Dog eating poop, muzzle recommendations

[PurBee]

Hoping for some advice from those who’ve experience using muzzles.

My dog, the past 18months out of the 9yrs owning her has started to really get into eating poop - horse poop, other dog poop, and cat poop aswell as whatever else i havent witnessed.

Background: She a farm dog, roams my land and loves chasing deer and rolling in deer/badger poop. She follows me around the farm. She’s husky X GSD.
Very rural area, just one neighbour 100m away who she has started to venture up towards theirs - a particular field between mine and neighbours land where neighbour has uncovered compost pile, so i suspect dog has been finding food there, and i worry that meat/cooked bones scraps are also causing bowel distress. Dog didnt bother going there in all these years until lockdown and neighbour living there full time.

The reason i know the compost pile is causing an issue is because when neighbour goes away for months on end my dog doesnt eat poop and has good solid stools.
Now dog knows there’s possible gone off food to be had on the compost pile, she’s on a daily mission to sneak off and investigate, so now im spending all my time keeping her by my side, and confining her for the rest of the time, yet she still slips away when my back it turned working.

So im in a circular issue with her - she eats X, gets a bad belly, loose stools ensue, i give antibiotics when really bad, and probiotics, she gets well, then loose stools again. Compost pile is 80m away.
I think the poop eating is her way of trying to fix upset stomach with other bacteria from poop - but her ‘fix’ also could be making the issue worse.

The fields all over this valley have no fencing, boundaries, and dog has always stuck to my land and with me, around the house, until the compost pile appeared and neighbour living there full time.

So i cant keep the dog roped to me when working around the farm, i cant confine her full-time and just take her for walks as that will cause more distress considering she’s used to full time exercise, so im left with thinking a muzzle is the only option to stop her ingesting anything.
At the moment im trying to watch her like a hawk, but im not getting work done at all, constantly looking for her. She was never like this before in all these years.
She hears all sorts of distractions around the place, other distant dogs, hunters, cows etc...but always stays here and with me, until this issue with another food source found.

I cant tell my neighbour what to do with their household, despite an open compost heap regularly full of food scraps also attracting vermin which my neighbour complains about.
My compost pile is pallet built and completely animal proof with a heavy weighted down tarp. They never bother with my compost heap.

So which type of muzzle would be best for her breed/this issue?
Ive been researching and the basket type would still allow her to stick her nose in food and lick/attempt to eat foreign stuff.
I think a ‘mesh’ type would work best, but reviews have complained of their dogs being able to get the muzzle off easily.
I really think a solid mesh type would be better than a soft material mesh that she can claw/rip off, but am struggling to find one.

mince pies and sherry for getting this far! ?

 

[CorvusCorax]

Try a Jafco clear plastic type.

 

[PurBee]

Try a Jafco clear plastic type.

Brilliant, thanks CC - plastic would be best to keep clean rather than leather or mesh material.

Just been looking - they do some with a small ‘treat hole’ at the front centre of nose, do you think i should avoid ‘treat hole’ versions considering the issue im trying to fix? I want her to breathe well of course, but not be able to put tongue to grossness.

Aside from her loose poops, stomach distress, im concerned also due to bacteria causing more serious issues. There was a thread on here not long ago where the posters 2 dogs had managed to get to lick out compost food bin and they had to rush them to ER vet for acute toxicosis collapse.
So i really want to ensure that tongue of hers, when out and about, cant lick anything foreign.

 

[PurBee]

Try a Jafco clear plastic type.

Im struggling to find jafco muzzles from the uk.... are they exclusively sold in the US?

 

[CorvusCorax]

My friend has one, will ask where she got it from tomorrow.

 

[satinbaze]

Really sorry to be the bearer of bad news. My persistent poo eater learned to push the muzzle right into the poo and then lick the poo through the muzzle. The end result was not only a smelly dog but a poo ridden muzzle too. The answer for Lily was to get het to carry a ball throughout the walk and to anticipate her hunt for poo.
Good luck

 

[PurBee]

Really sorry to be the bearer of bad news. My persistent poo eater learned to push the muzzle right into the poo and then lick the poo through the muzzle. The end result was not only a smelly dog but a poo ridden muzzle too. The answer for Lily was to get het to carry a ball throughout the walk and to anticipate her hunt for poo.
Good luck

yes....i read of such attempts earlier!
So i think a mesh one or like the jafco design with small breather holes would work better than the cage types which have larger openings.

She’s always loved horse poop...even bringing balls into the house! Before loose stools thats all she ate, but its progressed to carnivore poop too.
The poop eating is secondary behaviour i think to stomach ache from consuming gone off human food waste in the neighbours uncovered compost heap, which a muzzle will definitely prevent her pulling out whatever is thrown in there, especially if cooked bones are being added. Shouldnt add animal flesh/bones to compost heaps really, but many do.

 

[HorseyTee]

I hate poo eating.
My old girl was 13 when she died a year ago and her whole life she ate poo of any kind. She was muzzled with a Baskerville type. I tried and tried to train it out of her over the years but the poop was always too much of a temptation for her.
I will say though...although the muzzle worked about 80% of the time....the other 20% she would just smoosh the poo through and eat it anyway ??

 

[wren123]

My lab started eating poo, we tried a muzzle it seemed to spur her on even more, but definitely worth a try.
We got her out of the habit by really being 'on' her in walks as she is obedient. She'll go for the odd mouthful on walks of rabbit or horse poo now but we've broken the obsessiveness thank goodness.

 

[DSB]

Just worm her ,regularly.