Fussy rescue shihtzu and pooing on the floor

izzybusy23

Hi

I wonder if anybody could help please?

I got a shihtzu from a rescue shelter nearly a month ago. Gorgeous little girl, two and a half and the most placid of dogs, quite happy to be a lap dog.

However, she is mega fussy with her food. I have bought 3 brands of kibble, James Wellbeloved, Iams and then even tried Sainsburys own and she turns her nose up at all three. I even bought an expensive brand of dog meat from Pets at Home and yep you guessed it, turned her nose up at it. She will only eat Sainsburys cheap foil meat but it doesn't agree with her and goes straight through her (jelly/mucus in her poo) and the annoying thing is she won't go to the toilet when I take her out at night and insists of crapping all over the kitchen floor which is wearing very thing now and Im starting to get annoyed with wasting money on various foods and coming down to crap every morning.

Any idea on why she is being so fussy? Do I just offer her kibble, leave it down for 15 minutes and if she hasn't eaten it take it away and try again at dinner time? I am hoping that by doing a battle of wills with her she will eventually have to give in as she will be so hungry. Sounds mean but I am at my wits end.

Also is it just her, or do other shihtzu's go round and round in circles doing poo so it isn't just in one place but is splattered across a wide area? Makes the clean up so much more harder.

Any suggestions greatly received!

Thanks

Edited to add that apart from the fussiness and toileting in the kitchen, this dog is perfect. Quiet dog, hardly barks and follows me around the house like a shadow and even lets me 5 year old DD cuddle and endlessly pick her up so no other bad habits I can see.

tizerbelle

Feeding - pick a food and stick to it. If she has a delicate tum, I would suggest chappie - tinned or dry. It's the only food big dog can eat that makes cleaning up easier as when she has chappie she produces good solids (sorry if bit graphic). If not on chappie - then it's a nightmare!! Big dog is also a "wanderer" while doing her business so I know how annoying it can be cleaning up - just imagine what you get and now think of a dog probably 8 times larger!

Develop a feeding regime - food down at meal times, 15-30 minutes only then removed. Do not feed anything else, not even treats. While you keep giving in, she keeps winning.

When you take her out at night, are you actually going out on a walk or just into the garden? If just in the garden she could be one of those dosgs that just won't go in their own territory - big dog is also like this (won't go in backyard but will have accidents occassionally in house) so at bed-time we have to go for a walk - only round the block so 5 minutes or less and she will do what needs to be done.

HTH

izzybusy23

tizerbelle wrote: »

Feeding - pick a food and stick to it. If she has a delicate tum, I would suggest chappie - tinned or dry. It's the only food big dog can eat that makes cleaning up easier as when she has chappie she produces good solids (sorry if bit graphic). If not on chappie - then it's a nightmare!! Big dog is also a "wanderer" while doing her business so I know how annoying it can be cleaning up - just imagine what you get and now think of a dog probably 8 times larger!

Develop a feeding regime - food down at meal times, 15-30 minutes only then removed. Do not feed anything else, not even treats. While you keep giving in, she keeps winning.

When you take her out at night, are you actually going out on a walk or just into the garden? If just in the garden she could be one of those dosgs that just won't go in their own territory - big dog is also like this (won't go in backyard but will have accidents occassionally in house) so at bed-time we have to go for a walk - only round the block so 5 minutes or less and she will do what needs to be done.

HTH

Thanks, somebody else mentioned Chappie so I will give that a go and hope to christ she likes it so I can stick to something!

She goes in the garden during the day when I am in, but its just a night time thing; maybe I am trying to hurry her? I can take her out the front for a wander but can't go too far as my DD is in bed.. definately think I need to get to a routine with her because other than the fussiness she is a great little dog.

chris_n_tj

I am with tizer on this one. Believe me they are crafty little devils and no matter what you are told you never really get a true picture on life before you.
I would put her food down for the 15 mins as well then pick it up. Lol what ever you do dont feed her until the next food time, no titbits or treats. She will try it on but you need to be firm with her.
This might go on for days but dont worry she will eat when she needs to. Once she does start eating dont make a fuss, just make sure yuo carry on removing her dish.

I laughed at the pooh circles, TJ does the circles then once he has found the right spot he stands still to "do it" hahaha what a subject. Sometimes it can take him seconds but if he is being a pain he will take forever lol.

The last toilet walk at night I find even if its done just walking around the garden is to use the lead. TJ knows what the bedtime walk is for, no messing about. I just say come on TJ weewee`s its bedtime, this is the only time he does it to order so to speak. Give it a go, use your own word and only use it on the last outing. It wont take long for her to get it. I praised highly at first until he got the hang of it.

I am so glad she is settling in ok but watch out she doesnt get too clingy to you, it will make it hard for you to leave her when you need to.

She sounds a real sweetie, and is very lucky to have found you.

Hugs Chris n TJ x

sarabe

The toileting at night will be what she has been doing since being in the rescue kennels as I expect she was shut up for the night at the end of the afternoon.

It could also be the result of poor house training and that she did this in her first home and one of the reasons that she was given up.

I would suggest that you have her in a crate beside your bed at night and then when she needs to go she should wake you so you can get up and take her out.

This will give you an idea of what time she needs to go and help her to be okay about going in the garden in the dark and of course break the habit of pooing indoors.

If she needs to go not long after you have gone to bed then you will know to persevere with the last toilet trip to the garden and stay out until she goes.

If she is going just before dawn then you could alter her feeding times and feed her later so that she doesn't need to go until after dawn.

Whatever you do please stay patient with her. She is going to the toilet because she needs to.

universality

I'd keep her on something hypoallergenic like James Wellbeloved or Arden Grange (if you got her from Dogs Trust this is what they tend to use). We were advised by the people at Burns (that's what we use for our dog) to put it down like you said and take it away if they don't eat it, then try again later. Apparently they can go up to seven days without food (with water of course) but most dogs give up long before then! Sometimes our dog can be fussy with his Burns complete food, but we don't mind adding a few sardines here and there to make sure he eats it. Perhaps, if you don't mind, you could add something tasty to her food that would encourage her to eat it? Some people don't want their dogs in that habit but I'm ok with it. I never use tinned food or commercial brands e.g. pedigree etc. They are not good for dogs. Our collie had pedigree mixed in with his Arden Grange as that's what he had at the rescue but for months his stools weren't solid. We took him off Pedigree and eventually changed over to Burns food and after a few weeks his stool were firm and still are. I believe it was the tinned food causing it...

Burns have a fantastic helpline, you could try giving them a call and they'd probably be able to advise you http://www.burnspet.co.uk/dog/index.asp

hethmar

It sounds to me that she hasnt yet learnt a routine re eating and pooing. I would definitely take her for a walk at night as she may need the exercise to get her bowels moving. Mooching round the garden wont do that for her. Bless her, she is still getting used to you.

tizerbelle

izzybusy23 wrote: »

Thanks, somebody else mentioned Chappie so I will give that a go and hope to christ she likes it so I can stick to something!

Its not whether she "likes" it or not - it's what you decide to feed her and she eats it or goes hungry. Remember you are in charge, she is a dog - granted it often (okay, almost all the time) feels that the dog is in charge but you have to stamp your authority somewhere!

When you switch over, mix her preferred food with the new one gradually over a week or so increasing the amount of new and reducing the old - this will make the transition easier - helps her adjust to the taste and less stressful on her digestive system

universality wrote: »

I'd keep her on something hypoallergenic like James Wellbeloved or Arden Grange (if you got her from Dogs Trust this is what they tend to use).

My two are DT dogs and they had arden grange at the rescue centre but even then DT admitted that little dog had to have a lot of tinned meat mixed in so he would eat - when pushed they finally told me that basically it was meat with a "garnish sprinkling" of arden grange on the top. Big dog eats whatever is going however even on Arden Grange her stools were never good.

universality wrote: »

I never use tinned food or commercial brands e.g. pedigree etc. They are not good for dogs. Our collie had pedigree mixed in with his Arden Grange as that's what he had at the rescue but for months his stools weren't solid. We took him off Pedigree and eventually changed over to Burns food and after a few weeks his stool were firm and still are. I believe it was the tinned food causing it...

Chappie is a commercial brand and regularly recommended by vets for dogs with delicate digestive systems or even as an alternative to the "prescription" diet after an operation. I'm not saying it is the best food in the world because obviously it does have quite a high content of fillers (cereal) however it does not mean it is inherently bad for dogs - like most foods some dogs will thrive on it, others wont. That said, my two will not even touch stuff like Bakers Complete - one sniff and they walk away and they have been offered JWB as treats by other dog owners when we have met on a walk and won't eat that either - politely take the biscuit from the person, turn round and spit it on the floor!

My two were swapped from Arden Grange to Chappie - never tried James Wellbeloved and never will - my two do great on Chappie and at 13 and 14 I am not changing their diet. There is also the financial aspect to consider as well, AG is twice the cost of Chappie and JWB is three times the cost - if you only have one small dog that doesn't eat a great deal it may not be much of a consideration however big dog is 36kg and little dog (relatively speaking) is 22kg so we go through quite a lot of food and finances simply will not permit using one of the "better" foods and experience has shown for my two at least, the "better" foods aren't better for them.

universality

tizerbelle, since changing my medium sized dog over to Burns it is a lot cheaper actually. Not all hypoallergenic food is going to agree with all dogs, you do need to try them out and find what is best for your dog and a lot of companies do free samples etc. Ours wasn't too good on Arden but that could have been the wet food. Some dogs need the fish or pork and potato versions as they are not as rich as the lamb for example, their stools will then improve over the months. It's not a quick process. We too were recommended chappie but refused it and now he's very happy on Burns.

We were also told by the shelter he needed to have a spoonful or two of wet food and were given Asda tinned meat in his adoption bag. But we eventually found a way around that by using sardines, boiled chicken etc. (Sometimes he will gladly eat his Burns without something mixed in). When his stools never improved on the wet food we looked up on the internet and were stunned by the junk that was in his wet food. Our little guys teeth and breath also improved, he had bad plaque/tartar and it has reduced since putting him on Burns.

It's your prerogative if you wish to use these foods for your dogs and I know a lot of people use Chappie (vets included). My finances are also tight but personally I'd rather feed my dog on better quality food and like I said, it actually works out cheaper as I'm not buying wet food tins, which is a bonus

Anyway, I'm in no way having a go at people who cannot afford to buy other than commercial dog food for their pets, after all, so long as they're being fed that's fine! And I know how expensive large dogs can be! We have a medium collie and he's very cheap to keep on Burns, but I do buy the small bags which means I'm not shelling out £45 which makes it easier. It would also be cost-effective for a Shihtzu. Looking back, our other dogs (childhood) got by on commercials without too many problems. But I wish someone would have told me what was in the commercial brands when I was using them as I was oblivious and put my sensitive-tummy dog through months of problems by using them, never again...

faded_flowers

Yup to all of the above - another trick you can try is to feed her directly after a walk.

Pick a quality hypo-allergenic food, and stick to that and her bowl of water. Unless she has a problem with her mouth/teeth she won't starve rather than eat. It can take 4-6 weeks for the digestive system to sort itself out, so don't be too worried if the results aren't instant.

izzybusy23

Hi all

Thanks for your posts. The first dry food I bought for her was James Wellbeloved and she turned her nose up at that; and Iams, and Sainsbury's own... but have bought Chappie and hurrah, she will eat it and her stools are getting harder. She has only poo'd on the kitchen floor once overnight since the chappie so something in it is helping her digestive system.

I would rather feed her something more hypo allergenic but as she is eating the Chappie and not leaving disgusting splatted poo all over the floor, I am happy with that!

Thanks again all

xxx