Question: I read your article re: dog eating cat poop, and your solution, however, here is my question. I have two beagles, ages 4 and 6. This past winter, I have discovered they both are eating at each other?s poop! I try and clean up each morning, but if I miss a spot, they are at it again. My vet told me to sprinkle Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer on their dry food. ? Ed
Answer: Coprophagia is fairly common in dogs. Contrary to what you might read, there generally isn’t a dietary deficiency. Although the feces of certain dogs can be more appealing than others, possibly pointing to a maldigestion problem in that dog, not in the dog who is practicing coprophagia.
You can add different supplements (available through your veterinarian) such as Forbid, which will supposedly make the feces distasteful. Weird that you would have to make feces taste bad, isn’t it? However, when you stop adding these supplements and the dog tries to eat the feces again, they will learn that it tastes good and start all over.
This is generally a self-rewarding behavior, meaning that performing the behavior rewards the dog. Once a behavior is rewarded (dog eats fecal matter), there is no way to reverse that with punishment. That is why this behavior is best corrected with avoidance and response substitution. The first step is to clean up the elimination areas for your dogs immediately when they defecate. This way, the opportunity to practice coprophagia will be limited, helping you correct the behavior in the first place.
Next, teach your dogs a ?leave it? cue. Make sure to reward this behavior with something great like food or play. A clicker is especially helpful here because you will be working at a distance. You can find out more about clicker training on www.clickertraining.com.
Once you have this cue perfected (one to two weeks) you should be able to use it when your dog is about to eat the feces. This means that you have to watch your dog when in the yard. When you see that she is sniffing at something, call her name and tell her to leave it. When she lifts her head, even just a little, click and treat her.
In the next couple of weeks, you should be able to increase the criteria for the behavior meaning that while lifting her head earns a treat in the beginning, soon she will have to lift her head and take a step back or come to you. Make sure to reward this with big rewards like low-fat cheese or white meat chicken. Eventually, you should see that she offers this behavior when she sees feces on the ground. Catch the behavior with a click and a reward and you will have conditioned her to a offer a new response when she sees feces.
Dr. Radosta
Lisa Radosta DVM, Diplomate ACVB
Florida Veterinary Behavior Service
PO Box 210636
Royal Palm Beach, FL 33421-0636
561-795-9398
www.flvetbehavior.com
Read more articles by Dr. Radosta | Ask her a question
Source: http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/pawshere/2011/05/20/dogs-are-eating-each-others-stool-help/
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