4 month old puppy eating cat poo in garden

MuffinsDa

We have a 4 month old lab cross - lovely dog and all. The only problem we have with her is that as soon as we take her out to our garden she finds some cat poo and gorges on it! We have a large garden and lots of cats would be passing through so there's always some feces there for her to find. This garden is separate from a side court-yard where she does her own poos (and she does NOT eat those!). Cat poos are mostly in flower beds.

I've done some research on the net but there doesn't seem to be any way of stopping it unless it's your own cat and you put supplements in their food - which is not going to be the case for us.

Anyone has experience with this? Any suggestions?

syklops

Whats the problem exactly? Its a very yucky thing that many dogs do, but there is no harm really.

fatmammycat

I honestly don't think you can stop this, maybe prevent it with mesh, but not stop the dog. My own dog is as bad, and you can include deer and horse poo into the mix. Sigh.

ISDW

My cats go out the front of my house, my dogs have the back, but when I take the dogs out for walks, we have to go through the front garden and they all try to find the cat poo. It is a great delicacy. I'm sorry, I don't know how you could stop it.

bluecherry74

One of my dogs is the same, she'll try to eat any poo she comes across including her own and my other dog's. I've caught her standing behind him a few times while he's doing his business, waiting for it to come out. (Sorry.)

The only thing I can suggest is to patrol the garden as often as possible and pick up any poo you come across. Not a nice job I know, especially in a large garden. Also reprimand her when you catch her in the act with a stern "leave it" or whatever command you normally use to get her to stop doing something. It won't stop her doing it when you're not looking but it might stop her when she knows your watching.

anniehoo

There's actually a term for this called "coprophagia" and it's very common in many animals. The only thing id advise is keeping your worming regime up to date. There is one roundworm that is common to both the dog and cat (Toxascaris leonina) as they are both the primary host. So, a dog can become infected by eating cat faeces and vice versa. Although it's a roundworm, it's not to be confused with Toxocara canis, which is a different species and exclusive to dogs.

Tranceypoo

Ugh, one of mine eats out of the litter tray if I don't get to it fast enough, disgusting though it is it doesn't seem to have harmed her so far!

boomerang

Slightly off on a tangent but someone pointed it out to me today:

Any of the pastoral breeds (and their crosses) have an often fatal sensitivity to ivermectin, particularly if ingested orally. Beware your dog eating sheep poop, horse dung or cow dung. The animal may have been treated with Ivomec so potentially it could poison your dog.

Never thought of it before myself and thought it's worth mentioning.

jimf

well we like our chinese takeaways so i suppose our dogs like their catonese

have the same problem with 2 of my springers cats/calves seems to be the most attractive to them and then they want to give us big slobbery kisses i dont think so

fredweena

Wish our dog just ate it, he feels the need to wear it. Loves rolling in revolting stuff. He's a very hairy indoor dog and washing him is a nightmare.

Nody

fredweena wrote: »

Wish our dog just ate it, he feels the need to wear it. Loves rolling in revolting stuff. He's a very hairy indoor dog and washing him is a nightmare.

That's normal though to cover up their own scent; royal pain though

gobo99

Vet advised us to put a drop of tabasco sauce on all the dog or cat poo in yor garden, one or two tastes and they'll learn their lesson.
Just don't get caught doing it or you might end up in a mental institution.

gramar

Both my dogs did the same when pups - not much you can do about it but in my case both grew out of it. The youngest is a year old and I haven't seen him do it for a few months. I was told they do it as a means of building up their immune systems but whether that's true or not I don't know.

SillyMangoX

I heard that pups do it as they are mimicking their mums who would have eaten the pups poo as babies so the den wouldn't get messy, don't know how true that is though!

MuffinsDa

thanks all for the replies.

Looks like we'll have to live with it.

WRT to tabasco flavoured poo: maybe I should find a few cat poos in the garden, smother them in tabasco and then put them in a very accessible place for the puppy and direct her that way ;-)

Lingua Franca

gobo99 wrote: »

Vet advised us to put a drop of tabasco sauce on all the dog or cat poo in yor garden, one or two tastes and they'll learn their lesson.
Just don't get caught doing it or you might end up in a mental institution.

I had a problem with a crazy cat lady neighbour's moggy menagerie pooing in my vegetable beds so I googled for a remedy. The best suggestion I found was to sprinkle cayenne pepper over the beds. It needs to be renewed after rain but other than that it's pretty effective at repelling them.