[Calea]

Hello all! I have two 5 month old Papillon puppies that have a bad habit of eating their own poop. The vet recommended For-bid which we used for a week but it doesn't seem to have helped. They are still doing it. She also recommended picking up the poop immediately after they do it, but this is unrealistic since they are out so often during the day/night and with the snow and cold, I'm not going out there every time just to see if they poop. Just today my one girl tried to bring in a frozen poopsicle into the house, for which she was scolded.

I have heard that people try pineapple and I bought some, however I haven't started it yet.

They are on Purina Pediatric puppy food right now.

Do you think they will eventually grow out of this? What else should I try?

 

[Pawzk9]

I would start teaching them a strong "leave-it" cue. And a strong recall (come to you) cue. You may have to wrap up and go out with them for a while (and might be easier with one puppy at a time) As they finish up, call them to you and give a treat. If they turn to sniff the poop - do a leave it - call to you for a treat. At first you may need to be close to them to accomplish this (and I would teach both behaviors with other things - like a dog kibble, before you expect them to leave an extra-tasty poopsicle. No sense in scolding. Just teach them what you want them to do (come to you for a treat) instead. And be consistent about poop scooping. Yes, it will be inconvenient at times, and you may have to supervise/manage more than you like. But it will pay off in the long run. I might also look at a better all-lifestages dog food. 5 month old toy dogs don't need to be on puppy food, and there are better foods out there which may be more fully digested than Purina. Sandy

 

[Calea]

Thank you very much. I think I will look into another brand of dog food perhaps. I keep hearing that this could be the problem so I will talk to the vet about this.

 

[doxiemommy]

Yes, do look into changing food! And, I've heard pineapple works well!
But, I also recommend that, at 5 months, you still go out with them when they go out to potty. When we were potty training, it really helped us to know when our pups were "empty" so we could give them a bit more freedom, and not have to watch them every second. If you don't go out, and don't know if they've gone, I'd be less apt to give them any freedom, since they could have just played outside, and then would come in, and go potty inside.
And, if you go out with them, you can scoop! Yay, fun stuff!

 

[Calea]

I was actually having more problems with potty training when I accompanied them outside and confined them in a fenced-in area. They didn't like me picking them up and carrying them out, so consequently they would avoid it and go potty in the house. Now that they have freedom to run out in the backyard by themselves they haven't had as many accidents inside. It seems to be working really well, except for the poop eating. :S

 

[doxiemommy]

Well, if it's working for you, good! One thing I'd mention is that most people wouldn't recommend picking them up and carrying them out, but rather using a leash to walk them to the potty area. OR, letting them walk out on their own. That could have been part of the problem.....

 

[Calea]

The thing is that the back door goes out onto our deck so we had to carry them out into a fenced-in play area because they were too tiny to walk down the stairs by themselves. We were also concerned that they might jump/fall off of the deck, so we carried them out each time. They were so small when we got them and had to go potty so often that there often wasn't enough time to put a leash on them. If they ran to the door you had to run them out ASAP before they did something on the floor.