Puppies
Most puppies learn that food tastes better than poop pretty quickly. If your dog is more than a year old and still trying to regularly eat their own (or their housemate’s) poop, that’s no longer normal.
In class last night my instructor told a crazy tale of giving up her dog because he had “dirty dog syndrome.” She said that she would put a diaper on him and he would take it off and poo and walk in it. I have to admit that I laughed. I even went home told Ty and he laughed. Honestly we both thought does dirty dog syndrome just mean that your dog is a dog? So out of curiosity and because I am insanely into researching things that I don’t know about I looked it up. It exists! At least in cyber world where there are other people seemingly all over the place having a problem with their dogs pooping and peeing in all over. Some say the dogs walk in it or sit it other just say that they make a mess. The prevailing theme however is that the dogs all seem to be trapped in a crate or a bathroom. So maybe the dogs are just being dogs. Is it really necessary to own a dog but leave them locked in a crate or bathroom? The advice online was to make their crate or space even smaller. Can you imagine? Isn’t this why some people adopt pets from shelters because they are trapped in cages? So you get a dog and then take them home so that he can be trapped in a cage. Weird. No wonder they are pooping and peeing all over their crates or bathrooms. It actually reminds me of some local advice that my sister sent me when I was potty training my now almost 4 year old son. Ty and I didn’t know how to go about potty training. We had gotten a lot of advice from other parents and doctors but none of it worked with my son. He just wasn’t interested. I had shared this information with my sister, who has no children or pets, only a stuffed bear that talks to. She then sent me an article from our local newspaper that actually said that you should put your kid in the bathroom and put a child gate on the door, (effectively locking them in) and not let them out until they use the potty. I thought this was a joke. I honestly hoped that it was a joke. Could someone seriously in this day and age with all of our knowledge etc lock a small child in a bathroom like locking a dog in a crate? It wasn’t a joke. Someone took the time to right this article in all seriousness and publish it. My sister in fact thought it was a good idea and said that I should try it. Needless to say, that was one of the first signs that my sister should maybe never be left alone with any other living thing. Back to my instructor, her thought for the day yesterday was to open your mind and think outside the box. I was disappointed to see that in her story, she ran into a hard time with with dog and gave it up rather then thinking outside the “box” so to speak.
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Why do dogs like the poop of other animals?
Like we said before, dogs are scavengers! It’s common for our canine companions to steal food, tear through garbage cans, and chew on plenty of things that we owners find disgusting ourselves. With proper training and other mental exercise outlets this behavior can be reduced or eliminated entirely, but it’s important to remember that scavenging is a deeply rooted instinct in our dogs. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the tendency — it’s not a disorder in itself — so long as we manage it properly.
Some animal feces has particularly “appetizing” attributes (like taste, texture, and odor) that can override our dogs’ understanding that it’s waste and probably shouldn’t be consumed. Cat feces is a common culprit, as is that of deer, rabbits, or other small herbivores.