Our new dog likes to eat horse poop, disgusting. why?!

dressagelove

dressagelove

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We have had out new alastian for about 2months now and hes a real sweetie. Hes an ex police dog who failed his training and we have adopted him to live on our farm. He loves life with us, and it is amazing how quickly he has settled in, its like he has always been with us!

However, he seems to have acquired a real taste for horse poop! it is absolutely disgusting, he doesnt just take a nibble, he full on takes massive mouthfuls and seems to really enjoy it! why?!? anybody know why he likes doing this, can it make him ill? and any ideas to make him stop?

Thanks
 
My GSD puppy is also a big fan of poo, sheep, horse, whatever.

I would keep him on a line until you have it cracked it, a nice long leather or rubber lead, with a collar or half-check chain and keep your eyes peeled for the poo, and a pocketful of something yummy, chicken pieces, and make sure he is hungry.
When you see him heading in the direction of the poo, make an 'ah-ah' or 'no' noise, call him, if he does not come, check him with the line and bring him to you and reward. It took a few weeks and a lot of eagle-eyed scanning of the ground for me, but once the dog has worked out avoiding the poo = yummy food, then they get the idea quickly.
My shep now sees poo and doesn't even wait for the 'ah-ah!' just comes to me for the treat :p
If he is more toy orientated than food, use a ball or toy as the distraction/reward instead.

Is he grey? Would love to see pics - once that is done you have free entry into the GSD Mafia :D

ETA If he is from the Manpol kennel (Bred by Manchester police) then he might be vaguely related to my fella :D
 
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I thought horse poo was a staple diet of all dogs??? :-)
Seriously though, do not let your dog eat horse poo when you've just wormed them all - horse wormer is extremely bad for dogs.
 
my vet said it is fibre and not bad for him.
my dog is nearly 11 months and not so crazy for it now.
i do not let him have any when i have wormed the horses.
 
Actually whilst I remember, anyone got suggestions for keeping my dearest dog away from the cat litter tray..... Let her eat horse pop anyway
Crusty cat poo is truly revolting
 
Cos dogs are weird! Mickey will make a grab for horse poo but only if it's fresh. which makes sense i suppose, a hot dinner is always nicer than one left to stand till its cold :p

Mind you he will also eat carrots, apple, cabbage...basically anything that the horses or chickens are having and when our new mini came M was found 'grazing' beside him (plucking up grass, chewing it then spitting it out).

if i put down put down a dish of poo, carrots and cabbage for his dinner he'd be on the phone to the RSPCA

After watching my sis lungeing her horse the other day he also decided he could do it better and proceeded to show Belle how to lunge off-line, running in large circles, in both directions. my dog thinks hes a horse i guess :)
 
My very un-regal Cavalier King Charles Spaniel also has a taste for horse poo and cow poo and rabbit poo and fox poo... in fact I think the only type of poo she doesn't try to eat is dog poo and cat poo. She knows perfectly well what "leave it!" means but unfortunately she also knows when you're not paying attention. She will quite happily run the entire length of a field (although these days I think her running cold better be described as "bunny hopping", can still get quite a bit of speed up when the mood takes her mind!) just because she has smelt some horse poo and I've lost count of the number of times I've had to drag her bodily out of the bushes when she's been fixated on fox poo (& then wash her mouth and her minging spaniel ears that she insists on dipping in all manner of disgusting things!). She is 12 1/2 now and I swear she's got worse as she's got older (maybe because she's had more practice...)
 
All our dogs have been obsessed with eating it at first, but gone off it after a few months, thankfully. They are the same with all other poop - love it at first, then seem to get bored.
 
They have started muck spreading in our fields and there are only a few that havnt been affected. Mixed in with the muck is bits of silage and this is proving irresistable to my 2 dogs, I try to keep them by the hedges which isnt so bad but they still manage to eat a bit. Diesel even found some badger muck in the garden and I just managed to stop him eating it, dogs are really disgusting sometimes.:eek:
 
I caught Mr & Mrs Russell on the muck heap the other day, chowing down on a veritable buffet of horse, pig and chicken poo, dirty little mingers, and you want to kiss me with that mouth, no thank you!!!
 
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