pup eating other animals poo

cinnabar

I have an 8 month old retriever and she is a dote, but this habit is driving me daft. She just can't resist eating poop - never her own (or any dog poo as far as I can tell) but cat poo, bird poo, rabbit, guinea pig, sheep and especially cow poo. She will also eat any dead fish or crabs she finds on the beach along with seaweed and stones - she pulls periwinkles off the rocks and eats them shell and all. The poo snacks especially turn my stomach. We live in the countryside so when we go for a walk I am constantly pulling lumps of crap out of her gob or trying to pull her away from it. If she grabs some I say NO and throw it away and if she tries to pick some up I pull her away and say leave it. She is getting a bit better at not taking it but every outing feels like a battle!
The cat crap is the worst, she waits for the cat to get out of the litter tray and if I don't get there first she scoffs it. I have smacked her on the nose (not hard of course) and shouted at her for this as it makes me gag to have her around when she has eaten cat poo. She has a sensitive tummy so all this does not help. She is not starving.
Can anyone give me some tips or tell me this is something she will grow out of please?

DBB

Oh gawd, I really feel for you... it's such a disgusting habit, but as far as dogs are concerned, it's perfectly natural, normal, and acceptable:o
One thing I'll say at the outset... resist the urge to slap her or give out to her. For starters, it's obviously not working (it tends not to), but more importantly, it may make her become more shnakey about it, and to get a result here, you need her not to be at that stage.
Telling her to Leave It, without actually actively teaching her to Leave It, is not going to work either. The Leave It cue needs to be taught away from fraught circumstances for it to have any hope of working when you really need it.
So... put something, anything fairly innocuous on the floor, and as she goes to sniff it, stick an absolutely irresistible treat to her nose and guide her away from it, giving her the treat as she moves away from the thing. Keep repeating this, and you should find that if you place an object on the floor, she'll look at it, but then look at you, wondering is there a treat forthcoming.
Bingo!
Make a huge fuss of her at this stage. Now, now that you have the action up and running, you can add the verbal cue. Place the item on the floor, say "Leave It", and wait for her to look to you for the treat. Practise this until you can see the verbal cue elicits an orientation towards you.
Now, you can start to test her more, by placing stinky items within reach. You can leave your foot nearby so you can cover or block it if she makes a dive for it, but I'd hope you won't need to. The kitty litter tray will be an easy place for you to practise a lot!
Bring the show on the road, and start practising out in the garden. Then out on walks with relatively innocent items she goes to sniff. Then out on walks with manky stuff... I would make sure the treats for outside are seriously tempting for her... ham, stinky cheese, chorizo. Little small bits.
With time, you should be able to reduce the treats, but make sure you're armed with them, for now. You could also consider teaching her to happily wear a basket muzzle, just to stop her rehearsing the unwanted behaviour when you take your eye off her... beware though... I've met dogs who shove the muzzle right into piles of poop so it'll squeeze up through the mesh for the dog to lap at. Blech:D

em_cat

It’s likely she’s doing it because she’s A garnered a taste for all things poopy when she was with her mum & B often when their own diet is lacking in something. Both our 2 love the piggies poo as well and one loves bird poo he finds outside. Our Pom was fed on really poor food when she came into foster and we gradually introduced her to better quality food and since then she’s stopped. Our Yorki though is a lot of dietary issues so it’s just something we live with.

tk123

Bailey had a really bad dose last week from eating bird poo >_< I did muzzle him at one stage to discourage him eating it AND his other fav - the cherry stones in the park so I may go back to using it :rolleyes: ... then we'll have no probs with social distancing

Just to add OP if you're correcting her, slapping or shouting or whatever, you might create a situation where as soon as she sees something she likes, she swallows it extra fast before she can be corrected. Not too big a deal with cat poop but definitely concerning with stones or anything else than cause a blockage or reaction.

In my (limited) experience, it's rarely from a diet that's lacking. I think if you chase your dog when they grab hold of something you don't want them to eat you turn it into a great game for them. I know more instances where this has been the case than anything else.

For me the leave it cue works great, after properly training this behaviour as DBB describes above. But my dog wasn't overly obsessive.

Cherry Blossom

I have a sheep poo eater here. He'd also eat cat poo but wee don't have a cat at the minute so its not a problem. I call him away from it when out and about or tell him to drop it if he manages to get a mouthful. I don't overly stress about it though. It doesn't do much harm apart from him also being a hand and face licker. I just don't let him lick anyone if he's been out and about and had access to sheep poo.

cinnabar

Thanks everyone for your replies. I think she is not lacking from her diet as she is on a good quality food and is in really good condition. The training tips are great and I am going to work on that and until she has mastered the 'Leave it' command, I will moderate my own response to her poo-eating forays!