When Dogs Trick You

Today our Dog Rollo, a mini-Australian Shepherd who also was a good friend of our late Leonberger Bronco, walked out into the backyard and then he came back a few minutes later. He looked at me a bit funny. He was watching me closer than he usually does, and he lowered his head as he passed me by, and he was tiptoeing quietly. I did not think about it too much. I mean what could be wrong? However, my daughter told me, “That looked very suspicious”. She thought Rollo might be trying to hide something. Therefore, we followed him, and we realized that he had something in his mouth. We told him to drop but he wouldn’t obey us. He was defiant. That’s when my daughter got a glimpse of what was in his mouth. It was a piece of poop.

A close up photo of our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo
Look at those innocent trusting and loving eyes

He is not supposed to eat poop. He is not allowed to. We are very strict about this. We never had to tell any of our other dogs not to eat poop, they just never did, except Rollo. You give him cooked ground bison, ham, and liver treats, specially prepared treats, things he loves, but then he has poop for dessert. Anyway, I got some toilet paper for him to spit in. We told him to drop. He looked at the toilet paper, and he looked at me with his big eyes. It was clearly a very difficult decision for him, and after sitting there thinking hard for a minute, he quickly swallowed the poop. What would you have done? Anyway, remember how he fooled me at first.

The artist poses with one of his creations.

Rollo also loved chewing on shoes when he was younger. Fortunately, he’s gotten over that behavior, but in the process we’ve lost a lot of shoes. One time I forgot that I had left my shoes under a table in our TV room. I was walking around the house when I met Rollo in a hallway holding one of my shoes in his mouth. He gave me a deer-in-the-headlights look, then he slowly turned around and tiptoed back into the TV room. He placed my shoe back under the table, right next to its mate, positioning it correctly so it was just the way I had left it. Then he tiptoed away as if pretending that nothing had happened.

Left to right, our pug Daisy, our Japanese Chin Ryu and our Leonberger Bronco.
Three of our escape artists stand ready for their next adventure.

Our Leonberger Bronco, our pug and Japanese Chin also played us a few times, extorting treats from us by tricking us and they also tricked us when escaping the backyard in ways that we couldn’t figure out. Well actually, we figured out how Daisy and Ryu escaped, and we repaired the hole in the fence behind the tree that we found.

Our pu Daisy and our Leonberger Bronco in the kitchen. They just ate some of a now destroyed gingerbread house.
Daisy and Bronco opening the gate to the kitchen and eating the gingerbread house.

So how do you deal with this? My advice is to be smarter than I am, well at least, try to be smarter than your dog. Being smarter than your dog is very helpful. Watch them, observe them in the backyard. A Leonberger digging frenetically by the fence is soon going to be out roaming the neighborhood. A Leonberger shaking an unlocked gate using his paw, or trying to lift the lever with his nose, is soon going to be out roaming the neighborhood and eating Hors d’oeuvres at a neighbor’s cocktail party.

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

28 thoughts on “When Dogs Trick You”

  2. Haha, I think a lot of dog owners can relate. If I spotted the poop before my dog did, he was really good at “leave it.” But if he already had the tasty morsel in his mouth, he was way too quick for “drop it” and would have it swallowed before I said, “Dr…”

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  3. This story reminds me of the day two of my cats both caught a mouse. My husband went ballistic and tried to save them. He picked up one cat and was saying, “Drop it! Drop it!” Nicholas did. My husband got the mouse warm and was able to release him to a park near our house.
    However, the other mouse wasn’t so lucky.
    Sometimes you can’t “teach” pets what is instinct to them.

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    1. Poor mice. But as you said, that’s what cats do. A few weeks ago, Rollo came in with a rabbit in his mouth. We said drop it and he did. Luckily the rabbit was completely unharmed and hopped away.

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  5. You have been very lucky if all your other dogs did not eat poop. I believe a lot of dog owners have experienced this issue.

    Our last golden retriever, Odie, and our current Leonberger, Hachi, both ate their own poop when they were young. It is gross and disgusting and the only way we could find to stop it was to make sure every time they pooped we were right there to pick it up. After doing this for about a week they seemed to lose interest in it, luckily.

    We take Hachi every morning for a walk to meet with a few friends with their dogs to go for a run. We have to keep our eyes on our dogs and run when one of them poops because one of these dogs, a one and a half year old mastiff/cane corso/hound mix eats the other dogs poops if she can get to it before the owner does. We laugh about it but the owner of the mastiff/cane corso/hound mix is not amused and is trying to get her dog to stop the “yucky” habit.

    I wish you luck with stopping the poop eating habit!

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    1. Thank you, Brenda. I think you are right. Poop eating is very common and yet the only one who is/has been doing it with us is Rollo. Well, we had a Labrador that ate poop once, but only once as far as I noticed. Because Rollo was doing it so often, we thought something was wrong with him. However, the veterinary said, “no that’s pretty normal”. But she gave us something to put on his food that allegedly would reduce his taste for poop. It didn’t help, and he is still eating poop at four years old. It is great that Odie and Hachi lost interest in poop eating so quickly. I hope your friend’s mastiff mix will grow out of it too.

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  6. Your stories sound hilarious–mind you, I’m half a continent away! What would I do… My Lab took to chewing on small carpets so I put them all away after he destroyed about six, took them out when He grew out of it. Casey also loves horse poop. Since we live in horse country and walk horse trails, that is a challenge. Ongoing at the moment!

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    1. Ooh horse country. I wonder how Rollo would react to that. Dogs eating horse poop. That’s a challenge I have been spared. Despite being in Texas, Dallas is not horse country. It is too urban. Thank you Jacquie and good luck with your horse country challenges.

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  8. Ew. Poop. My yellow Lab, when she was a puppy, loved to roll around on the occasional “deposit” left on the grassy spaces by careless neighbors who didn’t pick up after their dogs. I eventually trained her not to do it, but until then, she got a lot of unplanned baths.

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  9. I always try to keep the yard picked up, but it’s not easy when it’s freezing out. Lila has been known to have a frozen one here and there! So gross! I absolutely hate that. It makes for a funny story, though.

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    1. That’s a good idea. I try to pick up too but sometimes I forget. When Rollo was younger he used to herd me around as I walked around the yard picking up poop. He was running behind my feet in half circles, sometimes nipping lightly, and I moved forward. He was happy I was like a sheep.

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  10. Dogs are so smart and funny! Never a dull moment. When I’m not paying attention on our walks, Marley likes to eat what I assume is cat poop. If I catch him in the act, he will absolutely NOT drop it, no matter how much I loud I yell at him. I guess it must taste really good to some dogs. Gross!

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  12. Hilarious!!! I am cracking up over here!! His eyes, oh my, I’m I love!!!!
    ❤️ 🐕 ❤️

    “It was clearly a very difficult decision for him, and after sitting there thinking hard for a minute, he quickly swallowed the poop. What would you have done? Anyway, remember how he fooled me at first.”

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