For the most part, it seems my Willy-nilly Wednesdays have turned into an excuse to talk about the Rish family dogs.  So why change that today?  I bet you’re now thinking that P stands for pooch.  Well, you’d have the first three letters right.  Because today I have to confess a secret.  A dark secret that brings me shame.  You see, my sweet Freya, my beloved four-legged child… is a poo eater.  That’s right, she eats poop.  Doodoo.  Kaka.  Whatever you want to call it, she loves the stuff.  

It’s especially distressing because in the long line of smart dogs my family has owned, she’s definitely the smartest (yes, I know all parents/dog owners think this). Besides all the standard commands, she does a bunch of fun tricks like ‘take a bow’ and ‘say your prayers’ although the truly impressive part is how fast she learns them.  She also does things like breaking into locked food cupboards even though she lacks opposable thumbs.  So why, oh why, can’t I stop this spectacularly disgusting habit?  

It started when she was ‘a teen’, and I immediately ran to my best friend Google to find out why my precious baby would do something so nasty and how to stop it.  I discovered the official term is coprophagia (OMG, there’s an actual word for it *gags a little*) and that there are a variety of reasons for it both medical and behavioral.  I took her to the vet, and he ruled out any medical issues and offered a few behavioral things to try.  None of them worked.  So now I have to live with the fact that my dog thinks doodie is a delicacy.  We actually call them her chocolate cigars because she carries them around for a while with the ends sticking out of her mouth before she chows down.

Because she is so smart and because I start screaming like a banshee every time I see her pick up a log, she knows she’s not supposed to do it.  So now she’s like a junkie after her fix.  She skulks around the yard, looking for a pile that didn’t get picked up; and when she finds one, she glances around to make sure no one’s watching, snags the treasured turd, and races away with an expression we call her patented poop face. My sister snapped this picture of the expression mid-snack.  It would be kind of adorable if you didn’t know she was dining on dookie.  

But like any mom, I love my baby no matter what . . . I just don’t let her kiss my face after she’s been outside.  

Have any of your dogs ever enjoyed partaking in chocolate cigars?  Did any methods work for you in breaking the foul habit?  How Playful (or Poopy-faced) does Freya look with her letter P?

For the most part, it seems my Willy-nilly Wednesdays have turned into an excuse to talk about the Rish family dogs.  So why change that today?  I bet you’re now thinking that P stands for pooch.  Well, you’d have the first three letters right.  Because today I have to confess a secret.  A dark secret that brings me shame.  You see, my sweet Freya, my beloved four-legged child… is a poo eater.  That’s right, she eats poop.  Doodoo.  Kaka.  Whatever you want to call it, she loves the stuff.  

It’s especially distressing because in the long line of smart dogs my family has owned, she’s definitely the smartest (yes, I know all parents/dog owners think this). Besides all the standard commands, she does a bunch of fun tricks like ‘take a bow’ and ‘say your prayers’ although the truly impressive part is how fast she learns them.  She also does things like breaking into locked food cupboards even though she lacks opposable thumbs.  So why, oh why, can’t I stop this spectacularly disgusting habit?  

It started when she was ‘a teen’, and I immediately ran to my best friend Google to find out why my precious baby would do something so nasty and how to stop it.  I discovered the official term is coprophagia (OMG, there’s an actual word for it *gags a little*) and that there are a variety of reasons for it both medical and behavioral.  I took her to the vet, and he ruled out any medical issues and offered a few behavioral things to try.  None of them worked.  So now I have to live with the fact that my dog thinks doodie is a delicacy.  We actually call them her chocolate cigars because she carries them around for a while with the ends sticking out of her mouth before she chows down.

Because she is so smart and because I start screaming like a banshee every time I see her pick up a log, she knows she’s not supposed to do it.  So now she’s like a junkie after her fix.  She skulks around the yard, looking for a pile that didn’t get picked up; and when she finds one, she glances around to make sure no one’s watching, snags the treasured turd, and races away with an expression we call her patented poop face. My sister snapped this picture of the expression mid-snack.  It would be kind of adorable if you didn’t know she was dining on dookie.  

But like any mom, I love my baby no matter what . . . I just don’t let her kiss my face after she’s been outside.  

Have any of your dogs ever enjoyed partaking in chocolate cigars?  Did any methods work for you in breaking the foul habit?  How Playful (or Poopy-faced) does Freya look with her letter P?