Advice please - Basset Hound eating cr4p

Interceptor

I'll try and keep this short - its not a very pleasant problem. I have a two year old Basset (and a five year old Lab). Both dogs get on very well, both are walked for an hour every day and I have a walled in half-acre garden in the country which they have free reign in. I keep the garden as clear of dog poo as I can, however when I walk the dogs the Basset will eat any variety of excrement he finds - cow, horse, sheep, his own, other dogs. I keep close to him out walking, but it is like doggy cocaine to him and while he is reasonably obedient most of the time, he can't seem to help himself.

They are fed twice daily, their morning feed has a sardine mashed through it. I can't muzzle him, he does it all the time and I have been worming them both regularly. Does anyone have experience of this, is it a dietary deficiency or just a bad doggy habit. I have tried giving him toys to carry on the walk but it gets dropped if he finds fox-crap and off he runs, chewing and looking guilty. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH.

Thanks for reading this far - off and put the kettle on if your stomach can bear it...

'cptr

hadook

It's called Coprophagia and it's far more common than you'd think.

There's quite a good article on it here and I believe feeding him pineapple is the first thing most people will suggest as it's often a dietary deficiency.

It's common to call him things like a "dirty beggar", to offer to sew his mouth shut and to suggest that if he does it again you'll leave him in the park/beside the canal etc. Or at least my dirty little beggar would've had you believe that before I cured him of his nasty habit.

Interceptor

Cheers hadook - interesting reading, (if a little gross) but some good tips there. I thought he was just a bit weird. He likes to steal socks too, but we'll deal with one problem at a time...

'cptr