Dealing with disgusting dog 🤮

[Giggorata]

DDog 3 is 11 months old and in a slow maturing Shepherd category.
She eats poo.
On every walk, where she finds dog poo, there she is, scarfing away. If she is far enough away, she can't always be called off it. Yuck.

We cured her of eating hers and the Labs' poo, using the pineapple juice in the food trick, but this is random strangers' dog poo. There is quite a lot of it about on the various countryside walks in our area, where people tend not to bag.

Recently, she ate something so ghastly that she gave herself a dreadful gastric infection, necessitating trips to the vet, antibiotic injections and pills, probiotics, etc. Never seen her so subdued, actually behaving like a calm quiet dog instead of the furry leaping loon she really is

Now I’m worried she'll do it again.
She needs lots of exercise and she's not great with other dogs she doesn't know, whilst being quite big, so taking her somewhere more contained, or on the lead, aren't the best options.

We are going to try a muzzle
If anyone has any ideas, short of buying gallons of pineapple juice for the entire village, I'd be very grateful.

A friend had this problem with a Labrador. Always had to wear a muzzle on a walk

Muzzle might be your only option, as it's a normal but potentially dangerous behaviour, as you've discovered. Recommend The Muzzle Up Project on Facebook/Insta, they have loads of useful tips and advice on firstly assisting your dog to be comfortable and happy in the vicinity of a muzzle, building up to wearing one, how to fit them (should be big enough around the jaw to allow your dog to pant fully, and should be able to drink with one on etc.)
Good luck! (Some dogs can still smoosh their noses into poo while wearing a muzzle, sometimes can't be allowed to be let off lead even with one on .)

What food is she eating?
Years ago I had the same problem with my previous dog. Asked for some advice at a local, semi independent pet shop.
Basically the cheap food I was giving her (might have been wagg or bakers. I was a complete novice at the time) was the doggy equivalent to a McDonald's. No nutritional value what so ever. Her eating poo was 1. Because it properly tasted much the same as what went in and 2. She was trying to recoup nutrients.
I was recommended their own brand, additive free and so on... I was sceptical at first it was just a sales pitch but it actually worked and she completely stopped the poo eating.

Have you looked into whether she has any deficiencies in her diet, or do you think this is more of a habit she has formed?

What is she currently fed? Has she always done this, since you got her as a pup, or was there any event you noticed that brought it on?

I agree, muzzle out & about, and think about the cause.

Get yourself on allaboutdogfood website and buy the best food you can afford. This will probably make all the difference. Allaboutdogfood is an independent website that tests nutritional valie of all dog foods, it is very interesting and shows how most dog foods are absolutely garbage. Good lick.

What's her diet like? Sometimes poo eating happens because something is lacking in their own diets, and they're desperately trying to get the nutrients from elsewhere.

A muzzle wouldn't necessarily stop her from eating poo as it's not a solid - but it may make it difficult enough that she won't bother trying anymore, so it could work to break the habit short-term. Or, you may just end up with a poo-covered muzzle

You will need to muzzle train her though, you can't just buy a muzzle, stick it on her and hope for the best. Some dogs acclimatise to muzzles very quickly, but it can take several weeks for others to get used to it.

In the meantime, I would be keeping her on the lead and working hard on her impulse control and her "leave it" commands. That will also have the benefit of tiring her out mentally while her exercise is limited. Good luck!

Thank you for the replies.
I have had a look at the muzzle info and training, very helpful.

As for food, she's on Arden Grange puppy/junior large breed, which the breeder was feeding her. The dog food site rates at 73%. It is average for protein, fibre, ash and fat; above average for carbs.
I'll have a read through the site and see if we can do better.

No events that seemed to bring it on. It seems to have been a natural progression. She always went for the labs' poo until we addd the pineapple juice to their food, then discovered the other poo, as she got more wide ranging on her walks.
It doesn't help that there's also loads of delicious horse poo, too. The whole world is a larder!

We had the same problem with our dog of similar age, and I found it really tough to deal with.

First of all we went through changing her food and vet checks, but she was completely healthy and didn’t seem to be lacking any nutrients. So we then muzzled her on walks for one month to try and break the habit. During this time we worked really hard on a Leave It command and on her recall. Then for quite some time we walked without the muzzle but on a long line so I could physically stop her eating poo if she didn’t respond to the command. And now I just have a grab lead attached to her harness if I need to haul her off something (very rare now).

I wouldn’t say she is completely cured of the problem, but she is MUCH better - at its worst her behaviour seemed almost obsessive, and now I can walk her off lead pretty much all the time, but I do watch her like a hawk!

Hope you manage to sort it out.

There was a programme on with Victoria Stilwell about 1-2 weeks ago same problem and she trained it to not eat it! Not sure which channel channel 4?

You could use a muzzle and long line to have control over her on walks. I think the food needs investigation as there is something missing.