Sorry for the title. Our 7 month old puppy has the bad habit of having mealtime in the back yard. Can anyone offer ideas that have been successful
in curbing this awful behavior?

 

Some dogs will do this for whatever reason and you're going to either have to go out with him and supervise so you can pick it up right away before he eats it or go out with him on a lease and when he goes to eat it, jerk him away with a "no" command till he's trained not to. This is a disorder of sorts and there's not really a cure other than some training.

 

This is not a disorder, it is something lacking in their diet. My top hunting lab suddenly began doing this after 3 years. After a couple of months, I took her into the vet and after I told the vet what she was doing, he asked me what brand of dog food I was feeding her. I told him and he said, this is very common with this food. He told me another barnd to try, and it was less expensive also. She quit with in a couple of days. The vet said it is a dietary thing. Mostly iron related. Good Luck

 

My wife and I show and breed Cavaliers and are on several dog forums for Cavaliers; this is not as uncommon as some may think.This is something we see puppies doing fairly often and will may times grow out of. For now you have to be VERY dillegent and clean up right away. Keep an eye on your puppy and don't give the puppy the opportunity to eat it.

The other thing, like Jack said, is to change the food. It very well could be a diet thing, especially if you are feeding a low quality food. The rule of thumb I and other breeders use is that if you can buy a food in a regular grocery store, it's probably not a high quality food. The easiest way to tell if a food is good is to subscribe to the Whole Dog Journal. It's the Consumer Reports for the dog world; can't say enough good about this. No advertising, so there is no bias and covers everything you can think of about dogs, and a few things you haven't thought of.

I have pasted a quick way to grade dog foods that may help if you don't want to subscribe to the WDJ. A few foods have already been graded. Just a note, if you decide to change foods, do so gradually over a period of a week or so by mixing higher and higher percentages of the new food. Some dogs will get the runs of you just one day change over.

How to grade your dog's food

Start with a grade of 100:
1) For every listing of "by-product", subtract 10 points
2) For every non-specific animal source ("meat" or "poultry", meat, meal or fat) reference, subtract 10 points
3) If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 10 points
4) For every grain "mill run" or non-specific grain source, subtract 5 points
5) If the same grain ingredient is used 2 or more times in the first five ingredients (I.e. "ground brown rice", "brewers rice", "rice flour" are all the same grain), subtract 5 points
6) If the protein sources are not meat meal and there are less than 2 meats in the top 3 ingredients, subtract 3 points
7) If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 3 points
8 ) If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3points
9) If corn is listed in the top 5 ingredients, subtract 2 more points
10) If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil, subtract 2 points
11) If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic to other protein sources), subtract 2 points
12) If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 2 points
13) If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog is not allergic to wheat), subtract 2 points
14) If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog is not allergic to beef), subtract 1 point
15) If it contains salt, subtract 1 point

Extra Credit:
1) If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points
2) If the food is endorsed by any major breed group or nutritionist, add 5 points
3) If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points
4) If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points
5) If the food contains fruit, add 3 points
6) If the food contains vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3 points
7) If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 2 points
8 ) If the food contains barley, add 2 points
9) If the food contains flax seed oil (not just the seeds), add 2 points
10) If the food contains oats or oatmeal, add 1 point
11) If the food contains sunflower oil, add 1 point
12) For every different specific animal protein source (other than the
first one; count "chicken" and "chicken meal" as only one protein
source, but "chicken" and "" as 2 different sources), add 1 point
13) If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin, add 1 point
14) If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are
pesticide-free, add 1 point

Score:
94-100+ = A 86-93 = B 78-85 = C 70-77 = D 69 and below = F

Here are some foods that have already been scored:

Authority Harvest Baked / Score 116 A+
Bil-Jac Select / Score 68 F
Canidae / Score 112 A+
Chicken Soup Senior / Score 115 A+
Diamond Maintenance / Score 64 F
Diamond Lamb Meal & Rice / Score 92 B
Diamond Large Breed 60+ Formula / Score 99 A
D ick Van Patten's Natural Balance Ultra Premium / Score 122 A+
D ick Van Patten's Duck and Potato / Score 106 A+
Foundations / Score 106 A+
Hund-n-Flocken Adult Dog (lamb) by Solid Gold / Score 93 B
Iams Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Premium / Score 73 D
Innova Dog / Score 114 A+
Innova Evo / Score 114 A+
Kirkland Signature Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables / Score 110 A+
Nutrisource Lamb and Rice / Score 87 B
Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy / Score 87 B
Pet Gold Adult with Lamb & Rice / Score 23 F
ProPlan Natural Turkey & Barley / Score 103 A+
Purina Beneful / Score 17 F
Purina Dog / Score 62 F
Purina Come-n-Get It / Score 16 F
Royal Canin Bulldog / Score 100 A+
Royal Canin Natural Blend Adult / Score 106 A+
Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice / Score 97 A
Science Diet Advanced Protein Senior 7+ / Score 63 F
Science Diet for Large Breed Puppies / Score 69 F
Wellness Super5 Mix Chicken / Score 110 A+
Wolfking Adult Dog (bison) by Solid Gold / Score 97 A

 

Wow Bruce. Thanks for the score card. We've been feeding our dog the Beneful since it's top shelf at the "grocery" store. Not so great. I never realized that Dick Van Patten made dog food. He was a great actor and if you're old enough to remember the show "Eight is Enough" and all those Disney movies.


I know sometimes dogs will eat their own poo if it contains a lot of undigested food, as it will smell like food to them. Which I guess could be a direct result of cheap food.

Our Beegle don't eat her own but if she gets in the basement where the cat litter box is she'll gobble it up.

 

You're welcome, glad to do it! Wish I could take credit for this but it's one of those things that's been passed around so much, I'm not sure anyone remembers where it originated any more. I do know it's valid, though, because it follows the Whole Dog Journal recommendations.

One side benefit to feeding a quality food is that there is less waste in the yard because there is less fillers in the food. Especially important for those of us with multiple dogs!

 

Bruce,

Thanks for the great info. I will figure out the score. We use Nutro Max Puppy food and feed her twice a day.
Our puppy is half beagle/half cocker spaniel - the long legs and short nose of a cocker but the traditional coloring of a Beagle

Ingredients
Chicken Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Wheat Flour, Poultry Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of natural Vitamin E), Ground Rice, Rice Bran, Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed), Whole Wheat, Lamb Meal, Natural Flavors, Potassium Chloride, Brewers Dried Yeast, Lecithin, Choline Chloride, Dried Buttermilk, Dried Egg Product, Dried Kelp (source of Iodine), Magnesium Oxide, Vitamin E Supplement, Iron Sulfate, Biotin, Ascorbic Acid (source of Vitamin C), Iron Oxide, Zinc Oxide, Manganous Oxide, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement (source of Vitamin B2), Vitamin A Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of Vitamin B6), Sodium Selenite, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of Vitamin B1), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Copper Oxide, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid.
Nutro supports the safe, ethical and humane treatment of all animals, including those used by our suppliers who provide our ingredients.

Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein (minimum) 28.00%
Crude Fat (minimum) 17.00%
Crude Fiber (maximum) 4.00%
Moisture (maximum) 10.00%
Linoleic Acid (minimum) 3.50%
Ascorbic Acid (minimum)* 35.0 mg/kg

No Chicken By-Products
Most dog foods contain chicken by-products or poultry by-products as a source of protein. That means including chicken or poultry heads, feet or intestines—ingredients you won’t find in MAX Puppy. We only use high quality chicken meal with no chicken by-products (no chicken heads, feet or intestines).

 

help, my 4 month old yorkie eats her pop! we have only had her a couple of weeks, and i know the previous owner used a diff brand of food, so could the change in food cause her to do this? we give her purina puppy chow, i think thats not a good food. should we change to a better brand? please help, that is sick, i think im going to throw up.

 

There seems to be some controversy in this area of research as some believe it to be instinctual because dogs are natural scavengers. Others tend to believe it is dietary or training related.

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1613

http://www.cvm.uiuc.edu/petcolumns/s...cle.cfm?id=166

http://www.vetinfo.com/dencyclopedia/decoprophagia.html

BTW, if you copy and paste, please cite your source or provide a link for further reading in order not to violate copyrights.

 

The reason your pup is consuming his own waste may be he/she is lacking some sort of nutrition and his stool smell's just tasty as that kibble he/she just consumned or he/she may not be digesting their food fully, meaning they are eating too fast. It is rumored that feeding small amounts maybe 4-5 pieces of pinnapple/oranges will make his/her stool less appetizing, though results vary from this method usually you should notice a difference within 1-2 weeks.