A Few More Questions

[Pippin]

Does anyone else's dog do this?

 

Whenever I clean up Lily's accidents on the carpet, I put paper towels on top of the urine and use poop bags to pick up her feces and then throw it away. After that, I spray Resolve Pet Odor spray on it and scrub over that area of the carpet with more paper towels.

 

When I do this, Lily likes to get right up and watch me do this. She used to bark and lunge forward to get at the paper towels and my hands quite frequently, but with training she's not doing that as much. She still acts like she can't tolerate her mess being cleaned up, but my concern is she likes to lick the carpet where the cleaning product was sprayed. She also does this with a pet odor foam and the Febreze I spray on the carpet before I vacuum; as well as when the carpet is still damp after I steam clean it. She does this too when I spray some air freshener in the air, she'll walk right under the area I'm spraying and then come out hacking and coughing because she breathed it in. I always stop spraying as soon as she gets near me so I won't spray any on her directly.

 

I'm going to start putting her in her crate when I do these things, but she just doesn't seem like she is making the connection in between licking stuff off the carpet or breathing in things from the air and hacking and coughing afterwards no matter how many times she does it. It's gotten to the point of being an obsession of hers.

 

Thanks in advance.

[carolync]

Maybe she is still smelling the little presents she left you?

 

If you spray or use the foam on a neutral area, does she still do it? I wondering if the obsession is the cleaning products or her waste.

 

Try Nature's Miracle to clean it up, it is supposed to remove and neutralize all the smell so dog's won't be tempted to go in the same spot. I'm not familiar with the products you are using, so I don't know if they do the same thing.

 

For what it's worth, it worked with a blockheaded mutt I fostered.

[diane allen]

One idea...

One of my BC mixes is an obsessive carpet-licker, and seems to like anything I put on it. When I use Nature's Miracle, or anything like that which is supposed to dry and possibly later get vacuumed - I have an old cooling rack (like you'd use for cookies) that I put over the spot, then put something heavy on top of it. Air can still flow under the rack, but dogs can't get to it.

 

diane

[Pippin]

I'm not sure if it's that she likes the taste of cleaning products or she can still smell her feces in the carpet, or both. She does eat her waste and I'm embarrassed to admit drank her own urine once when she had an accident in her crate. Especially when I first got her but still now, she acted like it was a personal offense to her to have her messes cleaned up. She'd lunge forward and bark while I was cleaning it up, and try to rip the paper towels out of my hands. Whether she thought it was a game or it awakened her herding instincts, I don't know.

 

I'm trying different additives to her food right now to hopefully stop the waste eating, because both it and the licking of cleaning products seem to be an obsession with her. If I need to, I'll change her food brand. If I don't get her feces off the carpet right away, she will eat them and also will dart in as about I'm to pick them up and eat it. She does this every time; I have to keep the disposal bags near the area she poops in or it would all be gone by the time I got back with one.

 

I haven't tried Nature's Miracle, but I'll have to get some and try it. I have used or am using Febreze, a product similar to Nature's Miracle that is a cleaner designed to break up the enyzmes in her waste, Resolve Pet Odor spray and this pet odor vacuum stuff before I vacuum. Whatever I use she'll lick up and now she has started this thing of sniffing over the entire carpet very deeply and a few spots in particular for minutes on end, and pulling at it. I just don't want her to get sick from licking this stuff up.

 

I have my own steam cleaner and I've steam cleaned the carpet several times and she still does this; it seems like that would have gotten rid of the smells even for her.

 

As a last resort, I will put tarps over the entire carpet to keep her from doing this until she's fully housetrained. She's already ripped out two patches of carpet from doing this. The cookie cooling rack sounds like a great idea, thanks for your suggestion and thank you both for your help!

[carolync]

I remember hearing something about using a blacklight to tell if all the mess is actually gone.

 

Good luck with the housebreaking!

 

Can't help you with the eating, mine does the same thing. Yuck!

[Pippin]

Yuck indeed, it's so nasty when she does it. I wouldn't mind her doing it every once in a while too much, but watching her do it nearly every time is just disgusting. I ordered this stuff from PetsMart called Deter that's a tablet you put it in their food that's supposed to keep them from eating it, and it didn't work for her. I've read you can add something spicy like tabasco sauce or cayenne pepper to it because dogs don't like spicy stuff, but also read that that doesn't work with some dogs. I did read on here that you can add pineapple to their food and that helps; so I might try that next.

 

PetsMart has those blacklight things, I think it's called Spot Spotter by Simple Solutions. I might get one but I wish I could ask a salesperson at the store about it first. I don't have one in my town so I usually just order things online from there. It's nice not having to drive an hour to get her food and supplies, but the drawback is not being able to check out toys and other things like products and ingredients listings for new treats before I get them. Can't have everything though.

[Barb Scott]

I've started to use a mixture of Dawn Detergent and Hydrogen Peroxide to clean up dog messes. After I remove everything I can (a paper plate cut in half works as a scraper), I use a brush to work the Dawn/peroxide mixture into the carpet. Our males were constantly marking in one area and stopped when we used this as well. Also works great for red wine stains, but that's a different story!

Barb S

[Pippin]

Thanks Barb, I'll load up on these things next time I go to the store and give it a try. The hydrogen peroxide doesn't fade or bleach the carpet does it?

[Barb Scott]

The website where I found the recipe said try it on an area where it won't show; it hasn't faded any of our carpet, including our dark forest green carpet in my computer room.

Barb

[Pippin]

Ok, thanks! Our carpet is a medium shade of brown so it should be fine on it if it didn't do anything to yours.

 

It will certainly be cheaper than the Resolve Pet Odor spray too, another good advantage.

[karrie]

I use OdoBan. Wonderful product.. I get it from Sam's Club. It eliminates the odor, kills germs and can be used as a disinfection/virucidal/mildew controller. Tuck doesn't isn't one to eat feces or carpet so can't tell ya if it will discourage that. I can tell you my house smells nice and carpet is clean.

[urge to herd]

I've not used this, but have heard that ordinary meat tenderizer from the grocery store helps with the feces eating. As for the pineapple, it might be the bromelain in the pineapple that works, it's a digestive enzyme that you can buy in tablet form at the health food store. That might be easier than trying to get her to eat pineapple!

 

Ruth n the Border Trio

[Pippin]

I'll have to try those things too. Out of all the good suggestions I've gotten on here, something should work with her. The supplement type OTC medicine I got her was in a tablet form and she took it fine right out of her food bowl. I tried adding some peas to her food because I read that green peas and beans could help with the poop eating, and she wouldn't touch them.

 

Thanks again everyone!