Bad dogs, talking bout’ the bad, bad, bad, bad dogs….
It was raining a bit when we set out for our walk yesterday morning. It was definitely a lot warmer than it has been, but when I stepped out the door, there was a bit of ice on the steps.
Rather than boot the dogs up and walk them on possibly icy roads, I loaded them both into the car and drove to the park.
The paths through the woods were icy, but I let Sampson off leash and without the competition, Delilah did pretty well. Sampson even jumped into the car on our way out of the park.
The rain continued on and off all day, often heavy at times and I was dreading our afternoon walk. But right around 4 PM the rain slacked off. We all got our gear on and headed out.
I decided to stay off the icy paths of the woods and instead walk around the block. About half-way through I had a thought. Sometimes these thoughts are not good, because sometimes, they are a precursor for things to come.
Like when I’m speeding down the highway and think, “Gee I haven’t seen cop today.” Sure enough, one shows yup, usually with a radar gun in his hand.
But this post isn’t about cops with radar guns, this post is about dogs.
Bad dogs.
So here I was, thinking, wow this has been a great walk. The dogs are walking nicely on leash, they aren’t zigging and zagging from side to side, no-one has gotten their leash stuck under their leg, one dog hasn’t clothes-lined the other dog and I haven’t had my hands crushed or a leash wrapped around my leg. We haven’t run into another person, car or dog. It’s an ENJOYABLE walk.
Don’t get any ideas, she’s not talking about me.
And while I stood there, glorying in this small miracle and trying to figure out how to make a blog post out of it….Delilah at dog shit.
Besides being disgusting and gross this is problematic in a number of ways.
1) Delilah is ALL Lab, she licks things. Things outside and things in the house. Things like the counter if she can get away with it, the floor, your plate if she thinks your not looking AND she drinks out of the same water bowl as Sampson. EWWWWW it’s worse than a kid backwashing in your cup.
2) I’m trying really hard to get those elevated liver levels under control and part of this is controlling what goes in her mouth. Dog shit is not on that list.
And 3) I use treats on our walks and there’s no way in hell, I’m reaching down to give her a treat after she’s eaten dog shit.
No friggin’ way.
Immediately after she ate the shit, we had to pass a dog. So there I am trying to walk past the dog while breaking off a piece of lamb lung, keeping myself from getting tangled up in their leashes, and pitch the treat into her gaping pie hole, praying my aim stays poor and I don’t actually shoot one down her throat and choke the dog. Nothing worse than having to Heimlich your dog (who just ate shit) on the side of the road.
I told you this story is about bad dogs. Bad dogs get their teeth brushed when they come home from a walk.
Wait a minute, let’s not get crazy or anything.
See how quickly the worm can turn? WTF does that mean anyway? How do you keep your dogs from eating bad things, whether it be in the house, yard or on a walk?
I had a beagle that did the same thing. They have pills for it. They make the shit taste bad. Did you read that? How shit is made to taste worse, I don’t know! But those pills must be crazy gross!
This is an ongoing problem with Gus. We tried everything, including the bad tasting stuff from the vet that you sprinkle on the potty. Gus still ate it. We finally hit upon giving him a treat each time he pottied. He is extremely food motivated. We were desperate.
We have to go out with him each time he goes out or look through the window waiting to see if he is going to do anything. At first we used a little tin can and would shake it with the treats inside and eventually he started coming to get the treat instead of his potty. It has evolved over the years to praising him and playing kickball with him. We play ball several times a day so he always has it in his mouth when he is outside.He will drop his ball near his chosen potty place.. Gus thrives on praise. We have never had a dog like him. He is to the point that he will wait for us to get the shovel to throw it away and my husband kicks the ball for him to catch for “his treat” and then we will play ball a few times while we praise him. As I am writing this, I realize this sounds a bit over the top! But, when he first came to us he would eat his potty immediately, every time. We couldn’t live with that. It was a mess.
On walks, we just have to watch him, for those lovely dog owners that don’t clean up after their dogs! He still gets it occasionally. Yuck!
Gus’ Mom
Oh no!!! LOL!! You sound like me on our walks!! No one is pulling, check, no one has a leash under their leg, check, no one is tangled!! LOL!!
I’m sorry about the poop!! My dogs like to eat goose crap occasionally and I do the same thing! I brush their teeth immediately.
OMD we snorted with laughter that it ended up with a tooth brush. Have a marvellous Monday.
Best wishes Molly
Watching me like a hawk is Mom’s favorite strategy. But that doesn’t always work, as you well know. Sometimes I still score a goose poop or discarded cheez doodle. Because of my bucky-buck teeth, I don’t always grab my target the first time, so Mom has 2 chances to intercept. Even still, it’s not foolproof. Nothing is….
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Bailie ate poop when we first got her. She was only three months old and used to fighting for food having thirteen siblings to compete with. Mom nearly puked too! One of the first things Bailie learned was drop it, leave it. We focused really hard on keeping her from eating every little thing she found. She got better within a few months, but Mom can’t forget she ate poop. So totally gross! Yuck! Did you throw out the toothbrush after brushing poop mouth’s teeth?
Thankfully (and I can’t believe I am starting this sentence with that word but..) thankfully Mity only eats his own poo not other dogs (and yes I nearly typed people, which is a whole other level of ugh!)
My Foxy was a recovering poop addict. She didn’t discriminate either – she’d eat her poop, her brother’s poop, cat poop, whatever she found. I tried all the store bought so called solutions as well different home remedies (feeding her pineapple so her poop would taste bad). The only thing that worked was keeping her on a leash & telling her to leave it & drop it. As she got older, she had a few relapses (as most addicts do) but mostly cut the habit.
All our dogs know the “don’t sniff” command which naturally leads to a lack of eating anything. In the yard when they are off-leash, it’s a little harder to control. During Angel Sam’s final days the meds he was on gave him a funky appetite and it wasn’t unusual for him to eat weird stuff. We just went out with him all the time and used the “don’t sniff” command. …and picked the weird stuff up as much as possible.
Monty and Harlow
Torrey is pretty good at scarfing things. Her “drop it” or “leave it” is fairly good though. Other than a muzzle who knows how you stop a dog from eating shit.
That’s cute! Your dog brushes her / his teeth 🙂 Now, I want a dog! LOL
Are you sure you ever want to get a beagle? Because that is like their favorite thing to eat. I have become immune to letting it bother me. Actually though, Cricket doesn’t do it as much as she used to. But of course, Luke does. That’s why we’re working hard on training him to “leave it”. Which works well unless it’s something he really, really wants…..
Now, add to the equation an elderly cat who doesn’t think he needs to use the litter box anymore….I’ll let you read between the lines there. Again, I just try not to worry about it, and do our best to try to get to it and clean it up before the dogs can!
BTW, our vet has always told us not to worry about it either, it’s just something dogs do, and we humans are the only ones grossed out by it. It’s natural behavior to them.
Jan, my Sophie was a beagle! She only ate her own shit. Never did he try anyone else’s. I’m still stymied to the notion that there are pills to make it taste worse. Can’t imagine what could possibly taste worse!
Luckily, Haley doesn’t eat dog poop but rabbit poop must be a pretty tasty treat for her! Isn’t it funny how some walks are just perfect and other walks make you feel like you should have just stayed at home on the couch?
WE eat BUNNY Poops ALL the time…
Guess the only way to prevent Poop (or anythingy Else) Eating… is a MUZZLE… {{Shiver}}}
Hey! I’m writing a post about blog hops and wanted to include barks and Bytes. I read your post and had to give a chuckle! Bentley’s problem is anything our neighbors might drop. Halloween was really bad on our walks with all of the candy wrappers. So far, no crap! LMAO!
We work really hard on a solid “leave it” but of course that does not always work. Never a dull moment on your walks.
Does Delilah enjoy holding things in her mouth? Maybe you could train her to hold a favorite toy on walks so she is less likely to taste everything she sees?
Right now, I am in the midst of training Blueberry to stop eating horse apples. I read a couple of horror stories on the web (has to be true, right?) about dogs getting really ill from horse poop because the horse had been given anti-worming meds and it’s poisonous to dogs (can cause seizures among other things) – so if it is in the horse poop, dog eats the poisoned poop and it’s off to the ER. So anyway, when we encounter a horse pile, I have either cut up hot dogs or cheese in my pocket and in a really excited voice I’ll say to Blueberry, “Oh, look what I have!!” and she comes running. Then I stuff her mouth with cheese until we pass the pile. She’s gotten a lot better now about not eating the horse droppings, but it’s still not 100% effective. Since Blueberry doesn’t get hot dogs or cheese at any other times – she thinks they are special. If I use regular treats – she isn’t as quick to run over to me.
My dog, Copper, used to eat dog poop. His, the other dog’s. It was all ambrosia to him. I tried everything I could think of. I even sprinkled cayenne pepper on it. He thanked me for spicing it up.
Oh Jodi, my sympathies. I’ve been trying to figure out a magic and easy remedy but Coprophagia is a complicated and complex behavioral issues and most so-called remedies don’t work especially with a determined pooch. I guess your best shot is to keep a bunch of toothbrushes and handi-wipes around. Good luck with the D-Dog; she really is worth it! 🙂
ohhhh boy, I used to try and put a basket muzzle on nellie when she had a nasty habit of eating horse shit all the time. It didn’t work very well cuz she kept getting it off. I love the teeth brushing at the end.
I’m way behind – forgive me. About the only way I’ve been able to keep Callie & Shadow from eating dog shit — their own, not each other’s — is to clean up the yard right afterwards, but I have to put them in the house first. And 99% of the time it works. The other 1% is when they’re really hungry. As far as I know, Ducky has only eaten her own poop once. And I don’t even want to think about it.