Phasing out puppys third meal... and poop eating!

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that.girl.stella
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2010 5:29 am

Phasing out puppys third meal... and poop eating!

Post by that.girl.stella »

Hello Everyone,

I'm a big fan of the show, and have become a big fan of the forum since getting my first dog. This is my first post, and I hope someone will be kind enough to answer my questions.

I have a six month old dalmatian pup named Webster (see below for pics, I'm just a bit besotted by him!), and up till now he's been getting 3 meals a day. However, I want to get him down to 2 meals a day, and my question is this: do I take the same amount of food he is getting now and just split it into 2 portions instead of 3, or should he be getting less/more food in his two meals?

My second question is about one of Webbie's nastier habits... he eats poop, but at specific times and places. For example, he ignores dog poop he finds on our walks (other than a bit of a sniff, obviously) but he sometimes eats his own. However, he only ever eats the ones he does it in my garden, not the ones he does on walks. I clean up after him of course, but sometimes he's too fast for me! Also, on a couple of occasions before he was house-trained, he pooped in the house and promptly ate that too. My question is two-fold, I suppose... why is he only eating poop he does in the garden or house, and how can I get him to stop doing it? He knows the "leave it" command, but he ignores it where poop is concerned!

He gets a good quality dried food, (wainrights salmon and potato), and plenty of trainging treats, veggie scraps, etc., so there's no reason for him to be supplementing his diet with poop.

thanks in advance.

Stella
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***Melissa***
Posts: 1026
Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2010 5:30 am
Location: Mafikeng, South Africa

Re: Phasing out puppys third meal... and poop eating!

Post by ***Melissa*** »

Hi, he is gorgeous :D

About the three to two meals:

What I did with Bibi was to take the same amount of food, and devided it into three meals (breakf / lunch / dinner), but made the lunch portion smaller and smaller, untill she only received a tidbit from my hand (for lunch), and then nothing. I think if you go from 'meal' to 'nothing' the stretch between the other to meals may be long at first, but if you gradually lower the amount of that meal, it's fine.
There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. ~Ben Williams
that.girl.stella
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2010 5:29 am

Re: Phasing out puppys third meal... and poop eating!

Post by that.girl.stella »

Hi Melissa,

thanks for the advice, I was thinking phasing it out gradually might be the way to go, reason being that Webster is so food obsessed that for the whole hour before he's due a meal he sits at the kitchen door, whining and looking at me pleadingly! He eats as if someone is going to take it away from him, so expecting him to go for hours and hours between meals might be a bit more than he (and I, lol) could cope with!

your doggees look lovely, btw!
Wicket
Posts: 739
Joined: Mon May 03, 2010 11:36 pm

Re: Phasing out puppys third meal... and poop eating!

Post by Wicket »

Hi Stella,
What food is Webster on? Is he being let outside immediately after he eats? My chi-poo struggled with this as well. While it hasn't gone away, her poop-eating decreased when we went from Hills to higher quality food. I have some ideas about helping you with poop-eating but I'd like to know what you've been doing now. :)
that.girl.stella
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2010 5:29 am

Re: Phasing out puppys third meal... and poop eating!

Post by that.girl.stella »

Hi Wicket,

Webster is fed a dry food from a UK pet shop chain ('pets at home'), it's called Wainrights puppy food, salmon and potato flavour. I picked it because it seemed the most natural of the foods available locally - no wheat or soya, potential allergens, etc, the ingredients sounded quite wholesome. It's a bit lower in protein than other puppy foods available, but that was a deliberate choice - a dalmatian owning friend told me low protein is best because dalmatians have a genetic tendency towards kidney problems. In any case, I don't think it's a case of eating poop to get protein, since he only eats night time poops that he does in the garden. Maybe he's just hungry and anticipating a long time till breakfast?

He seems to love it his dry food, and he's certainly doing well on it - his coat is lovely and shiny, and he's gaining weight nicely. He gets fed 3 times a day. He doesn't get out right after he eats, normally he eats and then goes and snoozes for an hour or so, then asks to be let out.

other details of our routine, in case it helps: he gets fed his first meal around 9 am, his second around 2pm and his last around 7pm. he normally gets walked around 10 or 11am. we walk for at least an hour and a half, sometimes two. He's a typical dalmatian and loves chasing and running, so his walks are energetic for us both! He gets two shorter, 15 minutes round the block type walks as well. We play games and work on his training for around half an hour a day. He falls asleep for the night around 9pm, and sleeps right through till breakfast time.

I don't know what else to tell you, lol! Hopefully that's enough for you to get an idea of our routine and maybe make some suggestions. :-)
Wicket
Posts: 739
Joined: Mon May 03, 2010 11:36 pm

Re: Phasing out puppys third meal... and poop eating!

Post by Wicket »

With my chi-poo, I used a combination of management, nutrition, and training.

First off, continue training "leave it" and slowly up the ante with more tempting items and in more distracting places, but go at his pace, if Webster can't leave it with a chew toy, then go back to a less tempting toy like a rope bone. Once he's 100% in the house, move to the garden and start with the least tempting toy/item in a quiet environment. But these items aren't limited to toys. I trained "leave it" (and drop it too) with household items like toilet paper, tooth brush, the trashcan (with and without food), etc. Basically, anything that my chi-poo would like to destroy and chew up around the house. If I caught her in the act, I'd used these incidents as a training session to review again what "drop/leave it" meant. As she succeed with each item, we moved up to stools by training her with the unpicked up dried stools of other dogs on walks.

As for management, I'd not give him an opportunity to eat it in the garden. If he likes it fresh, then immediately pick up after he's done, body blocking him from it if you have to. If he has it in his mouth, you can try a "drop it" but usually accept those as gone and give a good tooth brushing later. If he's left off leash in the garden, you may need to supervise him and put him on a lead until he's better with "leave it."

Since he's eating stools, I'd recommend daily tooth brushing to remove all the harmful bacteria from his mouth, especially if he likes to lick you.

I hope this helps! :)
that.girl.stella
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2010 5:29 am

Re: Phasing out puppys third meal... and poop eating!

Post by that.girl.stella »

Hi Wicket,
thanks for the advice! We've managed to phase out his third meal, now if I can get him to quit eating poop we're sorted. :-) I'll follow your tips and see if it works for us. thanks again,

Stella (and Webster!)
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