My dog barks at people, steals food, and eats cat poop. What do I do?

Dogs will eat stool out of boredom, curiosity or in an attempt to correct a nutritional deficiency. She may outgrow the behavior eventually. Pick up stool immediately after she goes. Keep her occupied and engaged with toys and tasks to distract her from stool. Review her diet with your veterinarian to identify and correct any potential deficiencies. There are also food additives, such as For-Bid, that may deter her from eating feces.

She sounds like she's a high energy, probably very intelligent dog and she needs a job. Make sure to get her out for lots of exercise, take her with you wherever you can, get her into obedience training, agility, take her to the dog park, go for long walks, runs, play fetch, anything and everything you can do to wear down her energy levels. A tired dog is a happy dog. Try using a puzzle feeder or slow feeder to make her meals more challenging and mentally stimulating. Also consider getting her a Kong toy to chew during times you'd like her to be calmer and quiet. They are durable, heavy rubber and can be stuffed with peanut butter to occupy a dog for longer periods of time. If these suggestions don't have enough of an effect to make her more settled, consider hiring a trainer that specializes in behavioral issues. Make sure to ask them what methods they use and only hire someone that uses only positive reinforcement in their training.

For helping to eliminate purely behavioral causes of coprophagy, a three step method can be used: 1. Decreaseattractivequalityoffeces • Change in diet can oftentimes be beneficial, switching to a brand with a lower protein content to lower the amount of protein excreted into the feces (which the dog finds palatable). • Commercially available products added to food can decrease the palatability of the feces. Examples include: For-bid®; Deter®; and meat tenderizers. Consult with your veterinarian as to the proper dose to use. 2. Preventexpressionofbehavior • Being present and scooping up the feces immediately is a good way to prevent this behavior. • Keeping the dog on leash when taking him/her out to eliminate can help the owner physically prevent the dog from engaging in coprophagy. • Controlled feeding time allows the owner to predict time of defecation and be more vigilant when watching the dog. • Preventing access to other pet’s litterboxes or cleaning them frequently. • Spray collars, such as citronella can be used to deter the dog as well. • “Booby-trapping” feces, by adding hot sauce or “bitter apple” flavor INTO the feces, so the dog associates bad tastes with its feces. • Not rewarding the behavior by ignoring the dog when it consumes its feces, despite how difficult it may be for the owner. 3. Rewardpost-eliminationbehavior • Positive reinforcement immediately after good behavior (so owner must be present). Keep the dog on leash, and if the dog does not go for its feces, reward it with food and praise. Also, if the dog does try to reach for its feces, divert its attention to another simple task (such as asking to “sit” or “shake paw”) and reward it for performing the task. Health Concerns: As with all pets, regardless of whether or not the dog is coprophagic, owners should be careful about washing their hands at appropriate times, such as before eating, after handling feces, etc. Cleanliness is the first line of defense against potential disease transmission, which can include intestinal parasites. Coprophagy can be very distasteful to owners and can be a public health concern. If this occurs, consider seeing your local veterinarian to rule out any possible diseases as the cause and to develop a plan to help eliminate the behavior.

As hard as it is, you must ignore bad behavior. To a dog, even negative attention is better than none, which is why scolding sometimes doesn't work. Put Tao on a leash when your friend comes over, and keep him close to you. Do not respond to the behavior in any way (warn your friend in advance that this is what you are doing). He may get worse before he gets better, as something that has always worked for him before is suddenly not working. Don't give in! This is actually a doog sign that he recognizes things are changing and he making a last-ditch effort to hang on to the old way. Always praise him if he is quiet, even for a moment or two. The same is true for begging and stealing your food. This must stop, no matter how much he begs or growls. Do not, ever, give in to that. What you describe are signs of a spoiled dog, and he needs to learn that he does not run the house. Good luck with this! If you need additional help, you can click on the prompt to start a consult, where we can discuss these problems at length.

If the crate training isn't working, you may need to switch to using a room such as a gated off kitchen or laundry room to see if it stops the problem. If that's the case, Belle may have some aversion to the crate itself, causing her to stress and defecate and then lay in it. Taking her out every 1-2 hours, if possible may also help if she still can't hold it long enough. As for eating it, products such as For-bid can be added to the food to make her stools less palatable. Speaking with a local trainer or veterinary behaviorist if she checked out healthy and is still having issues may also help.

Cat feces are unfortunately very attractive to dogs - I have never known a dog who would pass up a chance to eat some, if they're available. The only real way to prevent Kacey from doing this is to keep her from having access to the feces. I would put the litter box in a separate room and use a baby gate to keep her out - this way, the cat can still get to the box by jumping over the gate, but Kacey won't be able to reach it. Outside, if you have stray cats defecating in your flowerbeds, you may need to use a sprinkler system or some other method of deterring them. Alternatively, you could put up a barrier so that Kacey can't reach the flowerbeds, or keep her on-leash outside so that you can control where she goes.

Unfortunately, dogs love eating poop! They find it tasty, and while that is completely gross, it's not uncommon. My own dogs try to treat the cat's litter box like a buffet. Eating the poop can at most cause them some GI upset in the form of vomiting. You can try elevating the litter box so your cat can jump up to it, but Farrah can't reach it. You can layer baby gates on top of each other, one with the bottom touching the ground and the other right on top of it. That should prevent her from wriggling under the gate and jumping over it. You might also consider keeping the door shut to the room where the litter box is, and installing a cat door in the door. That way, your cat can get in the room, but your dog cannot. I hope one of these suggestions help.