COPROPHAGIA (Dog eating faeces)

"Coprophagia" is the term used when dogs eat the stools of other animals and/or their own stools. When dogs eat the faeces of other animals, it is said there can be some minor nutritional value in it for the dogs. One thing to know is that provided the animal whose faeces it is that your dog is eating is in good health and not carrying intestinal parasites, there is generally no harm to your dog for his/her behaviour (although I'd be inclined to avoid the doggy kisses for a while LOL).

For the purpose of this article, I'm referring mainly to dogs who eat their own stools after defecation or who might be eating the stools of the other dog in our multi-dog household.

Reasons for Coprophagic behaviour can be numerous and varied, such as :

Diet/nutrition deficiency related.

Simply looking at your dog's current diet and improving on it may correct your dog's coprophagic behaviour. Feed a good quality premium range food, including fresh raw meat and of course raw meaty bones.

The result of bad house-training methods.

If scolding your pup/dog during house-training for soiling inside the house it's not necessarily the case that your pup/dog is going to pair the scolding/punishment with the act of having soiled in the home. Dogs don't think that way - they think in images. From your pup/dog's point of view it might be a case of the dog getting the picture of "dog + human + poop = dog in trouble". Some dogs will therefore do whatever they can to remove/change that equation by getting rid of the poop and the only way they can do that is (a) by hiding it (so they soil in places where the excretions are not visible eg. under a bed) or (b) by eating it. From there, it can become a learnt behaviour.

Attention seeking attempts.

Perhaps your dog has learnt that you'll pay attention to him/her when he is exhibiting coprophagic behaviour, yet not when he isn't? This is an example of inadvertent reinforcement. Even "bad attention" can be welcomed by some dogs, rather than no attention at all. Make sure to praise your dog when he has moved away from having defecated.

The result of boredom.

A dog who is not mentally stimulated or doesn't have the outlet for mental stimulation that s/he needs tends to look for things to do. They have busy minds that need to be exercised. Coprophagic behaviour can begin as something exploratory, but then develops into a habit.

The result of unhygienic environment.

Pick up after your dog and leave a clean environment clear of excrements.

Medical Issue.

Pancreatitis, parasitic infection, malabsorption and other inestinal problems can all contribute to the development of Coprophagia. If you've checked out other possibilities as above and/or feel that health could be a contributing cause, visit your Vet for a check-up. Taking a stool sample to the appointment may be of assistance - your Vet will be able to test it for things such as (but not limited to) a worm burden count.

Learnt Behaviour.

For whatever the cause of the Coprophagic habit and assuming all of the above has been addressed and/or ruled out, we sometimes simply have the 'learnt' component to deal with. This might be a matter of making the stools he leaves behind taste bad. Some people have tried setting up the situation by collecting all stools save for one or two, and lacing them with something that doesn't taste nice (one would think that poop by itself doesn't taste nice, but hey .... dogs are dogs LOL) eg. cayenne pepper; chilli. This method has worked for some, but it is laborious and it does rely on someone being home to always making sure they follow up Fido's bowl motions with the pepper shaker at the ready. Consistency is an absolute necessity for this training so it's often not very feasible if possible at all.

Feed Pineapple.

There has been a degree of success with feeding the dog pineapple. It has been thought that the presence of processed pineapple in the dog's faeces renders the faeces unattractive, therefore deterring the dog from ingesting its stools. I don't think it is as simple as that, nor necessarily believe that "taste" is a factor here at all. After all, if pineapple was so bad tasting to a dog, why would he eat it in the first place?

However, Bromelain" is an enzyme capable of digesting protein and this is found in Pineapples. I'm no nutritionist but perhaps ingestion of pineapple has provided the enzyme necessary for a higher absorption of protein - the dog, its protein requirements having been satiated, ceases seeking self-supplementation of this nutrient by returning to ingest his/her own faeces. This is merely my own hypothesis, but the point being a number of people have found this method lending them some success in correcting their dog's coprophagic behaviour.

One dog eating another dog's faeces.

If it is the case that a dog is eating the faeces of another dog in particular (ie on a regular basis) and no other (eg. in a multi-dog household) then it may pay to have the dog (the one whose faeces are being eaten) Vet-checked for ill-health or parasitic infestation.

Disclaimer.

This article is not full in its content and is designed to provide a brief overview of what Coprophagia is; what potential causes there may be for the behaviour; and what owners might do to remedy the behaviour. Pro-K9 hopes you have found the information contained in this article to be of some assistance and perhaps lent you some guidance towards finding out more on the subject as far as it relates to your dog.

Copyright.

This article may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the author.

Copyright © Pro-K9, 2009
All rights reserved

Training your dog to go to its mat when someone comes to the door.

1. Food lure your dog into a drop/lay down position on his/her mat. Depending on the size of the dog, it is often easier if we are kneeling down close to the mat. No words are used at this stage, other than a marker word such as “yes” (that tells your dog he’s done what you require) and a release word (eg “free!”) that allows your dog to get up and leave the mat. Once your dog has actually laid down on the mat, say “yes” and allow him to take the food treat from your hand. Give your dog the release word after only a moment of your dog having laid on his mat. After all, your dog doesn’t know what the release word means yet, so you are only building up ‘word association’ at this stage. You will give the dog his ‘release word’ EVERY time, before he gets up off his mat.

2. Once you’ve done Step 1 a couple of times and you have both gotten the idea, begin to add in the words “on your mat” (or whichever word/s you are going to chose for this trick .... a single word is fine, if that’s what you are likely to do normally). Introduce these word/s a moment before your dog has completed the act of laying on his mat.

3. Wean off using food as a lure to laying on the mat. Use your hand as you would if you had food in it, but once your dog has laid down on his mat, quickly source a piece of food from your pocket or a food treat pouch (somewhere you can get to quickly and easily) and reward him with it.

4. As the process of your dog laying on his mat becomes more fluent and reliable, say “on your mat” a bit earlier and earlier, until such time as you are saying “on your mat” just before your dog gives the action. Only proceed to this if you’re pretty sure your dog will give you the desired action, otherwise you are teaching your that the words are meaningless. At this stage you are still using your hand as if luring your dog with a food treat.

5. Now is the time when you want to think about weaning-off having to be knelt down and using your hand to ‘cue’ your dog to the mat. Try standing up – but you’ll need to bend over some to still use your hand as if to ‘food lure’. When that is working well, begin to use your arm and hand a little less and eventually wean this off completely, until your dog is laying on his mat at the words “on your mat” (or your equivalent). You are standing close to his mat at this stage. Don’t forget to reward your dog with his food treat and quickly give him his release word.

6. The next step is to get him to actually GO to his mat and lay down. Remember – he’s learnt that “on your mat” means lay down on his mat. This step now adds an extra action that he hasn’t been trained to do. IE To first walk to his mat. Stand near his mat, but perhaps about 12 inches away from your usual position. Say “on your mat” (or your equivalent). Because this part of the training is a bit different/new, your dog might be puzzled, so you might need to use your hand and arm in a similar way as you did when you used to food lure him to the required position.

7. When your dog has got the idea, you can then begin to work further and further away from his mat.

8. When Step 7 (distance) is happening, you can introduce the “door knock” as the cue for “on your mat”. This is another variation you’re adding to this trick, so your dog isn’t going to understand what this means, at first. To teach your dog what it means, you simply knock on the door (from inside) and then tell your dog to “on your mat”.

9. Repeat Step 8 until your dog is going to his mat and laying down without you having to say the words. If this simply doesn’t seem to be occurring, help your dog out a little. Knock on the door, wait a moment for your dog to respond. Let him think about it. But if it looks like nothing is happening, say the words “on your mat”. Or perhaps just give a little hand signal/gesture to indicate what you want, without saying the words at all.

10. Go to the door, step outside. Knock on the door, step inside – if your dog hasn’t gone to his mat (remember .... going outside is yet another variation from your dog’s perspective, so he might not be sure about what he is supposed to do) say “on your mat”.

11. Knock on the door from outside, step inside. Give your dog a moment to think (he’ll be looking at you expectantly). If he doesn’t make the move to go on his mat, help him out with perhaps a hand gesture (as mentioned in Step 9).

12. Introduce some help from your friends and family. Begin now by having your helper knock on the door. Tell your dog “on your mat”, the first time this occurs. This is another variation to what your dog is used to. The ‘equation’ looks different to him so we take a step back in our progress of weaning off from additional assistance. Offer your dog a clue (eg. Hand gesture). When he recognises how he can win that tasty reward, he’ll begin responding quite quickly to the rules of the trick.

13. Congratulations! You have now taught your dog the initial basic steps to this trick. Remember, he’s only just learnt it – that doesn’t mean he’ll be able to have the presence of mind to successfully demonstrate “on the mat” under high level distractions/uncontrolled environments (eg. people arriving unexpectedly; lots of noise; etc). You need to increase these sorts of distractions and proof the exercise over, until your dog can automatically offer you this behaviour almost seemingly as a ‘second nature’.

TRAINING TIPS FOR THIS TRICK

· Start teaching your dog in a quiet, minimal distraction environment .

· Initially, use the same mat each time – preferably in the place where you will want your dog to go to when people come to the door.

· Short training bursts are best. Quit while the dog is still interested.

· Train before your dog has its meal – so he is a bit hungry for the treats you offer .

· Hold the treat between your thumb and index finger with your palm facing down.

· Very small pieces of treat should be used each time. This helps to keep your dog interested rather than filling up on the treat, but also avoids your dog needing to spend much time chewing the treat before the next repetition of the exercise.

· Always finish on a high note. If you’ve moved on in training too quickly and it begins to deteriorate, return to the previous step. Finish on a ‘win’. J

· Move from one step to the next only after achieving 10 successful attempts in a row. This doesn’t have to occur all in the one training session. You might get two successes at the end of one session. Two out of two successful tries in the next session, and so on. Once you’ve counted 10 successive successes, progress to the next step in training. This will help avoid you rushing your dog and progressing before your dog is ready.

· Use ‘special’ treats for training – treats that your dog REALLY loves and does not normally receive at any other time.

· Above all, ENJOY training with your dog! Training your dog activities and tricks is a great way towards providing your dog with mental stimulation. Lack of mental stimulation is a very common reason for many of the problematic behaviours dog-owners experience from their dogs (eg. Barking; digging; destructiveness; etc). Training your dog also goes a good way towards re-affirming your leadership to your dog, on a regular basis. Giving your dog a job to do will be something your dog will appreciate and love.

Remember to call your dog trainer/behaviourist if you are having difficulties in any facet of your dog’s behaviour. Getting help early can often make the difference for both you and your dog.

PUPPIES AND DESTRUCTIVE CHEWING

The best time to start training your puppy to not chew items you don't want him to chew, is before he gets a chance to learn to chew them. This involves being there to supervise when puppy has access to items that you'd rather he didn't give his attention to, and it also involves prevention when you're not able to supervise. Anti-chew sprays are commercially available to assist, but they more often work if you use them before a learnt behaviour and habit has begun. So when you bring puppy home, you could begin by spraying the most obvious objects before he's shown interest, or follow him around and as soon as he shows interest in an item (eg - his wooden kennel) spray the 'chewable' sections. One of the mistakes many people make is that they don't refresh with the spray - they leave it to wear off and only re-spray once they see their dog back into chewing it again. This is creating a situation where your dog will think it is worthwhile continuing to have a go at chewing it, as sometimes it doesn't taste so awful. The trick is to actually make it so that EVERY time your dog goes to the item, it does taste unpleasant. Working this way through your dog's chewing phase will have him eventually become uninterested in chewing that item. Of course, dogs (especially puppies) MUST chew - it is part of teeth, gum and jaw development. So please make sure that your pup/dog has suitable and safe chew toys to seek enjoyment from, and make a point of letting him know he's a good dog whenever he is chewing on appropriate items.

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