On Fri, 04 Jun 2004 01:01:18 GMT, (Rez)
wrote:

In article , Katra wrote:
In article . net,
(Rez) wrote:
[Stool consumption in dogs is another topic, but is regulated by diet,
accessability, pecking order, and how many dogs are present.]
But cat litter boxes seem to be a dog's favorite snack no matter what.

Yep, that falls under "accessability". By preference, dogs eat the
stool of some other species, then that of other dogs, and as a last
resort, their own. More MEAT protein in the diet tends to reduce (or
sometimes eliminate) the behaviour. Soy-based diets encourage it,
evidently due to methionine deficiency (since it can be mitigated by
adding the purified amino acid).

Also, when there are only a couple dogs present, sometimes they never
discover doing it.

Tootsie rolls anyone? lol

Ha, back when I lived in the boonies in Montana, and had an outhouse,
I had a bitch whose most favourite thing in the world was to dig under
the back wall and "clean out" the sump. Yicch!!

K. (who has had to deal with coprophilic dogs... sigh)

If you have more than 5 dogs you hit a behavioural threshold where
one or more of them will ALWAYS exhibit copraphagy. Generally, if
given a choice (but not access to some other species), they consume
from whomever is immediately above them in the social ladder. Some
kennel dogs get so if they see their favourite target squat, they run
over and gobble it before it hits the ground

Since I presently have 38 adult Labs (and 3 baby pups), naturally I
see my share of it!

Anyway, it's normal behaviour in dogs, if vastly annoying when they
then insist that you need a wet sloppy stinky kiss

~REZ~

Years ago, neighbors then had a black lab that they kept in a dog run
most of the time. She was getting old, overweight, and the owners
were older. They fed and watered her ok, but they only took her out
now and then, and the fellow would toss a retrieval "thingie" (like
that technical term?) that they make for training retrievers... either
canvas or plastic with bumps on it.. about 12 -16 long, a roll with a
loop on the end.. into the canal that ran through their yard, and
she'd go get it and bring it back and the fellow would do that for 10
or 15 minutes, then back into the run she'd go.

The dog was bored, and she would bark at night ..but eventually she'd
stop if we yelled at her once we learned her name, and she got used to
us. BUT.. she was the first dog I'd ever seen that would shit and
turn around and eat it again. GAG and ..I guess the last one I'd
seen do so. I've seen plenty of dogs that will clean out the cat pan
and do so with great gusto and glee... happy as could be to find such
stuff even if it had kitty litter on it!! I had to put a child
security gate up that was stretched wide enough to let the cats get
through them, but keep my dogs out.

Anyway, as far as that poor lab, I'd always attributed her disgusting
habit to some sort of mental health issue from being locked up in that
dog run with no contact with people or other dogs except for feeding
and those few minutes of fetch now and then.

It makes me crazy when people get a dog, then lock it up out in a run
and basically ignore it. My sister ended up with a german shorthair
because it and a black lab had been locked in a garage with a rotting
deer carcass and abandoned. The shorthair apparently was gun shy, and
that made the owner angry.. silly that the dog would misbehave after
being locked up all year then taken out and expected to "perform" ..
probably with little or no initial training, but I suspect that he'd
been shot at .... but dogs do end up more than a little "disturbed" by
poor treatment, and that can cause the poop and scoop her own feces in
the case of the lab, just like other dogs who have been abandoned
locked in a garage dog to get panicy .. as the shorthair did when my
sister had to suddenly change her routine when her husband rolled the
truck and broke his neck ..but survived (unfortunately) .so no one was
home for a time at their normal times and Zeke.. the shorthair started
jumping up and tearing down the curtains, and eventually managing to
not only jump over 6 1/2 feet up to a small window, break it and catch
hold to the frame and pull himself out! That was not easy! He tried
the other windows in the house, but they were sliders, and tougher so
didn't break.

He wasn't abandoned, people were there every day, but just not at the
times that they used to be, and the kids were staying elsewhere. The
other dogs started doing other stuff.. one chewed the crotches out of
all the underwear it could find. I realize that they were stressed
seeking the scent of their missing people, and as a consequence, they
had to find new homes for them all, as the schedules weren't going to
be getting better for some time.

So, in my typical long winded style .. I guess I'm just asking if the
poop eating can also be emitional/mental illness on the part of the
dog due to neglect?
Janice