Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My puppy is now 5 months old and will not stop eating her poop. She doesn't care about how fresh or old it is she will eat it until I catch her and yell at her. I am not able to pick up after her everyday and I can't figure out what to do to make her stop. I don't want to get the electric collar because I think it is cruel and expensive. Does anyone have any ideas about this? Please help it is soooo gross.

Eating poop is a fairly normal (yet disgusting) thing for a dane puppy to do. The ONLY way you will be able to curb this habit is to be diligent and pick up after her when she goes potty. I suggest you go to Petsmart and invest in a box or container of small pick up baggies and every time you let her out, do the pickup right then and there. There is no "magic cure", suppliment, vitamin or food that will stop her from doing this. The only "magic cure" is you spending the 5 minutes it takes to do yard duty each and every single day.

All you will get by investing in an electric collar, for a 5 month old dane puppy, is a socially destroyed and distrustful animal. It takes more time to use one of those shock collars than it does to pick up a pile of poop. I cannot stress enough how much damage you would do by using a shock collar to a puppy this young (or a dane of ANY age for that matter). Your breeder should also be giving you advice on training your new puppy and should be a wealth of information for you.

Yelling at her will make no difference. A young dane puppy should NEVER be yelled at, as they are a very sensitive breed and you will end up with a dog that doesn't pay attention to you at all.

I don't mean to sound harsh, but you need to make time in your schedule to ensure your puppy isn't getting into things that she shouldn't. Time management is a wonderful thing, and it takes only a few seconds to lean down, and pick up her stool when she goes. I have also seen first hand results of using shock collars on young dane puppies and it is NOT a pretty sight.

Caroline Smith
FarView Great Danes

Thank you for responding back so quickly. I will tell my boyfriend to start picking it up right away because he cleans up after her outsided and I clean up when she goes potty in the house because we are working on house breaking still. I just want to let you know that I would not have used the shock collar even if it was cheaper to buy because I do think it is cruel and I understand how sensitive danes are.

Glad to hear you are not considering using the shock collar. Using one is the quickest way to ruin a good puppy

Your piebald puppy is very cute! If you put her on a dosage of 1500mg Glucosamine & Chondritin it will help tighten the loose feet up.

What are you feeding her?

Caroline Smith
FarView Great Danes

Thank you she is a cutie pie but a big ol dope. We feed her Eagle food. What are loose feet? I've never heard of that before.

Eagle is a good quality food for a dane pup.

Loose feet are feet where the toes are long and splayed... like the feet on a rabbit. They do not resemble the "cat foot" that the standard calls for. A proper foot and toes should resemble a cats foot, where the toes are well arched, close together and compact.

Often times as dane puppies grow, their feet will loosen up and the toes will begin to splay. This is usually in direct correlation to a growth spurt where the dog is growing very rapidly in a very short amount of time. Addition of Glucosamine and Chondritin will help tighten the feet back up to a proper cat foot.

Some lines though have loose feet and splayed toes because of genetics. If your puppies parents had feet that look like your puppy does now, chances are the feet will always be that way, but if the feet were well compacted with toes close together and nicely arched toes, the addition of G&C will help tighten the feet back up.

Caroline Smith
FarView Great Danes