Since I’ve
pledged to report every pothole on our puppy-raising journey, I have to bring
up the unsavory subject of Darby’s breath. That sweet milky scent we inhaled
with delight just a year ago has been replaced by an odor that sometimes
borders on the putrid. Steve has responded by increasing her tooth-brushing
sessions to three or four times a week but to no apparent avail. We were
mystified, however, when we returned from our travels after Christmas to find Darby’s
breath as sweet as if she’d just undergone a deep dental cleaning under
anesthesia. Since then Steve has been nagging me to call her puppy-sitter and
find out what had caused the improvement. “Maybe she was using some special
toothpaste!” he pointed out. So the
other day, I phoned LeAnn and asked.
After a
slight but awkward pause, she gently probed: “Is she a poop eater?”
The coin
dropped.
I have
actually never seen Darby snacking on any doggy excrement. Steve had glimpsed
some suspicious activity once or twice. But we’d been in denial. Further
discussion with LeAnn ended that. (Eventually she acknowledged she’d caught
Darby in the act.)
It’s not like
Steve and I have never heard of this revolting behavior. Our first black lab,
Pearl, introduced us to it. She wasn’t a CCI puppy, though, and our first one
of those – Tucker – was far too well-bred to be a coprophage (or so we thought.)
But his successor, Yuli, was just as well-bred and developed a positive passion
for poop-eating. Her successor, Brando, seemed just as angelic as Tucker – but
Steve claimed to have seen some transgressions a few times toward the end of Brando’s
time with us.
Deciding that
shame and denial weren’t working too well for us, I’ve been seeking
authoritative advice in the last day or two. The CCI Puppy Raiser Manual isn’t
helpful. Under “Mouth Odors” in the Health section, it declares, “Some puppies
will eat objectionable material, such as cat feces. This obviously can cause
foul breath.” CAT feces?!? What about
DOG feces, which is a lot more accessible in my yard? The manual apparently
considers this to be unmentionable, coyly advising only “If you have problems such as this [emphasis mine] that are
difficult to control, consult your Puppy Program Office.”
But why would
I do that when Google offers me some 728,000 hits under the search term “dog coprophagia”?
Among them I’ve found reassurance that
Darby’s (and Pearl’s and Yuli’s and Brando’s) dark secret is pretty widespread.
(“ Dogs are…notorious coprophages,” declares Cecil Adams, “doing it mainly to
gross out their owners.”) In an article
in the Bangkok Times posted just a
few days ago, I found the assertion that “studies say bitches are more likely to develop faeces
eating habit than the male counterpart…” This makes some sense to me, given the
way dog mamas instinctively clean up their newborn puppies.
I’ve learned that
entire websites are devoted to this topic (e.g. www.dogpoopdiet.com),
and that my dogs have never done anything as bizarrely disgusting as that
reported on one SPCA page, which asserts that “some dogs even follow
others around, waiting until they defecate so that they can eat the feces right
away. Dogs have also been reported to twist their bodies around so that they
can eat their own feces as they are defecating.” Wow.
I’ve taken most comfort from the 2900-word essay on this
topic by a guy named Barry McDonald who claims to “have the distinction of posting more
about "poop" on-line than anyone else on the web.” (Wow, again.) I
have no idea who he is, but his discussion is encyclopedic and his tone is
calm. Most comforting to me is his assertion that the behavior is “most
commonly seen in pups between 4-9 months of age, who will most often outgrow
the behavior without intervention.”
So Steve and
I have resolved to follow some of McDonald’s advice. We’re going to try to
clean up all the droppings daily, instead of a couple of times a week. If we ever catch Darby snacking, we’re not
going to yell at her. Most importantly, we’re not going to let her see us clean
up, as McDonald says, “pick-up efforts may be reinforcing to your dog. This is
simple to understand: Your dog is ‘picking up poop,’ and now it sees you doing
the same! What is it likely to conclude? Probably that you approve of, enjoy,
and recommend this behavior! If the dog has an instinct telling it to ‘keep the
yard clean,’ you are reinforcing it!”
We’ll also
keep brushing her teeth and sniffing her breath. And hoping.
