It’s time for a snack!

Why do some dogs eat poop? I mean really, what a disgusting habit! We’ve had a lot of dogs throughout our long lives and most of them didn’t partake in the stinking aftermath, but some did and some still do.Orie, our mini dachshund, is a pro poopeater particularly in the winter. It goes something like this:

Early in the morning I let the dogs out to pee and poop – as some more refined people would say “do their business.” But let’s cut to the chase. Orie waits in the warm house for as long as he can get away with it before I stomp toward him, letting him know I mean business (oops, a pun!).

Then he scampers innocently by me as if to say, “I’m going, Mom, I’m going.”

Once on the deck he breaks into a gallop, paws pounding, ears flopping and romps down the couple steps leading to the yard. BUT, instead of finding a place to “do his business,” he snoops around for fresh poop – steaming fresh poop. Then as though it weren’t 15 degrees out with a brisk breeze making the temps drop even further, he slowly takes a bite of the nasty stuff, savoring it as though it’s a fine, roasted chunk of lamb. When I holler at him, he speeds up the process. I know he hears me because he’ll look over at me standing in the doorway in my nightshirt, freezing my buns off, and then he’ll go back to his snack.

If I stomp my feet, he looks up again as if to say, “What’s the problem, Mom, I’m dining here.”

When he’s finished (he knows I’m not going to risk slip sliding in my treadless slippers on the deck and snowy lawn to get him away from his fine meal; he also knows I’m not going to risk letting the neighbors see me either), he races back up onto the deck and into the house.

“So, did you pee? Did you poop?”

He glances up at me and rolls his brown eyes, “No, silly, I’ll take care of that in the house where it’s warm and toasty. You don’t want me to freeze out there, do you?”

Silly me.