How to stop my dog eating everything?

fathead82

I have an 18 month old dog who's obsessed with eating. She'll eat cattle meal,corn,chicken meal,whole eggs,cow/sheep/cat/dog & chicken poo. She'll knock children down to steal their food out of their hands. She once even jumped off a pier into the water to get bread that was thrown in for the ducks.

She understands "leave it" & will wait until your not looking to try eat what she's not supposed to be eating. If she sees or smells a cat taking a poo,she'll wait until I'm gone back into the house & go straight for it to eat it,even if it's an hour later,she'll remember & sneak back to the spot while keeping an eye on the window to make sure she doesn't get caught. While she's in the fields I constantly have to shout "leave it" cos she's eating sheep poo or trying to eat their meal. If the cats leave dead mice or rats outside the door,she'll try to eat them too. Iv seen her watching the other dogs taking a poo & eating it as soon as the other dog walks away.

She fairly good while in the house & doesn't beg at the table or raid the bins but she will try take food from the children if I'm not watching. "Leave it" only works if there's someone there to say it but she'll always eat whatever's available if nobody is watching her.

Any suggestions on how to stop this behaviour? Im sick of shouting at her all day every day & its disgusting that she eats all that stuff then comes into the house & licks people.Iv even tried covering a fresh dog poo in chilli sauce & she still ate it as soon as my back was turned.

She's on red mills engage duck & rice,is the correct weight & is wormed regularly.

DBB

Hi fathead82,
What sort of dog is she?
Has she always been a scoffer of everything?

fathead82

She's a golden retriever. She's always been bad but now shes learned to be sneaky & wait till she thinks nobody is looking.

DBB

fathead82 wrote: »

She's a golden retriever. She's always been bad but now shes learned to be sneaky & wait till she thinks nobody is looking.

She has associated a human being on the scene with being scolded... Isn't it amazing what we're teaching them when we don't realise we're even doing it?!
Have you had her since she was a pup? If so, have you any insight as to what her environment was like? Woukd there have been poop left lying around? Lots of pups learn to use poop as a toy to eat and play with, especially in the absence of more appropriate toys, so keeping their environment clean and giving them proper, fun toys is important. But that's all before pup even leaves the breeder's.
Have you ever had her bloods checked? Just on the off chance there's a malabsorption issue going on that's making her crave stuff. As an example, I have a human friend who, before being diagnosed as coeliac, would crave and eat the plastic outer casing of bic biros. Had to be bic biros. Oh... And cinders from yesterday's fire. So... You just never know what the body will make the brain crave when there's something amiss!

fathead82

DBB wrote: »

She has associated a human being on the scene with being scolded... Isn't it amazing what we're teaching them when we don't realise we're even doing it?!
Have you had her since she was a pup? If so, have you any insight as to what her environment was like? Woukd there have been poop left lying around? Lots of pups learn to use poop as a toy to eat and play with, especially in the absence of more appropriate toys, so keeping their environment clean and giving them proper, fun toys is important. But that's all before pup even leaves the breeder's.
Have you ever had her bloods checked? Just on the off chance there's a malabsorption issue going on that's making her crave stuff. As an example, I have a human friend who, before being diagnosed as coeliac, would crave and eat the plastic outer casing of bic biros. Had to be bic biros. Oh... And cinders from yesterday's fire. So... You just never know what the body will make the brain crave when there's something amiss!

Iv had her since she was 8 weeks old,I visited the breeders place twice before taking her home & it was always clean & the pups had rubber chew toys.once she came here,she was kept in the house so there was no poos left lying around & she had loads of toys & other dogs to play with.
No,I never got her bloods checked,I'll definatly ask the vet about getting that done. Is that a common problem? Id rather if she starts eating biros & cinders & stopped eating everything else that she finds in the yard!