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EATING OWN EXCREMENT

ARCHIE

I HAVE AN 8 MONTH OLD PLUMMER TERRIER WHO HAS RECENTLY STARTED EATING HIS OWN EXCREMENT. IF I TRY TO STOP HIM HE GROWLS AND CARRIES ON EATING. WHY IS HE DOING THIS?

• Experienced Advisor Rosie Barclay says:

  May 01st, 2008 at 01:05 PM

  Possibly because he can and he also stops you getting it by growling. Try not to make this a big issue it's quite common for young dogs to do this but the more fuss we make the worse it may become. So make sure you pick it up as soon as it happens.

  You then might want re-train your dog to do something else rather than eat pooh. Find the thing he likes to do best in the whole world and hope this is not eating his own pooh. Then begin to pair a word with you bringing it out to play. Begin this when there is no faeces about. You might shout "ball" and then play ball with him straight away or "treat" for instance if it's a bit of food. Then after many repeats of this he may start to want to come to you instead of eating pooh. However before you begin the game or give the treat make sure the dog is sitting calmly first.

  If you try and make him stop by using a punishment technique it might cause him to learn to push the aggression further.

  People might start to tell you that’s giving in to him and that he might start to show dominance. He will not because dogs do not try and dominate folk, no matter what  other behaviourists you might see on the TV tell you. Dogs might learn clever ways to keep what they want but we now understand that there probably is no such thing as a dominance hierarchy amongst domestic dogs any more.

  You heard it from me first

   

  All the best

  Rosie Barclay

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