Murphy is my awesome and beautiful 10 month old tri-colored Pembroke and i love him to pieces! He is the perfect boy in every way but there is one problem.  I have two large (50 lbs) desert tortoises in the yard and they poop voluminously every day. Murphy thinks the poop is tasty, and will pick it up in his mouth every chance he gets. Naturally, this totally grosses me out! He doesn't actually eat it, but just runs around the yard with it in his mouth.   i've tried  scolding him and baiting the poop with bitter apple.    I don't want to get rid of my tortoises, i've raised them from hatchlings and they are friendly and fun pets.  I do try to keep their poop picked up, but it is never-ending. Has anyone had this problem or care to offer any suggestions?

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It might just taste good...When I took Jordan herding he couldn't get enough of the sheep poop. Plus he's still a puppy so he might grow out of it. I like your Tortoises though I had no idea you could keep these as pets!!!
I have no suggestions -- my guys love poop: deer, coyote, sheep and goose poop rank quite high in the list of disgusting things they will snack on. I just wanted to say, what a cute picture. I wonder what they all think of each other?
no help on the poop thing but I do have to say those are cool pets! My kids and dogs would love it if we had one. How fun.
I'll chime in with everyone else and say what a awesome picture! Our two corgis will eat the poop of our Mini Rex bunny. We try to chase them away from the cage (When our bunny "thumps" on the cage, the poop sometimes flies out, this is when they snack) but they still go back.

Good luck!
Gosh you have a cute dog! And the photo is priceless: "Hurry up! Hurry up and Eat It! I can hardly wait!" haha
Your choices: Get rid of dog, get rid of tortoises (they're beautiful too, BTW), get rid of the poop (constant vigilance is the price of both freedom and pooplessness), potty-train tortoises, or take a lesson from Roald Amundsen, the famous Antarctic explorer. While overwintering on the Antarctic coast before the first trip to the South Pole, both Amundsen and his rival Scott in the nearby English camp discovered something every owner of a desert tortoise should know: dogs eat poop. Their sled dogs were snacking out of the latrines. Scott, the stodgy Englishman, allegedly was so grossed-out that he shot the valuable dogs (Scott and some of his men were later to perish on their return from the pole). Amundsen, the Norwegian professional explorer, simply dug access tunnels for the dogs into the back of the privies; voila! (as they say in Norway), sanitation problem solved.
Now that your secret is out, we at MyCorgi.com will be relentlessly badgering you for exciting videos of tortoise vs corgi footraces, and corgi herding tortoises. You'll become famous.
You've gotta get a hare.

Wow, you're quite the font of obscure information! All very interesting, and i had never considered potty-training the tortoises, i'll have to think on that awhile. But FYI, Murphy truly DOES herd the tortoises, as you can maybe see in the picture. He loves his torties, and lays by them as they graze, and on special occasions he will even share an apple or banana with them.

Your Al and Gwynnie are too cute! You are so lucky!
My dogs love chicken and goat poop. I bet he loves all the good veggies in the tortoise poop! Not much you can do but I wouldn't get rid of them because of it....they are beautiful!!!!!!! Lucky you!
Love the tortoises! Poop probably is too enticing to get him to stop unless they do not share the yard.
Ah, I regret to say I agree with the others: poop is sooooo tasty and self-rewarding to dogs that in order to get Murphy to stop, you would probably need to use very severe corrections of the type that are normally only used for life-threatening bad habits (i.e., uncontrollable car-chasing), and I'm sure you wouldn't want to do that!

Don't know why they love poop so much, but they do. My Jack will run a straight line through the woods a good 50 yards or so to find buried poop. He's so proud! So unless there is something you can add to tortoise poop to make it taste yucky to dogs, I think you're out of luck.

LOVE the tortoises.
Sigh. You are probably right, judging by all the other comments. Well, it doesn't make him sick so that's a plus.
And it's probably entertaining for my neighbors to listen to me hollering "Murphy, drop that poop!"
Those are some beautiful tortoises! How old are they? Are they boys or girls? Does your puppy get excited with them? You have found the perfect day long pacifier - tortoise herding!!! Sorry. I can envision some great videos starring Murphy and his two torti.... Should there be any concern with salmonella? Can torti poop be tested? BTW my corgis love poop too.
Thank you! The Boys - Snuffy and Chuck - are 7 years old. i was very worried about salmonella for the first few years, but no one has ever gotten sick so maybe they're safe!? Murphy barks like crazy when a tortie comes into the house.
i'm so glad to hear that this poop-eating fetish is widespread, at least i know my dog isn't the black sheep of the family!

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