Question
Profile Image
Pawbly | 10 years ago
I Have A 4 Yr Old Female Yorkshire Terrier. Eaten June Bugs. Resulted In Diarrhea…

I have a 4 yr old female yorkshire terrier. Eaten June bugs. Resulted in diarrhea on an off for over a week. licking her butt and wanting to sit in the cool grass. I looked and it’s raw. Can i use silverdene?

0 Responses
Question
Profile Image
Pawbly | 10 years ago
Drinking X Amount Of Water. But Throwing It Up Wit Little White Pieces In It…

Drinking x amount of water. But throwing it up wit little white pieces in it. Standing or sitting in 1 spot. Not interacting wit anyone. Breathing fine. & after he drinks he drolls alot too. Which is not like him at all.

2 Responses

Comments

  1. Anonymous

    throwing up little white pieces?

    find anything missing lately?  sounds like your dog might have eating something he shouldn’t have, and now has an obstruction.  i’d get to an emergency vet – something like this can’t wait for morning.

  2. Anonymous

    this is an awful plan. water is more necessary than food to live. restrict water and you could cause even further problems.

Question
Profile Image
Jennifer Taylor | 10 years ago
This Puppy Is The Last Of A Large Litter, He Was One Of The Only…

This puppy is the last of a large litter, he was one of the only ones who would keep a clean crate/puppy pen. When the ground froze he discovered the practice of eating poo when he was outside in our fenced in yard. He was neutered a week and a half ago and we thought it would be an opportune time to remedy the poo eating issue since we had to leash walk him. He now refuses to poo outside, we do take him out every 1-2 hours and give a high value treat for pottying outside. He will go in his crate immediately after coming in and will immediately eat it. It almost seems that since I won’t allow him to eat what is in the yard he is just going to make his own snack. I will add that he is a very quick learner, he learned sit and down in an evening. He is very driven by treats and praise. He will urinate outside and looks to me for a treat and praise as he is going. He does not like to be in a messy crate, we know almost the moment it is soiled as he barks/whines and we clean it up. He will only poo in his crate, I do tether housetraining pups to me to eliminate the possibility of accidents (I try to set them up for success) and he has not accidents in the house. He will poo in his crate once I have exited the room where his crate is. I of course can smell the moment he goes, I run in the room and catch him eating it. I have gone as far as letting him out to potty in a pen thinking maybe he does not want to potty with an audience, I watch from a nearby slider but have only “caught” him pooing outside twice in a week and a half, both times I was able to deliver praise and a high value treat as soon as he was done. Lastly his crate is appropriately sized for him, it is a wire folding style crate that is just tall enough for him, he has enough room to lay, stretch out and turn around. This is something I would like to rectify as I know it will be a potential problem in a forever home.

6 Responses

Comments

  1. Anonymous

    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!!

  2. PK Dennis

    Walking helps the bowels move.  How about taking him on a walk when he comes out of his crate, and after he eats his meals.  The walking will get him eliminating and you will have him on a leash to control his movements while you pick up the poop.  This may work faster/better than turning him out in the yard and waiting, or wandering around the yard while he decides if he is going to poop or not.

    It may also be so exciting to be out and about that he forgets he wants to poop inside where he can snack.

    Good luck!

  3. Jennifer Taylor Post author

    Thank you for the suggestions. I actually had given more info in the details when I posted that I am doing all of these. This isn’t a typical housebreaking issue but more of a compulsion to eat stool. The issue of eliminating in his crate began AFTER I restricted him from eating poo outside. In the past year alone I have fostered 30 puppies, all were well on their way to being housetrained when they were adopted. As a board member of a local rescue and seasoned foster I provide support to adoptive families on the subject of house training. My approach to house training is to set a dog up for success eliminating the possibility for accidents and rewarding appropriate elimination. I vary my method according to the dog as not all dogs respond to the same method. I have had great success with training dogs who have come from horrendous living conditions, spending months in their own waste.

  4. Anonymous

    There are products out there to make the poo taste bad and most of them (I believe) have the main ingredient of MSG, which is the same thing as meat tenderizer. Dr. Foster and Smith has a product called Dis-Taste, but I’m sure there are others. If a dose of MSG isn’t harmful, give it a shot!

  5. Brian Downie

    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!!!

  6. Brian Downie

    ” The issue of eliminating in his crate began AFTER I restricted him from eating poo outside.” Maybe he learned it is not ok to poop outside?