Hi, my name is Linda

[LindaDomino]

have two female Shih Tzu puppies (one 14 months and one 10 months). They are wonderful little girls except for one awful habit -- they eat their poop. I have them trained to go on reusable wee pads since I'm gone 9-10 hours a day at work. It works very well except that the poop is there for them to eat if they choose . I know they should go outside but I'm gone 10 hours. They have a very good life, we play outside and go for walks when I get home. We go to training class and have fun.

Any suggestions? I have them barricaded in my kitchen area with a nice fencing around it. They have acccess to my utility room where their wee pad is.

Thanks for any suggestions?
Linda

[Ari_RR]

Hello, and welcome
No good suggestions, other than to post the question under "Dog Trainng Advice", where it will get more attention.

Cheers!

[ScarletSci]

I'm not a dog trainer, so my advice is amateur only I'm afraid, based on psych knowledge of positive reinforcement and experience with dogs.

The problem with poop eating is that it's a natural behaviour. The only real way to stop it that I can see, is to restrict the opportunities by picking up after the dog and teaching the "leave it" command for when you see them approach poop out in public. Since you can't be at home for that length of time, you have no way of interrupting the behaviour. The only suggestions I can make are:

1.Trying to implement outside "potty time" when you're home and arrange their feeding schedule so that they "go" in the mornings and evenings when you take them outside. They'll go more often while they're pups, obviously, but my adult dog is fed twice a day and poops twice a day, usually while out on walks (it goes without saying that you still need to pick up after them then!). If you can train them to go outside as much as possible, with the pee pad just for daytime emergencies, then there will be less opportunity for them to eat feces.

2. Could you hire a dog-walker/sitter? Someone who can pop in and let them into the garden two or three times a day?

I'm wondering whether you want to train them to go to the toilet outside as much as possible while using the pee pads when you're out, or if you mean that you're happy for them to only use the pee pads, but just want to stop them eating feces? Because the second seems pretty impossible to do in your current set up, but the first would at least reduce the incidents.

My 14 week old pup is still using pee pads at the moment, since she wasn't the slightest bit house-trained when I got her at 9 weeks, but is slowly transitioning to going outside more often because she gets an insane amount of praise when she goes outside, which she thinks is amazing! So routine, consistency, and patience are the keys! Good luck

[JudyN]

This may not help in your case, as your dogs have easy access to their poo and it's become a habit, but my dog (who never ate his own poo) stopped eating other dogs' poo when I changed him to raw feeding. I think some dogs eat dog poo because there's something missing, or not quite right in their own food, and also because poo from dogs fed on low quality food tastes better (in their opinion!) as so much of what goes in remains undigested and comes out in pretty much the same form.

I don't know what you feed them, but it's just possible that a better quality food might help.

I've also heard that adding pineapple to their diet can make their poo taste bad.

I wonder if eating their poo actually does them any harm