2 questions

Question
There are 2 behaviors I would like to change in our 9 month old neutered pit-bull mix. He lived in a shelter for the first five months of his life and we adopted him four months ago. He gets plenty of exercise (4 mile jogs almost every day) and lots of love.

1. He eats his own poop. He doesn't eat it right away, only after a day or more. We have tried the Deter tablets with no luck and are currently disposing of all poop from the yard and  supervising his outdoor time. We tried to correct this with negative reinforcement (saying No! or throwing a can with pennies toward him when he goes for a turd), but think this will not carry over for when we are not present. We'd like to give him more freedom outdoors, but only if we find a way to stop the poop eating!

2. He eats sticks when outside and is obsessed with finding and eating sticks whenever we go for hikes or when he is in the yard. If we leave him outside during the day while we're at work, he vomits big pieces of sticks the next morning without fail. He has plenty of toys to chew on, he just prefers things he can swallow. Is eating sticks dangerous? Is there a way to stop this?


Answer
1. You're doing all the right things with the poop eating. If deter doesn't work there are other brands, try them as well. You can also try leaving the poop, but pouring bleach or something that smells really nasty (hot sauce etc) on it. It's a VERY hard habit to break and pits are stubborn as all heck :) If there's anyway you can not leave him unsupervised in the yard while you're working on this habit it will help. If not, keep doing what you're doing and EVENTUALLY hopefully he'll get it.
2. Again, see above, hard habit to break. Can you get him some edible chew bones? How about some really big knuckle bones from the butcher? Get him some toys you can stuff with treats as well. Tough habit to break and a tough dog to break habits once they are established. Cool thing about the breed is that GOOD habits are strongly instilled as well.
If you're not already doing it WALK WALK WALK your dog!! Twice a day. Put a soccer ball on a tether just high enough so that he has to jump to hit and play with it> Give him LOTS of exercise, with this breed there is just about no such thing as too much!
Hang in there, you can do it. And congratulations for working so hard to make your dogs life better.
Diane