Dog eating cat poop

sdfonz619

Hello,

I hope everyone is having a good one so far.  This is my first post to this board and prior to adding this discussion I searched for related topics but, was unsuccessful in finding the information I am looking for.

We have a 9 year old Australian Sheppard mix that has just recently started eating cat poop.  We have a total of five cats, and while we are able to close off one area of our home to keep him from indulging, we are not able to do this with all of the litter boxes.  At the suggestion of our vet we have added a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement to his diet but so far (about 3 months) this has not worked.  We have also looked into over the counter supplements but cannot find any designed for this specific issue.  We do know that he loves the cat’s food and suspect this could be part of the problem so we have taken precautions to ensure he does not have access to it during feeding. 

I am wondering if anyone has experience with this issue and what was done to resolve it. 

Thanks in advance for your help.

LuckyAngel07

Honestly, the best way I can think to stop the behavior is by preventing access. We have 1 litter box in our laundry/utility room that our Boxer can't get to, but the other box is in our dining room. I had to prop a baby gate in front of it (leaning against her crate) to deter her from going near the box. 

You might be able to try squirting the dog with water (which tends to work for cats, I don't know about dogs though) when you notice him going for the boxes, or making a loud noise to distract him and redirect (loudly say "eh eh!", shake a can of pebbled or coins, etc). It will likely mean dedicated retraining to get him to leave the boxes alone, but training may be your best solution if you really can't block off the boxes at all. 

Also make sure he's getting plenty of mental stimulation and exercise. I'm sure you're aware how high energy Aussies are, and he could possibly just be getting bored, and therefore getting into things he'd normally leave alone if he were worn out.

sdfonz619

Thanks for the reply!  I will definitely give your suggestions a try.  As far as exercise, we keep him very active with trail hikes daily throughout the week and then dog bean and park runs on the weekends. 

rakkaya87

I also have an Aussie/cattle dog mix who loves indulging in cat poop. We have 3 cats... the only solution was completely blocking off all access to all boxes. We have the upstairs bathroom blocked off with a doggy/kiddie door and we keep the litter box there.