8 month old Boxer poopy problems - Help

Pink_Glits&pups

Hi I have a 8 month old male boxer who is having toilet training difficulties.
Issue 1 - He is fine during the day as he is out and about in the garden. At night at 11 he goes out to the garden to go toilet to which he gets praise for going - he doesnt do his poops! In the morning by 6 o'clock we are welcomed with a runny diarrhea situation all over the kitchen, as you can imagine this isnt the most pleasant before breakfast.

Issue 2 - He has a bit of a taste for his own poop by the looks of things and if he goes for his runny poop outside will often come back into the house with - a dirty smelly chin!

He eats dry pedigree puppy food and we would mix in some pasta as he wasnt putting on a lot of weight when we first got him. He gets his feed twice a day morning and dinner time (4/5ish)

We are at a loss at this stage and are unsure what our next steps should be to stop the night time toilet poops, the runnyness of the poops and the eating of the poops!

Please help!!

kildara

If he has diarrhoea his food must not be agreeing with him - especially if it has been going on for a while. Try him on a quality dog food - any dry premium dog food (Royal Canin, Wafcol, James Wellbeloved etc)- and try it for a few weeks to see if that is any better.
It may be that he cant hold it in at night time - just like when we get diarrhoea (not a nice mental image there!) - and so it just runs out at night and he cant help it...
With regard to him eating it, I dont know, I'm sure someone here can advise on it.


Oh yeah - put up a picture of the offender!!

Pink_Glits&pups

Thanks a million kildara, I'll try him out on some new food and see how he gets on - I'll also stop the pasta for a while to get a feel for whether the new food is working....

I'll pop a pic of him up this eve - little terror :P

kildara

Pink_Glits&pups wrote: »

Thanks a million kildara, I'll try him out on some new food and see how he gets on - I'll also stop the pasta for a while to get a feel for whether the new food is working....

I'll pop a pic of him up this eve - little terror :P

Try to keep him exclusively on one particular food, cut out everything else altogether. We had to do this with our pup (he had "loose motions" and a small skin issue) and both have cleared up now (touch wood). We had to cut out everything bar his dry food... no treats, no chews, nothing but the food, and now its a dream to be able to pick up his poo and not have to scrape it off the footpath!
Once he improves you can start adding in the extras, treats, pasta and the like and see if it is any of these that is causing his upset.

Best of luck with it and hope it works out ok.

boomer_ie

Pink_Glits&pups wrote: »

Thanks a million kildara, I'll try him out on some new food and see how he gets on - I'll also stop the pasta for a while to get a feel for whether the new food is working....

I'll pop a pic of him up this eve - little terror :P

I second kildaras mention of the food, I know with my two I used the Pedigree Chum dried food and it worked out well for the two of them. When on occasion someone got them cheaper dried food and fed them that (MOTHERS!!!) they produced gas like no tomorrow! Thankfully they didnt go as far as your young offender!

Have you had a chat with the vet to eliminate an infection somewhere?
I know one of mine got a bit grumpy one day and snapped at me. I took him down to the vet and discovered there was an ear infection (poor mite) and he was grand once the infection cleared up.

andreac

Pedigree chum is crap food, full of artificial colours and flavours, like feeding macdonalds to dogs.
Get a good quality complete food from pet shop or vets, red mills, burns, hills, arden grange, theres loads of them. But make sure you change food over gradually and not all at once as this will make things even worse.

It might just be trial and error with the food to see which one suits him.

Some pedigree dogs have very sensitive tummys, i would cut out the pasta too for the moment, i know it made my rottweiler sick when he had pasta before

boomer_ie

andreac wrote: »

Pedigree chum is crap food, full of artificial colours and flavours, like feeding macdonalds to dogs.
Get a good quality complete food from pet shop or vets, red mills, burns, hills, arden grange, theres loads of them. But make sure you change food over gradually and not all at once as this will make things even worse.

It might just be trial and error with the food to see which one suits him.

Some pedigree dogs have very sensitive tummys, i would cut out the pasta too for the moment, i know it made my rottweiler sick when he had pasta before

Strange, because I can get pedigree Chum in pet shops too

Pedigree Chum is what agreed with my two boxers and both had a lovely coat as a result, that is when they werent fed cheap crap.

andreac

I never said you cant get it in the pet shops, but if you look at the ingredients its full of artificial colours and flavours and not good quality ingredients like other higher quality food.

I personally wouldnt feed it to my dog and wouldnt recommend it to anyone else. There are complete foods that are much better quality out there and not that more expensive.

kildara

andreac wrote: »

I personally wouldnt feed it to my dog and wouldnt recommend it to anyone else. There are complete foods that are much better quality out there and not that more expensive.

I agree with andreac's comment.
Also, with regard to the price of the higher quality food, because it is of better quality than supermarket grade pet food, you will be feeding your dog a lesser amount per day - so the food lasts longer. It may work out a similar price per feed than the supermarket grade food.

mymo

My pup is on Royal Canin since we got him 6 months ago, it is expensive but they don't eat as much of it, and poops are always firm. I mix in a bit of veg and left overs sometimes but avoid wet food altogether.
I have given pedigree a few times both pouches and dry, when running low and unable to get Royal Canin, and found it made the dog stink, terrible gas and runny poop.
Also what time does he get dinner?
Try feeding him earlier.

Pink_Glits&pups

Thanks a mill all, for the comments so far, I might try get some new food I'll pop into the pet shop this afternoon. I try feed him at 4 but sometimes it would be 5. When I get the new food I'll try keep to 4 o'clock feeds.

Any one any idea's with regard him eating his own poop? I read up on it and read that he is probably playing with it, but its runny so not much playing, plus when he burps its smells of poop - not attractive!!:o

Munster Gal

Pink_Glits&pups wrote: »

Thanks a mill all, for the comments so far, I might try get some new food I'll pop into the pet shop this afternoon. I try feed him at 4 but sometimes it would be 5. When I get the new food I'll try keep to 4 o'clock feeds.

Any one any idea's with regard him eating his own poop? I read up on it and read that he is probably playing with it, but its runny so not much playing, plus when he burps its smells of poop - not attractive!!:o

I recommend the Royal Canin, you'd start him off on Maxi Junior then at 8 months move him on to the special Boxer food. Any vet who stocks it will give you free samples to try it out. As for the poop eating, the best thing to do is mix some shredded tinned pineapple with his food - it's supposed to make the poops taste bad to the dog. As he's having a dodgy tummy you could use pineapple juice instead which can work but isn't as good as the pineapple bits.

Skillie

I'd recommend Royal Canin or Eukanuba deffinately, Wagg or Arden grange are quite good too. Wouldn't dream of using P.Chum as people alluded to its a success due to marketing, just cos budwiser is the most popular beer in ireland don't mean its the best. Wet food is the devil and as already said a 60 euro bag of Royal Canin sounds expensive but it'll last 2 months or so which will be cheaper than pedigree chumn in the longrun. I use www.zooplus.ie and find them brilliant, free delivery as well

kerrz

Hey there

Have a 7 month old boxer and had similar issues ...was on pedigree chum but seemed bloated , constantly hungry and when he went to toilet it was runny ....changed to royal canin esp for boxer puppies ...huge difference now , gets fed twice a day and loves it !!!More expensive but eats less and totally worth it . Has stopped him begging during day also .

As far as eating his own poo goes , mine did same ...only way to stop was to watch him anytime he went and correct him if he went near it after and this stopped almost immediately... thought maybe he was missing out on nutrients etc and this was reason .After some research discovered they also have a natural instinct to keep their space /sleeping area clean and if they have to go to toilet and really cant help going in their bed area esp with diarrohea he may just be trying to keep his area clean ...may be worth getting up during night to let him out until he gets into a routine ...or letting him sleep in a smaller area

Hope this helps !!!
Kerry

Skillie

kerrz wrote: »

Hey there

Have a 7 month old boxer and had similar issues ...was on pedigree chum but seemed bloated , constantly hungry and when he went to toilet it was runny ....changed to royal canin esp for boxer puppies ...huge difference now , gets fed twice a day and loves it !!!More expensive but eats less and totally worth it . Has stopped him begging during day also .

As far as eating his own poo goes , mine did same ...only way to stop was to watch him anytime he went and correct him if he went near it after and this stopped almost immediately... thought maybe he was missing out on nutrients etc and this was reason .After some research discovered they also have a natural instinct to keep their space /sleeping area clean and if they have to go to toilet and really cant help going in their bed area esp with diarrohea he may just be trying to keep his area clean ...may be worth getting up during night to let him out until he gets into a routine ...or letting him sleep in a smaller area

Hope this helps !!!
Kerry

great response!!

the poo eating this is called Coprophagia and is a a hard problem to break, maybe he knows you'll be upset by the poo all over the kitchen when you get up and is trying to hide the evidence; maybe hes bored; maybe its the condition of his poop; maybe he's cleaning up; maybe he just likes the taste but it must be very hard to cope with. you'll have no alternative but to keep your home and garden as poo free as possible and maybe just stay in the garden or a short walk till he poops before bedtime and then massive reward for doing this.

https://www.brendaspets.ie/node/602

http://www.petplace.com/dogs/coprophagia-in-dogs/page1.aspx