Sorry I must have missed the Obsessive bit.

It seems to me encountering aversives is what puppies "do" and learn from, far more than their adult counterparts. Their adult counterparts have learnt from such experinces hopefully!

I think puppies pretty much take aversives, (fireworks, their first fall in water, their first knocking over of an object, the first time they encounter a non puppy tolerant adult dog or human, the first time they try to suckle and their mum says no, the first time they try to play with their mates and they say no, etc etc,) in their stride, from what I have seen. Puppies experience far more aversives than adults who have learnt to avoid such things. In my experince.

Personally, I don't think that AGE at which a method is applied is that important, more so its suitability at getting the desired result in the kindest, fastest way which offords the dog the best possible life.

I feel that I might appear objectionable as I appear to have a lot of views today , but I find this thread and all the views of its contributors fascinating. Apologies f anyone gets peeved, not my intention at all.

Hugs Dx

My dogs have never done it and they are fed a cheap diet, working dog stuff.

But owned after puppyhood.

The clients dogs I met that do it are either like Tangocharlies dog (puppish that hasn't grown out of it)

Or older dogs that have done it for years but have been on loads of different diets for it.

Rune I don't see the diff between an e collar for what you describe and the spray collar, except that the e collar is more adjustable so the dog won't be as bothered by it.

Adam

It definately seems like OP has decided on the collar and isn't willing to budge, and I don't see the point of this thread if OP just wants justification for her decision. At the end of the day it's OP's decision and no one needs to justify themselves to members on here but it seems pointless to start a thread and then ignore the replies you don't like.

Is your dog still pooping in its crate overnight? If so, I would address that issue (take the dog out more, figure out a different feeding schedule or something) so that he's safe to leave overnight in the crate.

At 8 months, the puppies I've known have been able to make it through the night without a problem for the most part.

I researched this subject pretty extensively when my dog used to do it and although he still does it on occasion, I now know exactly why.

There is no doubt that this quickly becomes a self reinforcing, learned behaviour, but there are two distinct causes that get the ball rolling in the first place. The first one is behavioural and occurs when a pup gets regularly chastised for making a mess, pup then learns to 'hide the evidence' as it were. Cure and prevention for this behaviour is obvious so I won't go into it. The second cause is always, beyond any shadow of a doubt, diet.

If the diet lacks a particular element, be it a mineral, a protein or even sufficient quantity, then the dog will actively seek out food sources that could possibly contain that missing element. And by food sources, I mean poo. If the dog can't get what he needs from his own poo, then he will try and get it from other animals. And so the cycle begins and in no time at all, you have a learned behaviour.

I know, for an absolute fact, that if I give my dog a certain type of food that he will be eating his poo the very next day. I know that if I give him that same food for a couple of days, he will be after everyone else's poo too.

After reading through the entire thread I think that although it has been mentioned several times, the possibility of the dogs diet having an influence on this behaviour has been largely dismissed, when in fact it should be the primary focus. Even more so if the dog is already on steroids, which will obviously have an effect on his appetite/digestion and should have been taken into account by the vet who prescribed them.

Yes, you can treat the symptoms and yes you could do that with a spray collar (ethics aside, different discussion) but, even if the treatment is successful, if you do not address the original cause, there is nothing to stop the behaviour re-occurring in the future. Like someone has already said, they used this method for a year and even then only with limited success, probably because they did not address the cause in the first place. I agree wholeheartedly that once every conceivable positive method has been tried that sometimes all we are left with are the less desirable options and while they are not ideal, I could sympathise with someone feeling they had to resort to such extremes when there was no other choice left. But I do not believe that that is the case in this particular instance. Until there has been a proper examination and period of testing/experimentation on the dogs diet, then not every option or resource has been explored.

Without an awful lot more information it is difficult to pin point the precise cause but if the dog came to me with behaviour as you describe, I would put him on chicken and rice (and a lot of rice, until he didn't want to eat any more, to address the hunger caused by the medication) and then use a combination of a muzzle and positive training to break the habit of eating. What exactly does the dog eat? How long has he eaten it for? What other foods has he eaten? How much/how often is he fed? Is he under/overweight? Why has he been prescribed such a powerful course of medication at such a young age?