Eating grass - and poo problem

[20171229]

Hi,

We have a BC dog, who will be 2 at the end of June. He's a long haired collie with fur of a similar length to the one in this photo.

We walk him along a canal on the edge of our town, which leads to fields which we let him run free in. The problem we have is that he loves to eat grass (and just about anything else he finds!).

Most of the time this is not an issue (e.g. it doesn't make him sick or seem to cause any digestive problems), despite his poo looking more like cow poo sometimes than dog poo. However, sometimes the poo gets stuck in a long grassy trail because he's eaten so much grass. I then have to pull it out, and then it often gets stuck in his long fur, so I have to wash his back end in the river or canal water (otherwise he'd have trails of fur matted with poo). He finds that stressful, and so do I.

We have tried avoiding the fields to reduce his access to the grass, but even then there is plenty of it growing on the canal banks, and we let him off the lead on the canal so he can access it there, and the issue happens then, even on a reduced intake.

This has been happening on an off for the whole time we have had him, but the washing off bit is pretty stressful and makes me feel bad, but I see no alternative to having to wash him.

We have tried taking things on the walk to keep him away from grass, but... a tennis ball just increases his collie obsessiveness, plus often falls in the canal, so isn't ideal.

I wondered if this has happened to anyone else and / or if anyone might be able to offer any advice please?

Any advice much appreciated.

Thanks

Jim

[urge to herd]

The easiest thing to do would be to trim his hind legs and tail feathers. Shorter fur means much less possibility of poop sticking. If one person holds his head and another person carefully cuts the fur back, it should be relatively easy.

I've got a grass eater, too. He LOVES fresh grass. Fortunately he passes it quite easily.

Good luck!

Ruth & Gibbs 

[D'Elle]

Definitely trim the fur around his butt.  You can also train him to a "Leave it" cue that you can utilize when you think he has had enough grass for one day. :-)

[Rigby]

You usually don't need to cut much hair at all in a sanitary trim. A bit on each side and a little more below. Sometimes a bit at the base of the tail You can also just trim off soiled hair as it happens and after a few times you'll have a good idea of the hairs that cause you trouble and you can trim those regularly. 

[20171229]

Thanks all for your replies.

I gave him a trim yesterday - hopefully it'll help. It's great to get some many helpful replies.

I've attached a couple of photos :-)

Thanks again

Jim

[urge to herd]

Looks just like Gibbs! 

Ruth and Gibbs

[LuckytheDog]

This made me laugh (I'm sorry!) because this happens to Lucky often in the summer.  He LOVES grass and often he has the same thing happen where he has poo grass stuck coming out.  He used to totally freak out - twirling round and round trying to get at whatever was hanging from his butt.  Thankfully nowadays, he only freaks out a little and usually gives me a somewhat panicked look, then lets me get a leaf or something to pull it out.  It's almost always funny.  He has short fur, so it doesn't get stuck on his fur, so trimming seems like a good solution.