When "Leave It" Doesn't Work

by jcrply

My 2.5 year old Aussie knows the "leave it" command, and she usually obeys. "Usually" is not good enough. She just had a bout of really bad, mucusy diarrhea that needed two trips to the vet. The only thing I could think of that might have caused it was some unknown poop that appeared in our backyard. I saw her nose on it and yelled "leave it" and she backed off, but I thought she may have licked it or eaten a little.

Well, she has finally recovered from the diarrhea. But today as soon as we went into the backyard, she started sniffing and made a beeline for another pile of the mystery poop. This time yelling "leave it" did not make her back off, and I know that she ate a little before I could get to her. My backyard is fenced in. So it's not dog poop, unless there's a dog that can climb a 5 ft tall chainlink fence... just to poop in my yard... in the middle of the night. It's hard for me to spot the poop because it's light greyish tan in color and is down in the tall leaves of the Saint Augustine Florida-type grass. I really hate to have to keep my dog on leash inside her fenced yard.

Forty years ago when I lived in the country our dogs were loose outside most of the day. We had a lot of animals and there were lots of critters in the woods. I never saw my dogs eat the horse or chicken poop or anything else on the ground. Maybe they did and I just didn't see it. But I do know that none of them ever had diarrhea or other digestive upsets. My current dog has a very well balanced diet with human-quality foods. This is very frustrating. Any ideas from anyone?

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