Coprophagia or Dogs Can Be Gross

I love River Boat, my two year old Black Labrador. He was born nine condos down from where I am now living here in Oregon with the Columbia River right out my back door…hence his name. 

True confession – River is a poop eater!

We moved from five acres to a condo with no yard, so now we are out with the dogs on leash when they do their business so we always pick it up right away. I had been working on managing River’s corprophagia, the eating of stools, with the goal of extinguishing the behavior for about six months before we moved. Here’s our story.

River did not eat his own stool but those of his two canine housemates, Buddy, Doxie/Yorkie mix 11 years old and Mellie, Golden Retriever 5 years old. River did not start eating stool until after he was sixteen months old. Yuck! 

So first, I went on-line [what else?] and made a list of possible solutions to this situation. I wanted to go down the list and try each idea for one month to give it time to work, trying avoid starting too many things at once and then not knowing which worked.

First, my husband Jerry, and I started managing how we let the dogs out. Letting Buddy and Mellie out together and then let River out and go with him to scoop immediately. Management works but sometimes we as humans relaxed our resolve and River would find a snack.

While we managed the outdoor time we also switched the dog’s foods to change the texture of the stool, and maybe then the stool would not be as desirable as the solid tootsie type are. This may have had some effect on desirability as he would sometimes now walk away from the stool. But it was not the solution.

Next I added enzymes to River’s diet maybe he was having trouble metabolizing his food properly. I could not tell if that was helpful, he still ate stools if we didn’t get to them quick enough.

Then I feed a coprophagia deterrent to Buddy and Mellie as directed by the label. Hard to tell again if our management was getting better or if these tablets really helped.

After about six months of working our way through the solutions we moved to Oregon and all bathroom outings are on leash, so the problem is solved. 

When I think of all the things we tried before we moved it seems that management and changing dog foods so their stools would be of a softer texture both had the effect of a stool consumption reduction. Since moving it is not even an option since we are taking the dogs out on leash and cleaning up immediately. Do I think the behavior is extinguished? We head back to Whidbey for a visit in a few days…we’ll see.

Blogging Again!

Here I am blogging again, I noticed my last blog was right about the time, my now husband, Jerry and I started dating. I won’t catch you up on all of that but one of the consequences has been my taking a two year sabbatical from teaching classes and moving from my home of 25 years on Whidbey Island to another beautiful place Hammond Oregon right outside Astoria. Jerry was a retired pastor when we got married last year but a two year interim pastor position became available in Astoria so he moved here in January; I stayed behind to wrap up my business and pack. It is not that easy to find a place to rent with two dogs, but we did eventually find a place eight doors down from my mom. Did I mention my mom and three brothers live here as well?

Moving was a bigger ordeal than I thought it would be. It wasn't until the first part of June that we were all settled in Hammond. Lots of adjustments! The one that is most appropriate for me to write about here is the change for our dogs, Mellie a 4.5 year old Golden Retriever and River a 2.5 year old Black Labrador. We moved from 5 acres on Whidbey to a condominium with no yard. Lots of walking on leash here. River is good on the leash and easy to walk, Mellie a bit more challenging. Since I got to know Jerry when he got his puppy Mellie I do feel somewhat responsible for Mellie’s poor leash habits because I was their coach! I’ll write more about the retraining process in another blog.

What is a dog trainer to do? Train her dogs? Really?! Well that is just what I have been doing. I do most of the dog walking since I am home with them and Jerry works outside our home. So I got out the rewards and started one at a time. As I mentioned River has always been pretty good on the leash. I walked him often on leash when he was young and I tried to make it fun. But here in Hammond it is not unusual to come across 30 elk while out and about. It was a perfect place to use “Look at That” from Control Unleashed by Leslie McDivett.

 When out walking Mellie or River on leash I prefer other dogs would not come to meet them. I feel it puts too much pressure on them and it doesn’t always turn out friendly. The greeting of other dogs promotes all the dogs involved pulling to go meet other dogs. This was addressed in the book 12 Terrible Dog Training Mistakes Owners Make That Ruin Their Dog's Behavior...And How To Avoid Them  by Suzanne Hetts PhD. I’m over 60 and quite a few people I see on walks are older than me with large dogs. I do not want them or me to be pulled over by our walking buddies.  I want my dogs to look at the other dogs and then come along with me, we are a team!

During this sabbatical and adventure in Oregon I am looking forward to training our dogs. Mellie has loved agility so I plan on looking for an agility class for us. My brothers are duck hunters and I am planning on training River to hunt with them. I read an article in the APDT Chronicle of the Dog, Trailblazing Into the Gun Dog World by Inga From, and we are going to be using force free methods. I’m also going to watch the Do as I Do Using Social Learning to Train Dogs  dvd from Claudia Fugazza and give that training method a try.  Lots to do here in Oregon, I’ll keep you posted!