My one-year-old terrier mix likes to eat poop, but not just any poop - cat poop and other dog's poop. He will NOT eat his own poop.
What I've done so far to curb this behavior is to firmly tell him, "drop it." When he inevitably continues to chew and then swallow this stuff, I say "timeout" and walk him back to the house and crate him. I do not yell (as I did at first, admittedly, because I didn't know any better) as I don't want him to associate the crate with punishment. He is not afraid of his crate and is crate-trained; I know it would be a bad idea to make him fear the crate. However, I do wish for him to understand poop = end of fun walk. Time-out lasts no longer than 20 minutes.
He seems to be doing better, but he still slips.
Is this effective, or is there another trick I can try? Sometimes, I feel like taking him back to the house is still walking him, so it doesn't seem so much like ending the walk as it seems like walking the opposite direction (thus, still walking). However, since there does seem to be progress, should I continue this route?
I've read online people stating that what is gross to humans may not be gross to dogs. And that eating poop is okay as long as the dog is up-to-date on shots. But.. this just seems wrong to me. What if there are worms in the poop? Isn't it a bad behavior anyway?
I hope it's not an indication that he is missing something in his diet.
What I've done so far to curb this behavior is to firmly tell him, "drop it." When he inevitably continues to chew and then swallow this stuff, I say "timeout" and walk him back to the house and crate him. I do not yell (as I did at first, admittedly, because I didn't know any better) as I don't want him to associate the crate with punishment. He is not afraid of his crate and is crate-trained; I know it would be a bad idea to make him fear the crate. However, I do wish for him to understand poop = end of fun walk. Time-out lasts no longer than 20 minutes.
He seems to be doing better, but he still slips.
Is this effective, or is there another trick I can try? Sometimes, I feel like taking him back to the house is still walking him, so it doesn't seem so much like ending the walk as it seems like walking the opposite direction (thus, still walking). However, since there does seem to be progress, should I continue this route?
I've read online people stating that what is gross to humans may not be gross to dogs. And that eating poop is okay as long as the dog is up-to-date on shots. But.. this just seems wrong to me. What if there are worms in the poop? Isn't it a bad behavior anyway?
I hope it's not an indication that he is missing something in his diet.
