caleb is not in fact a wonder dog!

[Caleb the wonder dog?????]

Hello i'm Kirstin i have 2 girls aged 2 and 9 a husband Jamie a 7 month kitten called Olive and Caleb the golden x collie who is also 7 months. The dog is a rescue dog and we have had him 5 weeks tomorrow overall he is a lovely lovely dog with the perfect temprament for our family, as he was a stray (allegedly, i have his puppy vaccination card etc) i am willing to accept that his basic training and behaviour wont be perfect and will need some work! He can now sit, lie down, wait, leave it (most of the time), walk nicely on the lead unless there is a bird or dog around and jumps up alot less! however he is a big dog and when he knows i cant see him he will take items off my worktop and eat then and has recently started eating his own poop which makes me physically sick!!! any advice wuld be greatly appreciated!

[Bill]

however he is a big dog and when he knows i cant see him he will take items off my worktop and eat then and has recently started eating his own poop which makes me physically sick!!! any advice wuld be greatly appreciated!

I'm not sure what you mean by "items off my worktop". Do you mean food on your kitchen counter? If so, thats simple ... don't leave food where he can reach it.

Stool eating is something many, if not most, dogs do regularly. It's practically impossible to stop. One thing is to say close to them with a shovel and when they poop, immediately scoop it up. I did that with my two goldens many years ago until they got to the point they would poop and immediately turn around and eat it as soon as it hit the ground. The thing that stopped my goldens is I switched them to a prey model raw diet and they stopped immediately. My theory is that when dogs eat stools, they are getting the nutrients they missed the first time through. With kibble, there is a lot of unabsorbed nutrients in their poop. With a raw diet, all the nutrients are absorbed and there are no nurtients left to make the stools appetising. I suggest switching the dog to a prey model raw diet or at the very least, switch them to one of the highest quality kibbles around. Those would be Innova EVO or any of the Orijen foods. That should make the stools less nutritious therefore less desirable.