We are dealing with the dreaded coprophagia with our puppies.
We try our best to stop the poop eating and picking it up as soon as we can, which everyone says is the best solution, but things like when it happens overnight, or if it quietly happens in the 30 seconds we have our back turned, and their intentional sneaking around to do it makes that not 100% effective for us. They don't use the bathroom on their leash, not even on walks, so we can't leash them and take them outside to monitor it, but we still watch them as much as humanly possible and pick up everything we can, it just keeps happening. Sometimes they don't even let it hit the ground they just eat it as it is falling out of the other dog. But if I try to stop the dog from eating the falling poop, the pooping dog thinks he is in trouble for pooping and then it affects his potty training while he is in the correct spot doing nothing wrong. For the record, they are indoor potty trained, but when they poop on their pad they just immediately pick it up and sometimes carry it around the house.
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For-Bid did not stop it
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No Chew anti-poop eating treats of multiple different brands did not stop it
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Meat Tenderizer did not stop it
We have now resorted to multiple possible fixes at the same time, which is we are mixing in their food all of the following: one of these multivitamin chews in their food in case it is a vitamin B deficiency, freeze dried gut health mix-in treats in case it is a gut issue, pineapple in case it is a flavor thing, "Ac'cent All Natural Flavor Enhancer" in case it is a flavor thing, and wet food only so they actually eat everything (one of the puppies is picky and if he doesn't like the food he just will not eat after the first bite).
My question is with all of the above mixed into their food, or should I still be picking up the poop immediately, or should I start letting them take a few bites/sniffs before stopping them so if the "flavor" is ruined they no longer show interest in future poops? My thought process is if I keep picking up the poop immediately, they both will not know that the flavor is ruined, and also continue to sneak and do it so I don't know to pick it up. But if I can get them turned off the poop entirely then I wouldn't need to worry about them eating poop every time I hear a suspicious lack of noise in the house. I also want to monitor patterns to see if it is something like they only eat the poop in specific situations, like if they are bored or anxious about something.
submitted by /u/TownIdiot25
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