Labrador Rescue

Hi John
I currently have a problem with Bobby searching for and devouring cat poo When he was a lot younger he used to eat horse poo if I didn't get him to come back before he saw it. I was advised to treat him in between meals with pineapple chunks (the ones in water not syrup) which I did and after about two weeks problem was solved. That was around 4 years ago now and no problem since.

But this summer he has taken a liking to searching for and eating cat poo. It is usually in the same place when we walk (across the park in the sandpit and every three weeks in the cut grass on the playing field)
I have stopped him from free running in the park now and just let him off lead in areas I know he wont search. (not funny as he wont come back at all to recall if he is in search of this extra meal lol) I am desperate to stop him from doing this as its not nice and he very often has bad stomach afterwards. I never shout at him or tell him off I just go over to him and calmly put him on the lead and ignore him. But now he has cottoned on that that is what I do when I get to him so he constantly has one eye on me and moves on. So I have tried recall (which if he is on to something he ignores). I don't follow him if its safe not to do so and I continue to walk away from him . Eventually he will follow when he thinks I am leaving him usually he panics if he thinks i'm going.

Also on our walks I could let him off the lead in this area if my friend was there with her dogs as he likes to play ball with them and would go straight over to them. Now even if they are there he ignores them until he has eaten the cat poo, then will happily play. I have tried taking toys with me to get him to play as a distraction as he wont play ball unless he is with other dogs . This also doesn't work.

I am at a loss any ideas I could try please ?
Carol and My Bobby

Not much help , but we have six cats and Max only eats the poo of one of them. He follows her outside waiting He will not stop no matter what we do or say. He doesn't have any side effects. She is the only cat that has digestive problems so I can only assume her poo is different to the others. He never eats poo on any of our walks, my only worry would be catching worms or other parasites.

Horse poo cat poo fox poo all taste good to some dogs a theory on cat poo is that cats are more fussy eaters than dogs so their poo tastes better because they are fed better

I don't think you can stop your dogs from eating unsavoury items, no matter how hard you try. We have horses that live behind us and often walk and leave reminders on our footpath. For our dogs, if it's fresh, it's delicious no matter how hard we try to steer them away. There has been a recent insurgence of Canada geese on the 'Moss' that we walk daily - their offerings have proved irresistible to my two, to the point that I've had to alter the route. It's a biological thing that they love, but turns our stomach

Hi, I was interested to read this as Oscar has the same delight in eating cat poo which has resulted in my varying walking routes to try to stop him. It concerns me as I wonder could cats pass worms on to dogs eating their poo? I obviously use a wormer on Oscar but don't think a lot of cat owners would bother. Early walks are the worst as of course the poo is fresh yuk!!!

Lin and Oscar

Hi Carol I would like to say I have a cure for My Bobbie BUT mention poo to Balee and Megan and they are there before you can stop them.

So disgusting I would rather Coco roll in poo, but she likes to eat it too

Any type, cat, sheep, horse, rabbit..... makes me feel ill typing this.

The pineapple will only work if the dog is eating its own poo as when the pineapple is digested it is supposed to taste horrible to them to eat it then - you would need to feed it to the army of cats out there!!