Lab keeps eating other dogs poo

[MavisTheMonkey]

I have a 4yo chocolate lab who is generally lovely but she is so food oriented.

We had lots of issues with her counter surfing and stealing food off the side when she was younger but we mostly trained her out of that, although I couldn't leave her unattended near a buffet table for example and whilst she's always been greedy and highly food motivated it was to a manageable level.

However over the past year or so she has become a nightmare for eating poo when we are out and about. I've had to stop letting her off lead as she loses all recall in the woods and she actively goes searching for dog poo to eat.

My DIY training is not working and at some point she will make herself ill. Last week she boarded with her usual dog sitter for a week and on pick up she has said she will not have her overnight as she was obsessively eating all the other dogs poo and was sick overnight three times.

For info she is kibble fed, but we did a fair bit of research to try and find a higher quality kibble (essentialfoodsgb.co.uk/products/essential-superior-living-10kg)

We are based in SE London / Kent so I am hoping for some dog behaviour recommendations that I can work with to deal with this behaviour as it's become a real issue.

There was a dogs behaving badly episode with a similar issue 3 weeks ago! Maybe on channel 5 catch up! If you want to watch that for ideas

@CrushingOnRubies thanks! I'm going to look for it now

I would look at her diet - often dogs who eat poo are lacking something in their diets and try and make up for it.

Muzzle train? Harness and longline? Yes to looking at food.

Mine (young rescue collie) did this. I put him on a pre and probiotic and an anti-coprophagia tablet and he packed it in. Took a while for his guts to come good though, he was off in that department.

Training to say ''LEAVE IT!''

It will be a parasite risk, as not every dog owner {especially ones who leave shit lying about} will worm their dogs.

We have this little one who is very well trained -BUT she used to love chowing down a cat turd found ''in the wild'' where pat cats hang out.

Cat poo is meant to be very tasty for dogs, so I am cautious when we are in the cat poo zone.

She passed a cat roundworm once and vet said it was because she scavenged cat poo.

She passed it , still thrashing- it was soo gross. This pic was taken just after she passed the worm {all tangled up in grass}, and I'd given her a new wormer from the vets!

Thankfully have never seen another worm in her poo.

@MavisTheMonkey Labradors can have ''depraved'' appetites.

My neighbour's Labrador used to eat her own poo the minute after she'd expelled it....and would then vomit it up...and then re-eat the vomit.

Really repulsive.

They moved but found out the Labrador died at 19!!

Sounds like it could possibly be a boredom thing? Attention seeking?

A coprophagic dog locally wears a muzzle on walks...Muzzle doesn't bother him.

This is interesting...Just commented that my neighbour's coprophagic Labrador was 99% kibble fed.

Wet meat or Raw food - or Lily's Kitchen/Butternut Box {My dog loves these} is probably more nutritious and ''interesting'' than dried kibbles.

Definitely try a more varied and 'natural' food.

Kibble is convenient, but not very exciting for them.

Kibble is convenient, but not very exciting for them.

Yep. Imagine being an omnivore with teeth designed to rip apart meat, and being fed a diet of dried biscuits for your entire life.

I know lots of people feed kibble with no issues, but I really don't think it's the greatest diet for a dog (unless they need it due to allergies or something).

Thanks everyone. I'm not keen on muzzling as I've read quite a few times that Labs will push through the muzzle and to eat poo anyway.

I've contacted a local trainer who like @oakleaffy mentioned has suggested training to reinforce the leave command, so I'm going to start with that and a diet change.

Thanks for the advice. When I read about these they seem to be targeted for gut health or for dogs that eat their own stools - her stools are generally very solid, with no scooting or licking, and she only ever eats other dogs poo, never her own which I guess is a small mercy.

I very much doubt that it will be a deficiency in your dogs diet.

Dog food today is generally full of ingredients that dogs can not digest very well. So their poo (to a labrador) seems pretty much like their food.

Most poo eating dogs will not eat a raw fed dogs poo as it has nothing in it but waste. Kibble or wet food will have a lot of tasty bits in it (If you are a larador).

You can try a muzzle but the reality is that you will have a poo covered muzzle to deal with and wiped on your clothes and car.

Best way is to get your dogs focus on you when out and about. Games, training, searching sniffing for appropriate things! rather than just letting them mooch around and go self employed sniffing and eating out poo.

Trouble with leave it command is that your dog of lead will just gulp down the food as you yell leave it at them. It will make them the speediest poo eating dog ever. It is also quite stressful for you and them.

Look at positive interrupters less stress involved and encourage more attention and interaction with you.

Ironically the dogs that eat their own poo it is way easier to alter the behaviour.

Dogs behaving badly had a ridiculous episode on a poo eating dog that had the owner putting a camera in a garden gnome!! I wouldn't follow his advice

"Trouble with leave it command is that your dog of lead will just gulp down the food as you yell leave it at them. It will make them the speediest poo eating dog ever."

That's interesting @KeenOtter I have a very hungry (rescue) dog and have discovered that if I say leave it or try and move him away he'll immediately swallow whatever he's investigating whole (eg a crisp packet). Whereas if I leave him to it, he'll lick the crisp packet clean and then leave the packet on the ground!

My dog also likes eating poo, but only poo of other species...

We feed our lab three times a day which helps and also make her walk times exciting with toys, sniffing, so she doesn’t think about looking for food. If she sniffs at a poo, distraction!! But I get it’s not easy for you and yours is in the habit now so very difficult. I did see something about teaching your dog to actively seek out poo and then you reward with something even more higher value than the poo, that way she won’t eat it but will look to you for a reward for finding it. Maybe google that?? Just a thought?

Don’t bother buying a muzzle.. I did that last week my lab that’s been eating poo for years, he just pushed the muzzle into it.

the leave command works but I have to be beside him and have a few treats to hand, our walk is easy and he’s never far from me.

My choc lab ate other dogs' poo every time we went out. He liked it best frozen, a sort of popsicle. I tried everything bar a muzzle, nothing worked. In the end I just gave up.

...poopsicle...I mean I gave up worrying about it. But, yes, it's gross.

My 3yo choc Lab does the same but only when very fresh...only when he can see a dog actually having the poo will he actually rush over and eat it.

Our vet says there's nothing you can do. Some dogs do it, some don't.

I always grab him if I can see him ready to run over to a freshly laid poo but I don't always make it,

🤮

It is disgusting my lab used to but has now grown out of it. I did change her from a diet of kibble to raw plus kitchen scraps. Now she is such a princess for a dog and refuses all but the best. I’ve had people side eye her and ask if I’m quite sure she’s a lab when she declines a treat that does not meet her exacting standards.

I do consider retrying her on biscuits but I worry she’d start supplementing her diet again.