Discouraging the dog from eating wrong things

[LinZ]

Our dog, Nikki, has a tendancy to eat catfood rather than her dogfood. While we go through a 25-pound bag of Meow Mix in about a month, her 5-pound Kibbles-N-Bits bag is still intact from last summer. Since she stays in the garage with 2 of my other cats she has complete access to their food as well as her own.

She also likes to eat the "deposits" out of the litter boxes, toilet paper from the garbage can (which has a lid), rabbit poo, and chocolate. Yes she has eaten a brownie before and some chocolate cookies - she seems to like eating stuff that makes her sick.

My main question is this: How can I get her to not eat catfood? She doesn't even seem to care what something is, but if she can get it in her mouth and chew and swallow it then she will eat it no matter what.

Help?


LinZ - would like to boot the dog in the patoot

[JMM]

IMO, dogs should be part of the household and live in the house with the rest of the pack. Bringing the dog in the house should help. Also, feed everyone meals. If you need to, feed the dog her meal in a separate room or her crate. What we did with Franny and the cats was to put a gate that the cats could go through but the dog couldn't and leave the cat food in the other side of the gate.

[LinZ]

JMM: Nikki never goes outside except to be walked, but even then she likes to pick up rabbit prizes and deer prizes and any other prizes. The cats do get fed separately from her but in the event they get the munchies their dry food is always out. But Nikki's stomach is like a black hole...no end in sight. She would eat herself to death if given the chance.

But we can't keep dry catfood up in the kitchen because Nikki will lick the cats' dish dry, so our 2 cats have learned to meow by the garage door when they're hungry. But I wish they could just eat upstairs.

But thanks for your input, JMM. I appreciate the help.


LinZ - wonders if Nikki was a cat in her past life

[Amandasmom]

I keep my cat food up on the counter. I'm sure that's gross but can you elevate that cat food so Nikki can't reach it? As for the rabbit and deer prizes, I don't have an answer. My dogs not only eat it, but roll in it so they look like they are wearing jewelry. Amanda loves horse poop, she can't get enough. You can try teaching her to 'leave it' then when she does, give her a tasty treat. My dogs also have black holes for stomachs. I add string beans and carrots to their food to try to fill the void. It works for about a minute.