Am a new dog owner and have a question about poo picking!

[Notalone]

I am a volunteer dog walker for my local rescue home but of course the inevitable happenned and we fell in love with one of the dogs so we are now the proud owner of a rescue collie x. So far everything is fab bur he is very fussy with his food and won't touch complete dry food without having a can of dog food mixed in with it. However this is sometimes making his poo the consistency of custard and it is horrible to collect. He usually goes in our garden but today he left the biggest pile on the pavement I have ever seen and I only had 2 bags so needless to say today was messy and horrible.

So my question is until we find food that suits him, how do I poo pick. I know it seems like such an obvious question but the usual hand in poo bag and pick up just isn't working and I am reluctant to buy a poo shovel unless I really have to because my PIL have one and it is the most horrible thing ever.

[poopscoop]

not alot you can do about it really. You just carry on with your bags and leave a smear.

[Notalone]

ROFL - your name is THE most appropriate name on a thread ever

Trouble is though it wasn't a smear - I am not joking, the pile was almost the size of my head. I abbhhor people who leave poo on the street but there was not enough bag for all of it. Oh god, I am going to be the mad bag lady who can't leave the house without a dozen poo bags and who is known in my village as she who carries 12 bags of poo. Oh god I can't bear it

[poopscoop]

pmsl.

can you push a wheelbarrow alongside and a shovel, then you can collect yours and everyone elses as you go

if not then a dozen poo bags it is!

Yes, didn't think about my name when i first posted on this one!

[hercules1]

You need to give barf. Much better poos and less wees. That's bones and raw food. You can buy it prepackaged.

[Tortoise]

Carry a piece of newpaper with you and quickly unfold and place under dog as it gets into poo position! Then wrap and bag it.

[Millarkie]

It's not good to mix a dry food with wet dog food because the dry food is a 'complete' food so that will give him the upset tum. If he insists on wet food then mix it with Mixer..then if you want to move him onto a dry food do it very slowly with small amounts of dry food replacing the wet food plus mixer. Our dog is on Iams which did reduce the bulk of her poo but I still need two bags occasionally, I tend to carry a pocket full ready for use.

[poopscoop]

tortoise lol - is that serious absolutely pmsl at people rapidly opening up bits of newspaper for their mutts to plop on.

Be nice if it had a pic of gordon brown on it though.

[Blondeshavemorefun]

nothing quite like the ploppy of the sloppy poo!!

erm - i know nothing about food for dogs - though have come to the conclusion that whatever monster puppy eats - his poo stays the same

i like the newspaper idea

[Piffle]

burns dog food produces less poo
FACT

Also raw meat (buy frozen prize choice tripe/beef) from pet shops and mix this with soaked biscuits
Tinned food is pretty full of crap so goes through them pretty quickly
Good quality food costs more but lasts longer IMVHO

[Piffle]

oh and pumpkin or squash is a poo firmer upper.
And I use a kitchen type metal spatula at home for getting the rain affected ones into the bags
Or carry a squirty bottle of water to wash away the smears if you are inclined not to leave a stain!

[AmazingBouncingFerret]

Bakers complete moist meaty chunks, give a good solid easily picked up poo.
And now im off to revaluate my social life as I have resorted to giving advice on dog poo.
(not that there was anything wrong with your question!!)

[MaybeAfterBreakfast]

I'd wean him off the wet food onto dry.

Burns is the only food that agrees with my springer's digestion. Anything else and his poo is horrible.

Agree on the sheet of newspaper thing. Works a treat with sloppy poo and vomit.

[Haribosmummy]

You can get a spray with solidifies the dog poo.

But, that may make you look madder than carrying 12 bags of poo!!!

[stleger]

Ddog who is very fussy likes the Bakers range. He is a shetland/whippet cross. His poo isn't too bad!

[magnolia74]

If money is ok as its not the cheapest option could you mix the dry with some chicken or fish instead of tin food? It worked great for ours and now on full dry food

[Tortoise]

Poopscoop- Yes totally serious. It is generally obvious when the dog is about to squat which gives time to put paper down and saves leaving anything on the path.
And i have a large greyhound who does BIG poops!

[poopscoop]

how do i manage with 3 dogs crapping everywhere though. I would have to carry a newspaper delivery boys bag with a whole rounds worth of papers lol. Imagine the unfolding, folding scenario.

[Tortoise]

Lol yes i immagine it would be more tricky with 3 dogs.

[ceres]

my dog has colitis - has had it for about 3 years now, incredibly distressing when it was first diagnosed. lot of research later he is now on Naturediet - an holistic dog food containing 60% meat, brown rice and carrots. it is a 'wet' food (as he wouldn't touch dried) and really it is semi-wet, much more solid than e.g. chum or butchers which he used to have before i knew any better! he absolutely loves it and we haven't had a bad colitis episode since he started on it, no more runny/bloody poo. you can buy direct from Naturediet or from Zooplus and we have found that it is no more expensive than chum etc.

occasionally (usually if he has persueded family members and friends to feed him stuff he shouldn't have!) his tummy gets a little upset - then i give him some slippery elm bark powder mixed with warm water and then mixed with his Naturediet. it is practically a miracle how quickly this works to sort out his tummy and firms up any hint of runniness in the poo department (sorry for the graphics, there isn't really a way to discuss this without going into detail!) slippery elm bark is completely safe both for humans and dogs.

i am aware that this looooooong post does not answer your question about how to pick up runny poo - but i am hoping it will be evn more useful and help solve the runniness issue completely! good luck with it.

[spugs]

can you not encourage him to go off the edge of the curb (only if he wont get squished by a car)? Or the newspaper thing sounds good. Ive been tempted to try holding a poo bag under my pups bum when hes been squitty but luckily hes small and so are his poos

[Notalone]

After reading all the comments on here I think I am going to have to wean him off the wet food onto the dry. When we first got him he had only been fed on dry food at the kennels and his poo was solid. He will eat his dry food but only if really hungry and I have probably not been helping by thinking that he must be bored eating the same dry food all the time and trying to give him some variety with the wet food which he wolfs down. I discussed this with DP last night and we are going to stick to dry food but give him a treat of tripe / meat from the butcher once or twice a week so he still gets that variety without upsetting his stomach.

The naturediet looked great but the tins are quite small and as a mature student with a partner off work with an injury it is still a bit beyond my budget sadly.

I think I am also going to have to buy a metal spatula too like Piffle suggested. The newspaper idea is a good one but if you saw the size of my dogs offerings yesterday you would see why it would not work either. I would then be known in my village as the mad lady who carries huge steaming turds wrapped in copious amounts of newspaper

Thanks for all your help

[SlartyBartFast]

or encouraging him to go at a more convenient place like next to a poo bin is a really useful trick - in the grass.
and i second less tinned food.
it is trial and error with dog food, some of which is too rich.
mine prefers the tinned variety though and she is 16 so we let her have what she wants
dried food for breakfast with water.
tinned food and mixer for evening.

cooked rice if she has the runs

[SlartyBartFast]

and tinned food is bad for their teeth,

[fairimum]

ours are on csj natural champ www.csjk9.com/- it is a working dog food and fantastic - out vet uses it as do alot of the flyball dogs we know - is the only food that has suited all 3 of our dogs and much less poo and smell!! as for fussy! best advice is offer the dry food if not eaten after 15 mins take it up, the dog won't let itself starve! had to do this with 2 of ours and after 2/3 days were eating dry food fine! Other thing our trainer advised for our collie was just feeding once a day as they are then more hungry and enjoy their food more!

Last tip is to have a stock of prokolin, which is just 'good bacteria' really to help rebalance upset tummies - it is a good alternative to paying for a trip to the vet only to be given pro-kolin and told to come back in 10 days if no improvement! So any problems we give prokolin before heading to the vet! We always have a couple of tubes in the cupboard!
www.vetuk.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=249

[fairimum]

oh yes and plain white rice if runs with the prokolin - also on the odd time when the food has run out - much much better than changing over to a different make as that is a sure way for all of ours to ahve the runs! need to change over to any new food quite slowly!!
Good luck!