Egg sucking dog

[kandie-kiss]

I have an egg sucking dog. I have not caught him in the act in a long time, but my eggs are coming up missing with the shells scattered in the yard. I go out several times a day to gather eggs for this very reason. Sometimes there are some, sometimes not. It is my dog and a part of the family, so I do not want to get rid of him, just break him of egg sucking. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

[crtrlovr]

doctor one up -- poke a small hole in one end, remove part of the egg and insert mustard and cayenne pepper. (use a syringe w/o a needle) Reseal the hole with a bit of wax and leave it for the dog to find. Chances are he won't mess with any more after that...
Edited to add: Welcome to BYC! Nice to meet you!

 

[Emmalion]

Quote:
Ha that's a great idea. I need to try that for my pooch.

 

[Peck Johnson]

Tea tree oil. Give a few eggs a good dousing and leave them where the dog is typically finding them. Not guaranteed to work but most dogs will be reviled by the taste and then ignore them.

 

[ColbyNTX]

Quote:
X2,

The pepper trick works pretty good but I did have a boston terrier once that it wouldn't work because the dog LOVED hot peppers. I couldn't even grow them in the garden because the dog would eat them all!!!!!

 

[Peck Johnson]

Quote:
Ditto. Our dog will eat hot peppers without a care.

 

[Sjisty]

We just made a smaller door in the bottom of the normal door of the coop that the dog couldn't get through. That way the chickens can go in but the dog can't but we can still open the main door ourselves and go in.

 

[queenbeezz]

The pepper trick is an age old cure. My grandmother used it on a Egg Sucking Bassett Hound when I was a kid. He wouldn't look at an egg after that. I have used cayene to break a dog of getting in the trash also. Just go to BJ's, Costco somewhere that sells large containers of it, everytime you put something in the trash, sprinke with the pepper. It doesn't take long before they get the hint. Racoons will leave the trash alone also.

 

[chickstofeed]

how does he get in your coop

 

[Stacykins]

If your dog for some reason likes the taste of pepper, fill the eggs with some bitter apple deterrent, the gel form. Bitter is one of the main tastes that results in taste aversion (the other being sour), so while spicy may not do the trick, strong bitter will. I've read studies of strong bitter deterrents being used successfully to deter coyotes from eating sheep, for example, after they ate a carcass filled with the deterrent. The taste aversion created made them associate that with the sheep, so they stopped attacking them. Of course, nothing is perfect!