles in your yard, you can spray it with hot pepper sauce or mouth wash. It is  more effective to just clean up after the puppy.

A good resource for puppy training is The Complete Idiots Guide to Dog Training.  You can check it out of your local library.  Good luck!!

Hello Jennifer. My Great Dane did this and then my Golden Retriever starting doing it. Learned behavior? I agree with Dr. Mag’s suggestions. I taught the leave it command and do not leave them unattended when it is ‘potty time.’ I tried to read a lot of remedies for this issue. What I found was mixed reviews on the food additives to deter the poop eating. I read about nutritional deficits and remedies. What I read and think was going on with mine was most dogs like to keep their play and living areas clean. Sometimes when a mother has a new litter, she will demonstrate this issue to keep the area clean for her pups. I too have a fenced in back yard which doubles as their play area when I cannot take them out in the unfenced area. I taught the leave it command and keep the area clean of feces. Somehow, imo, your dog has associated the crate pooping as safe but then cleans the area since it is his ‘safe spot.’ It took a few weeks to dissuade my dogs from doing this. Still, if I am not diligent about watching over them and keeping the area clean, the issue will persist. Your reaction whether positive or negative outside, may be influencing what the dog believes to be ok so he returns to his ‘safe’ area and only poops when he thinks you are not paying attention (because of your reactoin?) then gobbles the tasty morsel up for maybe cleaning? I found with my dogs when there is an unwanted behavior/issue the best reaction is no reaction. Remember, running to the crate to stop him may be interpreted as him doing something wrong so he tries to ‘destroy’ the evidence. It is learned somehow.

An anecdote. My very sensitive Great Dane when she was young had what I perceived to be separation anxiety when my wife and I would leave. We would come home and rugs would be chewed, pillows destroyed, etc. I would come in and immediately react, negatively. I posted on here and in short, the response was it was my fault. I was at first offended thinking I was a great doggy parent, but then I thought about it. My Dane associated our leaving with her getting negatively in trouble when we came home. This caused her great stress and her acting out was a reaction to fear and anticipation. I quickly changed my behavior. When I came home I would simply clean up what was destroyed and before leaving I would remove anything I could. I did not react. She would cower in her chair while I cleaned. I simply went about my business without noticing her. When I was done, once she came out of her chair, I acknowledged her and said hello. It was my responsibility to break the association, not the behavior. It took a little time, but we became successful. Now when we leave, we make it no big deal. When we come home, it is not a big deal. She isn’t afraid of us leaving and her ‘just’ getting in trouble when we come home. We no longer come home to destroyed items or a fearful dog. I personified her hiding in her chair with her knowing she did something wrong. Nope. I taught her that when we come home I would yell at her so she anticipated that with great stress and fear.

Maybe, without knowing it, we teach our dogs to do negative things. The hard part is realizing and accepting it then correcting OUR behavior.

Good Luck!!!

I am not sure but when it comes to bunnies I used critical care 

We changed from proplan to blue because we heard good things and we wanted to feed our 3 dogs better but now maybe not such a good idea.

Laura- that’s what one of my friends said too that they changed the ingredients. My husky could not stomach the blue so now we’re dealing with diarrhea bland diet and reintroduce what we use to feed them.

Since the safety of the dog is always an issue I would look into a live trap — perhaps your local SPCA could help you with locating one you could borrow to capture the dog.  Yes, it will startle the dog when it closes, but you can decide if the danger of being hit by a car is greater than the bag of a wire door shutting him in the crate-like cage.

I have two chiwawas and it happens it will stop over the night it happens all the time to my dogs your dog will be fine