Gun Dog Forum

Being new to GSP ownership, I may be just paranoid. My 9 month old male when in the field will repeatedly try and poop with little or no result.

Example of hunting day: Previous day feed as normal
Morning of hunt let out of kennel to run and evacuate at 5 am
Load into dog crate, drive two hrs. (depending on destination)
Arrive, put on collar and let him go to stretch and poop

Start hunting and for the next 45 min it seems like every 2 min. he stops to poop
often times he seems to be really straining w/ no result other than a little liquid or
maybe a little runny poo.

After a bit of time he seems to be okay, maybe stopping two or three more times in a 3 hour
period.

Is this something I should me overly concerned with?
I've never noticed this behavior in the yard when he is loose and running around.
I give him a dewormer one the first of every month.

I do not feed him the morning of the hunt. I do feed him when we are done, unless we are going to be out all day then I'll give a small amount at midday when we break for lunch.


Thanks for all your help I'm really kinda worried

I say anxiety, but I could be wrong. I have a dog that was abused before I got her. ( Not saying yours was.) She does that for the first 10 minutes on a hunt before she settles in.

I hunt with a setter that does that constantly when in the field. His owner buys chickens and roast them for him and that is all he eats. He needs some bulk in his diet and some dry meal with fiber. But I haven't been able to convince her.

Ezzy

I have seen this before and I believe it is just them trying to make territory or something. I tell my dogs let go when I want them to get hunting and when a dog starts doing this I just start telling them lets go and they will usually stop. Show them it is a unwanted behavior (without making a correction or anything like that) and I think they will stop doing it.

That's part of life with a male dog,when they run out of pee they will poop to mark territory as mentioned above.

I have 8 dogs 6 gsps and 2 border collies and all of mine do the same thing when in the feild or even when i am just exercising them wuth a four wheeler. The collie seemto do it even when are excited and working cattle. IMO i think it just an excitement thing because they only do it when they are execited. My husband says they are lighting there load so hey can run faster

You deworm every month?? that seems excessive. Never the less I would collect a sample and have a fecal test run just to rule out some parasite, tell the vet what the dogs doing. And if you use the same wormer you might want to find another one and rotate them.