Dog walking

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  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    I tried the gentl leader years ago with my lab. She hated it so much, she wriggles out of it, and we were NEVER able to fix it again. Weird, but true.

    When I work with my rescue dogs (they are ususally strong labs that are between 1 & 2 yrs old), I find the best way is to use the choke chain in "show hold"...which is higher up on the neck and straight up with the collar. As they get use to this, you can back off the hold to a "loose hold."

    QUESTION:

    Has anyone had allergy problems with their non-wheat/corn puppy kibble before? We think our newest guy is allergic to this type of food...which is strange because our chocolate lab female actually has an allergy to wheat & corn. UGH!!!!

    There is another post on the raw diet. That's one option, although for me it is too time consuming. We feed our dog Innova EVO dry, canned, and treats, which has been excellent for us. He has a great coat, is 6 years old and has never needed his teeth cleaned, and....he has the best-looking poop at the dog park ;-) (see my profile for a picture--of the dog, not the poop!)
  • sonjavon
    sonjavon Posts: 1,019 Member
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    Another Gentle Leader fan here - I use it for all 3 of my dogs and all of our rescue/fosters that come through.

    On the dog food question. I have one that seems to be allergic to everything. He takes chlorpheneramine twice daily for environmental allergies. We feed Natural Balance Potato and Duck and have had a lot of luck with it. I've heard great things about RAW - but honestly - I don't have that strong of a stomach to watch them chew on raw meat.

    Good luck!
  • MisoSoup79
    MisoSoup79 Posts: 517
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    I tried the gentl leader years ago with my lab. She hated it so much, she wriggles out of it, and we were NEVER able to fix it again. Weird, but true.

    When I work with my rescue dogs (they are ususally strong labs that are between 1 & 2 yrs old), I find the best way is to use the choke chain in "show hold"...which is higher up on the neck and straight up with the collar. As they get use to this, you can back off the hold to a "loose hold."

    QUESTION:

    Has anyone had allergy problems with their non-wheat/corn puppy kibble before? We think our newest guy is allergic to this type of food...which is strange because our chocolate lab female actually has an allergy to wheat & corn. UGH!!!!

    There is another post on the raw diet. That's one option, although for me it is too time consuming. We feed our dog Innova EVO dry, canned, and treats, which has been excellent for us. He has a great coat, is 6 years old and has never needed his teeth cleaned, and....he has the best-looking poop at the dog park ;-) (see my profile for a picture--of the dog, not the poop!)

    Good thing you specified that the pic is of the dog and NOT the poop, or I would have missed your handsome Golden boy! He does have a very lovely coat! :flowerforyou:
  • MisoSoup79
    MisoSoup79 Posts: 517
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    Another Gentle Leader fan here - I use it for all 3 of my dogs and all of our rescue/fosters that come through.

    On the dog food question. I have one that seems to be allergic to everything. He takes chlorpheneramine twice daily for environmental allergies. We feed Natural Balance Potato and Duck and have had a lot of luck with it. I've heard great things about RAW - but honestly - I don't have that strong of a stomach to watch them chew on raw meat.

    Good luck!

    We LOVE :heart: Natural Balance, too! My dogs love the sweet potato and fish flavor best! My cats also eat natural balance and it has given my shy and sedentary female kitty energy that grocery store brand food never provided. And her coat is amazingly soft! If I could afford the raw food diet, I'd totally do it, but as it is, my dogs eat 9 cups of dry food daily and so even that is not cheap.
  • Mickie17
    Mickie17 Posts: 559 Member
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    WARNING: THIS IS GROSS!!!

    So, while we are on the subject of fecal matter, how do you get a dog to NOT eat it? I've tried peper flakes to no avail.

    (I told you this was gross)!
  • joeysmuse
    joeysmuse Posts: 87
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    I just trained my dogs to heel using a choke chain and a few (very few) well placed corrections, and they walk ever so politely on the leash.

    what is a gentle leader? is it that device that has a loop over their nose?

    I love your advice. So many people think chokers are inhumane. We have 2 pits and I did the same you have and they walk like proper young ladies! now when they get excited a quick tug on the harness on the and a command and they are back in line. I can walk them both with my one year old strapped to my back !
  • joeysmuse
    joeysmuse Posts: 87
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    WARNING: THIS IS GROSS!!!

    So, while we are on the subject of fecal matter, how do you get a dog to NOT eat it? I've tried peper flakes to no avail.

    (I told you this was gross)!

    Dogs usually eat their poo when they are eating too much protien and their body is not digesting it. There fore their poo has alot of protien in it and doggies love protien. I had my 11mo pittie on puppy chow and she did't eat the poo. now my 3 month old loved her poo. I changed her to beniful and I don't have to worry about poo breath anymore. Just puppy breath. Another reason they don't digest the protien is that they are eating too fast. Try feeding them seperatly and they have dog food bowls that have raised portions, the size of golf balls, that make the doggies work around them to get the food.

    Hope this all helps. I love my pits but not poo breath!

    Sorry about the spelling
  • rowie
    rowie Posts: 75
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    I have 5 dogs in my house, and they are such a great help to me as far as getting out of the house. I know that i have to take care of them, and keep them healthy, which means lots of walks! It's odd how i'll do something for my dog that i won't do for myself. If im not with the dogs it takes so much willpower to just go on a walk! Hurray for my furry friends!
  • sonjavon
    sonjavon Posts: 1,019 Member
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    WARNING: THIS IS GROSS!!!

    So, while we are on the subject of fecal matter, how do you get a dog to NOT eat it? I've tried peper flakes to no avail.

    (I told you this was gross)!

    Most people who have dogs have to deal with this eventually. Like another poster said - it could be that your dog is eating too quickly and not digesting their food. Are you feeding too much? You might try cutting back the food just a bit or feeding smaller portions, more often. You might also try pouring a little bit (teaspoonful) of pineapple juice over your dogs food - it is supposed to make the poo distasteful to dogs. If all else fails, there are products that you can put in their food that when digested makes the poo less palatable. Check the Drs. Foster and Smith website for these products.
  • Iceprincessk25
    Iceprincessk25 Posts: 1,888 Member
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    Dogs don't have as many tastebuds as we do so they can't really taste their poo.

    You're supposed to put a certain meat tenderizer on it......but the name of it escapes me right now.
  • stratdl
    stratdl Posts: 303 Member
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    We feed our dogs a raw diet, too. Yep, it's expensive, but when we started out, we only had one dog and she was a diabetic. She went from needing 6 units of insulin twice a day to 2-1/2 - 3 units of insulin twice a day. We switched to a holistic vet who taught us about raw eating when the other vet told us to feed her molecularly modified food. (I bet that Dave wouldn't approve--I certainly didn't! :bigsmile: )

    Anyway, for raw, we get prepared medallions from Nature's Variety. We use the organic chicken medallions, but they have many other flavor varieties. Nature's Variety already puts the ground up bones, etc. in the food. All we add is a few supplements and some canned pumpkin. The supplements we add are prozyme (a digestive enzyme), green alternative (basically a power pack of veggie stuff), and cod liver oil. Once a week we add probiotics. We don't have any problems with the dogs' health and our new vet (we had to move to another state due to a job change) told us that he'd never seen an elderly diabetic dog in such great condition.

    Due to the cost of raw food (as has been stated before), we have cut back a bit on the raw and added a little bit of kibble. We use Nature's Variety Instinct--it's completely grain-free. Nature's Variety also makes a kibble that has some grains to it--that's called Nature's Variety Prairie. So, if you want to look for a kibble for your dog that's pretty good and grain-free, go with the Nature's Variety Instinct. If you can't find it in your area, you can get it online from the Only Natural Pet Store (www.onlynaturalpet.com). They have all sorts of wonderful holistic & natural stuff for your pets.

    I hope you get some good out of this!

    -Deborah
  • MisoSoup79
    MisoSoup79 Posts: 517
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    Dogs don't always have a nutritional deficiency to eat poo. Some lower ranking dogs eat the higher ranking dog's feces as a sign of respect, or groveling. Puppies often eat poo just because they like the way it tastes and unless they are corrected, they sometimes develop a habit of it. Some dogs never develop the taste, others eventually grow out of it. But it's a myth that it's always a sign of nutritional deficiency. I have known one dog to eat his own poo immediately following elimination just because he was nervous and anxious. So sometimes it's psychological.

    I'm not saying it can't be attributed to nutritional issues, but dogs like poo and that's a fact. Nearly any dog will either eat or roll in cat poo (due to the cat's higher protein and fat diet probably) and dogs on a tastier diet offer better tasting poo to dogs on a less interesting diet. Dogs are dogs and sometimes they do disgusting things, but those things are normal in their own psychological world.

    For the dogs that do this just because they like it, there are not a lot of things that can be done to stop it, unless you are very diligent. Additives might work, but some dogs will surprise you with the odd tastes they acquire (like one in particular that developed a love of cayenne pepper oil, which his owner attempted to use to deter the dog from digging and chewing). Try natural additives first, before resorting to laboratory-made chemical additives, for obvious reasons. Also, pick up poops immediately to remove the temptation. Verbally correct the dog with an unpleasant sound or a firm "no" if it looks too interested in a pile of poop. But realize, to some of these dogs, poop is just a tasty treat, like a tootsie roll to us, and often no amount of correction will prevent the dog from gobbling it up.

    Sure it's gross, but they are animals... they walk around naked and sniff and lick butts, so why should eating poop be offensive to them?! :laugh:
  • stratdl
    stratdl Posts: 303 Member
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    Dogs don't always have a nutritional deficiency to eat poo. Some lower ranking dogs eat the higher ranking dog's feces as a sign of respect, or groveling. Puppies often eat poo just because they like the way it tastes and unless they are corrected, they sometimes develop a habit of it. Some dogs never develop the taste, others eventually grow out of it. But it's a myth that it's always a sign of nutritional deficiency. I have known one dog to eat his own poo immediately following elimination just because he was nervous and anxious. So sometimes it's psychological.

    I'm not saying it can't be attributed to nutritional issues, but dogs like poo and that's a fact. Nearly any dog will either eat or roll in cat poo (due to the cat's higher protein and fat diet probably) and dogs on a tastier diet offer better tasting poo to dogs on a less interesting diet. Dogs are dogs and sometimes they do disgusting things, but those things are normal in their own psychological world.

    For the dogs that do this just because they like it, there are not a lot of things that can be done to stop it, unless you are very diligent. Additives might work, but some dogs will surprise you with the odd tastes they acquire (like one in particular that developed a love of cayenne pepper oil, which his owner attempted to use to deter the dog from digging and chewing). Try natural additives first, before resorting to laboratory-made chemical additives, for obvious reasons. Also, pick up poops immediately to remove the temptation. Verbally correct the dog with an unpleasant sound or a firm "no" if it looks too interested in a pile of poop. But realize, to some of these dogs, poop is just a tasty treat, like a tootsie roll to us, and often no amount of correction will prevent the dog from gobbling it up.

    Sure it's gross, but they are animals... they walk around naked and sniff and lick butts, so why should eating poop be offensive to them?! :laugh:

    Thanks for this post, Miso! My puppy always goes after my two adults' poo, but never her own! :grumble: I had been thinking it was something weird, but never thought it may be a hierarchy thing! And yes, we do run after the other dogs to pick up their poo before she gets to it! :happy:

    GREAT post! Thanks again!
  • FitnessGeek
    FitnessGeek Posts: 487
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    When dogs eat poop, and love to eat it, it's called "coprophagia".

    Coprophagia is pretty common and the reasons are unknown as dogs have been known to do this for multiple reasons:
    -Hungry, and the poop is there to eat.
    -Accidental, he's just curious and wants to see what poop tastes like.
    -Submissive, he may be overly submissive and be eating the poop of a more dominant dog.
    -Too much food, his diet is too high in fat or protein, he may start to like the poop better.
    -Your reaction, if you dog gets a lot of attention eating poop, because it grosses you out so much. He may keep eating it to get more attention.
    -Malnourishment, he's missing something very important in his diet, and is trying to get it any way possible. (check for worms!!!)
    -Puppies, most dog-mothers eat their puppies poop, an old instinct to get rid of evidence of puppies. Gotta keep em safe from predators!
    -Cleaning, he may be trying to clean up his own space by moving or eating the poop.
    -Stress and neglect, if he's left alone too often, he may eat poop out of boredom and anxiety.
    -Mmm poop, he just likes the way it tastes (especially true with cat poop) and it may even be a genetic trait passed on by his parents. (probably good to breed that trait out...)

    There we go all the reasons I know of...
    Hmm I think I said 'poop' too much.
  • Mickie17
    Mickie17 Posts: 559 Member
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    When dogs eat poop, and love to eat it, it's called "coprophagia".

    Coprophagia is pretty common and the reasons are unknown as dogs have been known to do this for multiple reasons:
    -Hungry, and the poop is there to eat.
    -Accidental, he's just curious and wants to see what poop tastes like.
    -Submissive, he may be overly submissive and be eating the poop of a more dominant dog.
    -Too much food, his diet is too high in fat or protein, he may start to like the poop better.
    -Your reaction, if you dog gets a lot of attention eating poop, because it grosses you out so much. He may keep eating it to get more attention.
    -Malnourishment, he's missing something very important in his diet, and is trying to get it any way possible. (check for worms!!!)
    -Puppies, most dog-mothers eat their puppies poop, an old instinct to get rid of evidence of puppies. Gotta keep em safe from predators!
    -Cleaning, he may be trying to clean up his own space by moving or eating the poop.
    -Stress and neglect, if he's left alone too often, he may eat poop out of boredom and anxiety.
    -Mmm poop, he just likes the way it tastes (especially true with cat poop) and it may even be a genetic trait passed on by his parents. (probably good to breed that trait out...)

    There we go all the reasons I know of...
    Hmm I think I said 'poop' too much.

    Gross...EWWWW, but this makes sense. Our 8yr old lab started doing this when I brought home two baby lab foster puppies. Her maternal instincts really came out and she became a "mom" to them. We decided to adopt on eof the pups, and he has started eating poop too i the past week...and we think it's because of her. UGH! GROSS!!!!!!!!

    So the question is: How do we stop the madness???
  • leann_m_olson
    leann_m_olson Posts: 363 Member
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    I've heard it's bad if dog eats their own poop, just gross if it eats another dogs. Only sure fire way is to pick up the poop before they have a chance to eat it. Our little Scottie-Skye eats big boy (Sunny) Lab's poop every once in a while, never thought of the dominance thing but that's probably it. Although she can hold her own against him.

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