BTW Vic, it was amazing the way you held your temper when dealing with the 'man' of the house!
You would've been well within your rights to smack with a frying pan! 
Question about the pooping pugs
Moderators: emmabeth, BoardHost
Question about the pooping pugs
I remember a British couple having the same problem--I think the dog was Tio--and Vic suggested feeding the dog chunks of pineapple. She explained that pineapple make the poop distasteful to the dog and he's quit eating it. Why she suggest that to the pug owners?
BTW Vic, it was amazing the way you held your temper when dealing with the 'man' of the house! You would've been well within your rights to smack with a frying pan!
BTW Vic, it was amazing the way you held your temper when dealing with the 'man' of the house!
You would've been well within your rights to smack with a frying pan! My current crew:
Bruce the Albino Dobe; Flanders the Belgian Malinut; Leela, Scuttlebutt, and Felix, da kitties.
All much-loved but not spoiled!
Bruce the Albino Dobe; Flanders the Belgian Malinut; Leela, Scuttlebutt, and Felix, da kitties.
All much-loved but not spoiled!
Figures. 
I find a typo AFTER I hit the submit button. 
My question is: why didn't Victoria suggest feeding the pugs pineapples to discourage them from eating their poop?
I find a typo AFTER I hit the submit button. My question is: why didn't Victoria suggest feeding the pugs pineapples to discourage them from eating their poop?
My current crew:
Bruce the Albino Dobe; Flanders the Belgian Malinut; Leela, Scuttlebutt, and Felix, da kitties.
All much-loved but not spoiled!
Bruce the Albino Dobe; Flanders the Belgian Malinut; Leela, Scuttlebutt, and Felix, da kitties.
All much-loved but not spoiled!
I can only guess based on what I would do because ive either not seen the episode or cant recall it...
For dogs who eat their own or each others but not 'strange' dogs, in certain situations as a learned habit or an attention seeker, feeding pineapple might be part of a number of things done to put them off eating poo.
If a dog has a desire to eat poo though, there are often more things at work than just that the dog likes the flavour of the poo so changing the taste to an unpleasant one will not work long term IF those other factors are in play.
For instance a dog who has discovered that his owner dashes over to him and rewards him with a ton of attention when he eats poo (regardless of whether the attention is not 'nice') but ignores him much of the rest of the time.... then just changing the taste is not sufficient.
A dog who eats poo because he is underfed or fed on an inappropriate diet for him may carry on doing so even if it tastes disgusting also.
Some dogs learn to eat poo to disguise the mess left when they defecate as a result of stress from seperation anxiety - changing the taste of the poo there would not cure that problem by itself (in fact if it did stop the dog eating its own faeces, but none of the surrounding issues and root cause were tackled (ie the owner punishing the dog on their return due to the presence of poo) this could increase the stress as the coping strategy has been removed.
So i would think in one case pineapple was suitable and part of a strategy where more changes were made than just pineapple.. and in the other case pineapple just wasnt appropriate.
I do hope this helps answer your question even though I cant speak for Victoria herself (though if she sees this im sure she will respond).
For dogs who eat their own or each others but not 'strange' dogs, in certain situations as a learned habit or an attention seeker, feeding pineapple might be part of a number of things done to put them off eating poo.
If a dog has a desire to eat poo though, there are often more things at work than just that the dog likes the flavour of the poo so changing the taste to an unpleasant one will not work long term IF those other factors are in play.
For instance a dog who has discovered that his owner dashes over to him and rewards him with a ton of attention when he eats poo (regardless of whether the attention is not 'nice') but ignores him much of the rest of the time.... then just changing the taste is not sufficient.
A dog who eats poo because he is underfed or fed on an inappropriate diet for him may carry on doing so even if it tastes disgusting also.
Some dogs learn to eat poo to disguise the mess left when they defecate as a result of stress from seperation anxiety - changing the taste of the poo there would not cure that problem by itself (in fact if it did stop the dog eating its own faeces, but none of the surrounding issues and root cause were tackled (ie the owner punishing the dog on their return due to the presence of poo) this could increase the stress as the coping strategy has been removed.
So i would think in one case pineapple was suitable and part of a strategy where more changes were made than just pineapple.. and in the other case pineapple just wasnt appropriate.
I do hope this helps answer your question even though I cant speak for Victoria herself (though if she sees this im sure she will respond).
Merlin thought adding pineapple was the sweet course, he enjoyed eating his poo even more. 
Sometimes if a dog is on antibiotics for a while, they kill off the good microbes in their gut as well as the infection they are supposed to kill. Dogs will start to eat their poo to take up what little microbes they have passed out. There is always some microbes passed out on the poo.
It was several years later when I found out about antibiotics affecting dogs like this but it all made sense because Merlin prefered Joe's poo to his, Joe has never had any anitibiotics so his gut is normal with plenty in.
Sometimes if a dog is on antibiotics for a while, they kill off the good microbes in their gut as well as the infection they are supposed to kill. Dogs will start to eat their poo to take up what little microbes they have passed out. There is always some microbes passed out on the poo.
It was several years later when I found out about antibiotics affecting dogs like this but it all made sense because Merlin prefered Joe's poo to his, Joe has never had any anitibiotics so his gut is normal with plenty in.
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So much for that idea.Mattie wrote:Merlin thought adding pineapple was the sweet course, he enjoyed eating his poo even more.
.
Emmabeth, thanks for that answer; it cleared up a lot of things. I guess what works for one dog/situation doesn't necessarily work for another dog. Thankfully none of my dogs have ever been poop eaters, but I knew someone whose dog would only eat her own poop IF there was snow on the ground and the 'deposit' was sitting on top of the snow.
How weird is that? Now that Ckranz mentioned the owners trying everything, I do remember the camera panning over a table covered with all kinds of nostrums and mixtures that were probably 'guaranteed' to work, but obviously didn't.
Slightly OT, but when I first adopted Leela, the Feline American Princess, I made sure to put her litter box upstairs and have a baby gate at the foot of the stairs so the dogs I had at the time (and their successors) couldn't get to it--I'd heard stories about how delicious some dogs think cat poop is. Blech! Blocking off a section of the house and having the cats' food and toilet in that section also assures that my three cats have a safe place to go to when they want to get away from it all.
My current crew:
Bruce the Albino Dobe; Flanders the Belgian Malinut; Leela, Scuttlebutt, and Felix, da kitties.
All much-loved but not spoiled!
Bruce the Albino Dobe; Flanders the Belgian Malinut; Leela, Scuttlebutt, and Felix, da kitties.
All much-loved but not spoiled!
Ah now, other animals poo is a whooooooole other subject.
Dogs and poo... its been a long relationship htat has served them very very well over the years.
The poo of other carnivores can be rolled in to disguise the doggy scent and keep them safe from rival canids (wolf in mountain lions clothing?)..
The poo of herbivores can be rolled in to disguise the doggy scent and aid hunting.
Either poo can disguise the give away scent of a canine who is ill or dying, preventing others from killing him.
Herbivore poo is full of 'friendly bacteria' and partly digested vegetable matter - as good for the canine gut as our Yakkult i guess, though probably less tasty.
These days domestic dogs roll in and eat poo for perhaps different reasons but that they think of doing so goes back a looooooooooong way.
Now, we feed pet cats on extremely high fat, high sugar, high salt diets and we make those complete tinned meals smell extremely strong (because Kitty is a fussy choosey eater and we need to make tinned mush addictive).
This generally makes their poo (which some of us weird humans keep in a handy serving tray in the house ready for dogs to come and snack on) verrrrryyyyy tastey - like dogs, cats have a short gut and a lot of what goes in, comes out in much hte same state flavour wise at the very least. Mmm... delicious.
We also insist on washing off our dogs natural smells, or feeding them food that makes them smell 'wrong' (some of us even put perfume on our dogs... er not me though, i prefer the natural eau de wet dog or eau de dry dog, depending on time of year).
So our dogs feel the need to roll in stuff to hide this unnatural smell.
Again back to diet, often we feed inappropriate foods, especially since it was discovered that cereal by-products could be flavoured and dogs would eat it, and so dogs feel the need to supplement their diet by eating other animals poo, or help their gut bacteria along.
Here endeth the essay on dogs and poo.
Dogs and poo... its been a long relationship htat has served them very very well over the years.
The poo of other carnivores can be rolled in to disguise the doggy scent and keep them safe from rival canids (wolf in mountain lions clothing?)..
The poo of herbivores can be rolled in to disguise the doggy scent and aid hunting.
Either poo can disguise the give away scent of a canine who is ill or dying, preventing others from killing him.
Herbivore poo is full of 'friendly bacteria' and partly digested vegetable matter - as good for the canine gut as our Yakkult i guess, though probably less tasty.
These days domestic dogs roll in and eat poo for perhaps different reasons but that they think of doing so goes back a looooooooooong way.
Now, we feed pet cats on extremely high fat, high sugar, high salt diets and we make those complete tinned meals smell extremely strong (because Kitty is a fussy choosey eater and we need to make tinned mush addictive).
This generally makes their poo (which some of us weird humans keep in a handy serving tray in the house ready for dogs to come and snack on) verrrrryyyyy tastey - like dogs, cats have a short gut and a lot of what goes in, comes out in much hte same state flavour wise at the very least. Mmm... delicious.
We also insist on washing off our dogs natural smells, or feeding them food that makes them smell 'wrong' (some of us even put perfume on our dogs... er not me though, i prefer the natural eau de wet dog or eau de dry dog, depending on time of year).
So our dogs feel the need to roll in stuff to hide this unnatural smell.
Again back to diet, often we feed inappropriate foods, especially since it was discovered that cereal by-products could be flavoured and dogs would eat it, and so dogs feel the need to supplement their diet by eating other animals poo, or help their gut bacteria along.
Here endeth the essay on dogs and poo.
