Puppie behavior and feeding

Question
Hi Ashley, thank you very much for the great advice about my 5 year old pup.  It helped out so much and she's doing much better with the new puppy lately!!  I have a few more questions for you if you don't mind.  I've noticed that every time my new puppie goes #2, she turns around and starts eating it :-P  Hw do I get her to stop doing this??

Also I was wondering if you knew the proper about of food to feed my 5 years old.  She's 60 pounds.  I've been feeding her 3 cups a day, but the bag says to feed her 4-6 and day.  This seems like a lot and I don't want her to become over-weight!!

Thank you very much for your help, I greatly appreciate it!!!  Have a good one!!

Answer
Kelly,

I'm glad to hear things are going better with the new puppy. There are two ways to go about solving the stool-eating problem. The most important is to train her not to. When you catch her doing it, make a startling noise like a clap or bang, give her a firm 'no', and lead her away from it. Any time she leaves it alone on her own, use positive reinforcement to teach her that leaving it is a good behavior - praise her, pet her, etc. The other thing that can help until you are able to train her to leave it alone is a product that will make her stool taste bad. You can find products like this at your local Petsmart or Petco, or through Drs. Foster & Smith (drsfostersmith.com). One in particular, for example, is called DisTaste and comes in the form of a powder that you sprinkle on her food.

The proper feeding amount depends on the food you are feeding. If the bag says 4-6 cups a day for her weight bracket, that is how much of that food she needs to eat to meet her daily nutritional intake needs. I know it sounds like a lot, but as long as you are using actual measuring cups (and not counting it in drinking cups or anything), it should be okay. With a puppy, its best to feed them three times a day if you can so you aren't overfeeding them at any one meal. For example, you could give her two cups at breakfast, one at lunch, and two at dinner. She won't always eat that much - puppies need more food than adult dogs and if you'll look at a bag of adult food, you'll notice that what it reccomends feeing a 60 lb dog is probably only 2-3 cups a day.

Good luck!

Ashley