I wish people would read my posts properly. I'm not going over old ground.

Thanx for a good debate and I wish you all a great weekend.

Tango

Quick point about the crate, don't intro it in there.

Intro it in a field or park, by the time an accident happens in the crate the dog should not need the collar to stop it anyway.

Adam

My first post on this forum-- I came here via Googling info on citronella collars for poo-eating problems.

TangoCharlie, I see this thread got a bit heated, and don't want to re-ignite anything, but wonder if you've tried the collar, and if so, whether it was successful!

I'm in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and take my two corgis to a wonderful 19 acre off-leash dog park here. They adore it. The only problem is that they both love hunting for, and gobbling, poo. The elder (now 7) never ate it until observing the younger (now 4), and now they both do it, with great gusto! I've tried ignoring it, but sometimes it apparently causes gastric distress in our daintier guy (Cosmo, the 7 yr old), and horrible, malodorous vomiting ensues.

So-- did you try it, and did it work?

Hiya.
No I haven't tried it yet. Purely because I haven't had the time to set it up. And I'm seeing how things develop.

I still think it's a feasible program to try, after other options have failed I've thought it out and if timing is right, it's orchestrated well and without malice, then I think it is likely to work.
Managing the situation will not always work.

Why start with the most extreme setting when for all we know, a lower setting might work perfectly?

Why give a young dog a potential fright, when again, a lower setting might be enough to do the trick and prevent the problem from recurring?

The dog may not be nervous right now but he might become more nervous if he's suddenly subjected to the most extreme setting on one of these collars.

Surely when using these types of devices the ideal is to see if the lowest setting will work before considering a higher one???

From a science point of view I suppose that comment is from the fact that if you were to use punishment it has to be severe at first. Else the dog desensitises to it and the punisher has to repeat at a higher intensity each time and so on.

They have done an experiment by giving an electric shock to a dog starting at a low level. It was so ineffective that they eventually ended up giving the dog enough current to nealy kill it and it still wasn't stopping the unwanted behaviour. The dog desensitised to each shock.
So the technique in punishment is to start at a high intensity.
Well that's the science bit.

Max my previous dog was a poo eater as a puppy he did outgrow it and I tended to ignore it and clean up as qucikly as possible must admit he didn't eat other dogs poo. Did like the occasional bit of rabbit or deer poo though. Do not want to frighten anyone he did get cancer at a young age and I have often wondered if he had it underlying all along and maybe this was partly the problem who knows ?

Ollie when he use to go out and about would love to eat rabbit, deer and sometimes even fox poo never eaten his own or other dogs poo though. Must say I would not of put a collar that emitted any kind of shock or a puff of air on either of my dogs Max was a very confident dogg Ollie is nervous and to suggest doing this to a nervous young puppy is going to cause even more problems imo anyway.

Feeding something like tobasco sauce or foul tasting is completely different to squirting some nasty smelling spray or air into a dogs face especially if it is nervous to begin with.

I think the suggestion of getting things ruled out by your vet or trying a different diet is a good one. Ollie is on steroids and is always hungry he does not eat his own poo he is now back on a raw diet and has pklenty of veg etc., and green beans in his dinners now and gets carrots and as treats all to help fill him up.

The 'leave' command does work. However, you really do need to condition it well after you have taught it.

If you can use the 'leave' to stop him every time he looks interested for a month, the problem will disappear. For the times you aren't there, manage.

Also, for some dogs, food can have a major impact and sometimes a simple change to a food more suited to your particular puppy's needs will sort the problem.

How old is your puppy?

nice.
thanks for that image. You don`t like dogs much then?

They had this problem on "My pet shame" yesterday on tv. The vet helping the owner got them to change the dog's diet to a better quality one and then to teach it a recall command so the owner could call it away from poop. This was a Parson JRT looking sort of dog. It did solve the problem though and you should have a dog that comes back to you when called on walks anyway!

I think the muzzle idea is a good one-we see a Lab and a Golden retriever that have to be muzzled on walks because they eat anything.

When I initially had a behaviourist round for Cherry re her fear reactivity he recommended a spray collar which we paid £150 for (eek!) and it did nothing to fix the problem at all-no effect! I know this is a different problem than you have but bear in mind that they don't always solve things.

With Cherry I introduced a positive training regime of rewarding her when other dogs were near which took a while to get results but it has definitely worked. We all want the quick solution but it's not always the right one.