# Pica or boredom?



## Macca (Aug 11, 2011)

This is not pica, but normal behavior for a puppy that age. You've been lucky he hasn't had to have surgery for a blockage yet. At this point, you still need to be very vigilant and puppy proof your environment the same way parents of infants and toddlers have to baby proof their home. Absolutely nothing on the floor or in his reach that could potentially be swallowed. Clothes hampers with lids that can't easily be opened should probably be placed strategically around your house. The humans need to be trained as much as the pets do!

Keeping him in his crate when you can't keep an eye on his every move is another option.

And it'd be a good idea to get rid of those plants you have that aren't pet friendly.

Hopefully someone else can chime in with how to handle the cat poo issue.


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## cwag (Apr 25, 2017)

Be extra vigilant with linear material like string. It can wrap around the intestines and cause life threatening damage. He is just a little baby who needs you to protect him from harmful things. I agree with Macca you have been lucky so far. Blockage surgery is very expensive and I imagine very painful too. Sorry, no advice about the cat poo.


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## Lauren Allen (Aug 1, 2018)

It's a relief to know that this is normal. I tend to be a bit of a paranoid dog parent after we had to bring him into the OSU veterinary hospital to have a grass awn pulled from his nose. It's been an eventful 4 months, and I know how lucky we've been. We've gone through several stages of puppy proofing but I suppose its time for another! Thank you for the advice. I keep forgetting that he is still a baby, because he's already 60 lbs at almost 7 months old and appears to be the same size if not larger than our 12 year old golden Layla.


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## DevWind (Nov 7, 2016)

I agree. Put him in a crate when you can’t watch him. Keep everything up off the floor. Get him into an obedience class. Play fetch in the yard or take him for walks. A tired puppy is a good puppy! 

All dogs seem to like to eat cat crunchies. From what I understand, cat food is very rich so the poo tastes very good to dogs. What I have always done is to put the cat box in a room with a gate on the door. It really serves 2 purposes. It gives the kitty a quiet place to relax and keeps the dog out of the cat box. If the cat doesn’t want to jump over, give it some space to go under.


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

He definitely has WAY too much unattended freedom if he is eating all that stuff without you knowing. He should absolutely be crated when you are not home, and kept in spaces where you can watch him 100% of the time when you are home. And for goodness sake, just pick up the socks and shoelaces and other stuff that is being left where he can get it. You have to puppy proof your home the way you would baby proof. He also shouldn't be out in the yard alone. All this is for his health and safety.


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## ceegee (Mar 26, 2015)

Some suggestions - all these have worked for us through three puppies in ten years.


(1) Buy a laundry basket with a lid and make a rule: socks are on someone's feet, in a closed drawer or in the laundry basket. Nowhere else and _never _left lying around. My kid was 6 years old when we got our first puppy and she was able to follow this rule.

(2) Keep shoes in a place where the dog can't go We bought inexpensive fabric shoe racks from Ikea and hung them in our closet, then kept the closet door shut. 

(3) When they are puppies (i.e. for the first year or two of their lives), our dogs are never loose in the house when alone. They are either in the same room as a human, or in a crate. Our 8-year-old poodle is still subject to this rule because he's an inveterate thief. It's the only way to keep him safe.
(4) A young dog shouldn't be left outside unattended. He shouldn't have the opportunity to eat rocks - they cause intestinal blockages. And if your dog isn't outside alone, he won't have the chance to uncover your cat's feces. So you'll be solving two problems here. Go out with him, every time, and don't let him dig up the cat poop. Now that he knows where it is and how to get it, he'll go after it whenever he gets the chance. Your solutions here are either to fence off the gravelled area so that he can't go there at all, or go outside with him and keep him away from it.



If your pup is ingesting things like socks and shoe laces, or cat poop in the garden, then he's not the problem - you are. If you pick up the socks and shoes and put them away, he can't get them, period. And if you don't leave him outside alone, he won't get a chance to eat the poop.


And I second Abeille's suggestion of obedience classes. Goldens are basically working dogs and they really need to be trained.


Best of luck!


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## Emmdenn (Jun 5, 2018)

We had this problem with our lab mix puppy. She was never out in the yard unsupervised but she would sniff around in the mulch of our garden and find cat poop from the neighborhood cats (we do not own cats). In a split second she would have the poop in her mouth and as soon as you approach to take the poop out of her mouth (gross) she would sprint away from us thinking it was a game. The only thing that helped was not reacting to her picking up the poop, and bringing her favorite toy outside too. If we saw her sniffing in the cat poop areas we would call her name, squeak her toy and start to jog to the opposite side of the yard. She thought that this was much more fun and would chase after us with big rewards of her toys and verbal praise when she came to us. Now she hardly looks for the poop, and is more more focused on hanging out with us and her toys than sniffing around in the mulch.

She definitely has eaten her fair share of cat poop though, especially when she was very young (8-12 weeks) and never had any stomach upset. She gets probios and is always regular. I wouldn't be terribly concerned if i were you.


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## Lauren Allen (Aug 1, 2018)

Sweet Girl said:


> He definitely has WAY too much unattended freedom if he is eating all that stuff without you knowing. He should absolutely be crated when you are not home, and kept in spaces where you can watch him 100% of the time when you are home. And for goodness sake, just pick up the socks and shoelaces and other stuff that is being left where he can get it. You have to puppy proof your home the way you would baby proof. He also shouldn't be out in the yard alone. All this is for his health and safety.


I don’t want to place blame, but this is a conversation I’ve had with my partner a few times as he is much less diligent with his socks than I am. Personally, if they aren’t on my feet they’re in my hamper or a drawer. In addition, when we aren’t home he is in the kitchen which is 100% puppy proofed (as is the rest of the house now)


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

Lauren Allen said:


> I don’t want to place blame, but this is a conversation I’ve had with my partner a few times as he is much less diligent with his socks than I am. Personally, if they aren’t on my feet they’re in my hamper or a drawer. In addition, when we aren’t home he is in the kitchen which is 100% puppy proofed (as is the rest of the house now)



I feel for you. It's hard when you are keeping things picked up and your partner is not. But hopefully if you tell him it would be fatal for him to eat a sock, he will start to pick up more? Anything they can get into can be so dangerous, be it the batteries in the remote, or socks, or shoelaces. Good luck!


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## puddles everywhere (May 13, 2016)

As far as outside and being quick to find the kitty poo... put the pup on a leash. You can't teach anything you don't have control of. Help him learn "leave it" so he can make a good choice not to eat the poo. 
Use a long line and play fetch.. ball or frisbee. Good exercise and still in control. 
Teach your puppy the behavior you want, he didn't come with instructions and doesn't know anything you haven't taught him... except how to be a puppy. 
If you can't get help with your partner compromise  he keeps his "droppings" in the bedroom/laundry room and you keep the door closed. 
Get an x-pen, just like a toddler goes into a play pen you can put your pup in the pen to play where it's safe. 
Get serious about your pups training, find a good training facility where the instructors compete with their dogs. 
This eating everything is not a phase he will grow out of if you don't help him learn a better behavior. This behavior is self rewarding so give him a better behavior that you can reward. 
Puppies are work but the more time you teach him now, the better dog you will have when they are older. Until then protect this puppy before he bites into an electrical cord or licks a plug.


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## Lauren Allen (Aug 1, 2018)

ceegee said:


> Some suggestions - all these have worked for us through three puppies in ten years.
> 
> 
> (1) Buy a laundry basket with a lid and make a rule: socks are on someone's feet, in a closed drawer or in the laundry basket. Nowhere else and _never _left lying around. My kid was 6 years old when we got our first puppy and she was able to follow this rule.
> ...



I’m on the laundry basket suggestion. Right now the closet door has a latch so the cat can get through but he cant, and then the sliding door between the closet and laundry room is only a little bit open (that’s where the litter box is). All of our shoes and everything are in the closet as well. 

He is NEVER loose when we are not there. He stays in the kitchen where there is nothing for him to get into. We were loose with the outside supervision for a bit because we have a dog door and he would go in and out so much, but we’ve taken to closing it off more frequently or we close the gate so he only has access to the patio through the dog door. 

What I thought was a shoelace was actually the tie from the cone the vet gave him after neutering. He somehow managed to chew it in half. The socks should no longer be an issue after a talk I had to have with my partner since he is the only one who leaves them out. 

What’s frustrating for me is that, I rarely leave him unattended so I have no idea when he is finding all of these things. I’ve become a helicopter parent now so he’s not eating anything he shouldn’t be, but I told my partner that I’m nervous to leave him with him because he doesn’t supervise him the way he should. Not to air my dirty laundry online, but it’s very frustrating. 24/7 supervision of a puppy alone is exhausting, and I’m doing the best I can. He is trying to do better too, but when I come home after work and ask where Milo is he just says “outside”, and then I’ll find him eating poop. It’s more frustrating to ask for help and be told over and over that it’s my fault. 

Thank you for your suggestions. I will take note of each of them and try to do better.


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## ceegee (Mar 26, 2015)

Lauren Allen said:


> What’s frustrating for me is that, I rarely leave him unattended so I have no idea when he is finding all of these things. I’ve become a helicopter parent now so he’s not eating anything he shouldn’t be, but I told my partner that I’m nervous to leave him with him because he doesn’t supervise him the way he should. Not to air my dirty laundry online, but it’s very frustrating. 24/7 supervision of a puppy alone is exhausting, and I’m doing the best I can. He is trying to do better too, but when I come home after work and ask where Milo is he just says “outside”, and then I’ll find him eating poop. It’s more frustrating to ask for help and be told over and over that it’s my fault. /QUOTE]
> 
> 
> I hear you! Constant supervision is exhausting - we've been doing it for eight years with our toy poodle, who is an inveterate thief and can't be trusted alone, anywhere! And it's even more exhausting when you have a partner who doesn't always buy into the need for it. Mine is a bit more reliable these days, but still leaves stuff on tables (e.g. chocolate, medications) and then doesn't supervise the poodle, and we've had a couple of near-misses that could have been serious. I sympathise with your situation. It's hard to do everything right, then have someone else undo your good work.
> ...


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## Lauren Allen (Aug 1, 2018)

ceegee said:


> Lauren Allen said:
> 
> 
> > What’s frustrating for me is that, I rarely leave him unattended so I have no idea when he is finding all of these things. I’ve become a helicopter parent now so he’s not eating anything he shouldn’t be, but I told my partner that I’m nervous to leave him with him because he doesn’t supervise him the way he should. Not to air my dirty laundry online, but it’s very frustrating. 24/7 supervision of a puppy alone is exhausting, and I’m doing the best I can. He is trying to do better too, but when I come home after work and ask where Milo is he just says “outside”, and then I’ll find him eating poop. It’s more frustrating to ask for help and be told over and over that it’s my fault. /QUOTE]
> ...


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