[megansmomma]

Originally Posted by Nancy1999

Just to clear up a couple of things, pineapple contains BROMELAIN, which is an ingredient that is used in meat tenderizers. Certain dog foods use meat sources with a harder to digest protein, and BROMELAIN is an enzyme which helps digest these proteins. The poop no has undigested protein in it to attract the dog. It doesn't smell that different, it just no longer smells nutritious, because the protein is gone.

Here is a good explaination of why pineapple works.

Originally Posted by megansmomma

Deter and Forbid are pretty much marketing schemes that are sold by vets and pet stores to make money. I just looked up the ingredients in Deter and guess what the main ingredient is Natural Fermented Vegetable Extract, Thiamine Hydrochloride, Capsicum Oleoresin. It also says that it needs to be given for 2 to 3 weeks to see results. I was shocked at the price too~$35 A large can of pumpkin is $2.00 and pineapple is $1.25 and a jar of MSG/meat tenderizer is $3.00.

This is why pineapple works like the expensive products that the stores recommend.

Originally Posted by QuickSilver

Why would it take several weeks? The explanation I've heard for pineapple is that it is an enzyme eater, and it helps digest the dog's food more thoroughly. That would indicate that you should know if it's working within a few days at most.

Thor thankfully does not have this problem, so my interest in academic. Still, I'm interested.

Just for clarification I say several weeks because:

1. You need to adjust the amount of pineapple until you see a change.
2. If you read through this thread they are coming back after 1 day and 1 piece of pineapple to say it didn't work. So even if it is in theory that you will see a change, if you have someone who is not vigilant about the pineapple several times a day for a week or so they will fail. So it is just easier to say overall to keep up with it over several weeks.
3. Even the Deter and Forbid say it takes time for it to work.

This thread has kind of taken on a life of its own and really has turned very informative IMO. I too was always under the impression that about a week was enough but I have personally learned that every poop eater is not the same when it comes to poop eating. Some will stop after a day, some will need a pineapple adjustment, some will take weeks of eating pineapple for it to really work. I have not seem anyone that really worked at this problem not be able to get their dog to stop if they are religious about feeding the pineapple, picking up the poop and continuing over a period of time and changing to a high quality dog food. It is kind of a joke among my friends now that I am the poop eating "expert" and they will now send me the threads that pop up about poop eating luck me. So as time has gone by it really is my opinion that it needs to be over several weeks for it to really work. You are not going to find an article that says this by word but if you read all the different threads about poop eating and pineapple you will see that even hardcore poop eaters are curable but it will take time and adjustment. So several weeks in my book is what it takes.