#coprophagy

Eating poop makes naked mole rats more motherly

Naked mole rats (Heterocephalus glaber, pictured) live in underground colonies throughout the deserts of East Africa. Apart from a few breeding males, colony members spend their days foraging for tubers, defending against predators, and taking care of the queen’s youngsters. This last behavior has puzzled biologists: In female mammals, child-rearing instincts are typically sparked by a flood of hormones during pregnancy—yet these hormone-producing reproductive organs never develop in the subordinate females in naked mole rat society. So what kick-starts their maternal urge?

Any tips on how to deal with coprophagy in a puppy? This is. my second puppy with it.

Kermit at least only got into it specifically because I didn't want him to, and a few months of dedicated "It's Yer Choice" with coyote and otter shit cured him.

Stuff from this week:

-- Obviously we had that conformation class debacle. XD

-- Kermit has thought that settling quietly while I eat dinner is for chumps since the day I got him. We are still having this discussion. Wednesday night featured angry crying for 40 minutes because I had crated him for... angrily crying on tie-down. I think I should be allowed to eat in peace. He thinks that an evening walk and training session don’t count and he should be allowed to run rampant all evening.

-- Practicing having both dogs loose for longer and longer periods, and they’re both doing well. Kermit mostly wants to just jump around on my bed and play with the stuffed toys (he’s not allowed to have them unsupervised because he eats them). I think the added freedom has contributed to the increased rage when he is confined. Which is just tough nuts for him. Meanwhile, Bindi’s tolerance for antics has increased exponentially. I’m so proud of her.

-- Practicing having him off leash in our problem area and he’s doing pretty well! Had to have a Come to Jesus moment on Friday for blowing off my recall, but he was basically perfect on Saturday. There’s a certain section that I don’t think he will ever be off-leash in, since that seems to be the favored place for coyotes to poop, but it’s not too hard to avoid.

-- Got to show off my blind crosses at agility class. These trainers work a lot on distance and basically don’t do blinds, and they’ve hinted they’re interested in learning more about blinds. So that would be neat!

-- When at the vet, I let Kermit loose in the car with me while we waited for Bindi to come back. He hung out quietly in my arms for a few minutes, then got bored and started exploring. He locked and unlocked my car several times, turned on my turn signal, had to be rescued when he squished himself under my windshield, and set off my car alarm. When the vet came out to talk to me I left Kerm in the car, where he pressed his nose against my window and cried piteously for a few minutes. Eventually he settled on my driver’s seat in the classic cat loaf position.

-- Went to a local agility show briefly for socialization purposes. We hung out well back from the ring and both dogs enjoyed rolling around in the grass.

Stuff from the last week:

-- Did a lot of sit-stay practice in the park around minor-- and then major-- distractions. I basically continuously fed Kermit as we parked next to a playground with kids running around, and we were passed by walkers, bikers, and dogs. Bindi modeled a beautiful down-stay. Kermit looked around a couple of times, but for the most part gave me excellent eye contact, and didn’t get up even once. We’ve been working on the release cue, and that really paid off.

-- Took the dogs to an outdoor restaurant. Kermit again did really well keeping quiet and mostly settled. He’s very bright, and quickly picks up that when he is lying quietly he regularly gets cookies, and when he stands up, the cookies stop.

-- We’re back into nosework and I’ve been doing a lot of driving around to practice in novel environments. Sometimes the distractions are too much, so I just put the dog away with no fanfare and take the other one out for fun and play. That quickly motivates the first dog to go find the scent. Jealousy is a great tool. XD

-- On Saturday I took Kermit to one of our poop-eating problem areas and let him off leash to see if he can bring his good behavior here. He did fantastic! Acted like a normal dog the entire time except once, on coyote poop. He got a verbal reprimand and an arm timeout. After that we found more coyote poop and he sniffed it for some time without eating it, then walked away and got a cheese jackpot. He found and ate some dead animal parts but I don’t care about those. Compromise. XD

-- On Sunday I took him to our worst poop-eating problem area, and he again needed only one verbal reprimand + arm timeout! Huge success! I avoided the worst area because I think that would be too much for him, as even Bindi snacks there. I am very pleased!

-- The play sessions are going well! Bindi is a rough player so I often have to intervene to give them breaks to calm down. On Saturday morning they had their best session yet. Bindi introduced some short chase games where she was the chasee, which is a first for her! She also let Kermit grab her cheek skin and didn’t immediately fling him off. She’s getting there!

This week had some real highs and some real lows. Both dogs did great on some new things while their usual issues got worse.