Best Dog Scooting Treatments : Boot the Scoot
Updated: 6 days ago
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It’s a behaviour that all dog lovers dread—their adorable pup dragging their butt across the carpet.
Dog scooting is a sign that your four-legged friend is experiencing discomfort and it’s often related to anal gland problems, allergies, or irritation. It's their way of saying something isn’t right with my butt.
We explore some of the best anal gland products on the UK market aimed at providing relief from scooting by adding more fibre to your dog's diet.
Read on to find out which products are the best to Boot the Scoot !
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Our Picks of Dog Scooting Treatments
1. Best Supplement Range : Buddy & Lola
2. Best Powder Supplement : Wagateur
3. Best Chew Supplement : Dog's Lounge
4. Best Value Supplement : Glandex
What is Dog Scooting ?
Dog scooting is a behaviour where your dog drags its bottom across the floor while sitting or even lying down.
Whilst it's a fairly common behaviour, scooting is as unhealthy for your floor as it is for your dog because it deposits bacteria and sometimes a foul smell.
This behaviour is often a sign of irritation or discomfort around your dog's anus, but it can also indicate a more serious health issue.
One of the most common causes of scooting is anal gland problems, which can occur when a dog's anal glands become blocked or infected.
Other possible causes of scooting in dogs include skin allergies, intestinal worms, and other digestive issues.
Ultimately, we recommend a visit to your vet to ensure scooting isn't due to a serious issue like allergies or parasites. If however, the reason behind your dog scooting is nutrition related, there are some alternatives you could consider.
One way you can help long term is to add more fibre to their diet. High fibre foods can help prevent some digestive issues, firm up their stools and help to prevent their anal glands from becoming inflamed.
We'll fill you in as best we can about the ingredients, product type, reasons to buy/avoid and of course value for money. You can then judge for yourself which brand best suits your four-legged friend.
Our Picks of the Best Dog Scooting Treatments
1. Best Supplement Range
Buddy & Lola
Buddy & Lola are a family business dedicated to providing high quality human-grade supplements for dogs, they are a welcome change for modern dog lovers searching for natural alternatives.
From calming chews, to probiotics, natural allergy solutions to anal health support, Buddy & Lola offer a range of natural, hypoallergenic supplements.
Their anal gland supplement - Scoot Stopper is in the form of small soft chews. These chews are packed full of fibre which is known to help improve your dog’s bowel movements by keeping them regular and naturally emptying their anal glands.
What's more they're formulated with prebiotics to improve your dog's gut flora. In simple terms, the extra prebiotics (food for good bacteria) increases the good bacteria which in turn produces well formed, easier to pass poop.
Key ingredients include flaxseed, psyllium husk, dandelion root, pumpkin powder and beet pulp. It's worth mentioning that whilst the chews are grain free, they do contain brewers yeast so are not gluten free.
The chews are chicken and bacon flavoured and we can attest to the fact that they smell, well, very... bacony. If you have a picky pup these could be a game changer as in testing our dogs found the scent very enticing and the chews themselves particularly palatable.
Each tub contains 60 chews and Buddy and Lola offer feeding recommendations on both their website and on the packaging. You should see results in 1-2 weeks.
As a guideline - small dogs (under 18kg) require 2 chews a day, so the tub will last you a month and cost between £0.94 (on subscription) and £1.05 a day. For the largest dogs (over 36kg) requiring 8 chews a day, the tub will only last a week and cost between £3.77 (on subscription) and £4.19 a day.
Signing up for a subscription will save you 10%, Buddy & Lola also offer free delivery on subscriptions and orders over £30, a 30 day money-back guarantee and a next day delivery option (£2.99) if you're in a real rush.
Ingredients: Flaxseed, psyllium husk, dandelion root, pumpkin powder and beet pulp
Reasons to Buy
+ All natural product
+ In soft chew form
+ Works in under 2 weeks
+ Money back guarantee
Reasons to Avoid
- Pricey for large breeds
Buying Options
For 15% OFF the entire Buddy & Lola range (first time purchases only)
enter SMARTBARK15 at checkout
2. Best Powder Supplement
Wagateur - Blissful Booty
Wagateur offer a range of canine health and wellbeing products with 100% natural ingredients, developed by animal nutritionists and dog lovers.
If their anal gland supplement doesn't win you over, then the name certainly will !
Blissful Booty is suitable for dogs on the full range of dog diets including raw and vegan.
A key ingredient in their formula is pumpkin, which is renowned for safely and naturally increasing the digestible fibre in your dog’s diet.
The supplement comes in powder form and we love that the powder comes with its own mini measuring scoop as you need to add tiny amounts to your dog's meals.
Whilst we found it easy to mix in with wet dog food, it's worth bearing in mind that it may not be quite so easy to add to a dry kibble diet. Ideally you would mix it with a wet topper.
Wagateur claim that Blissful Booty should stop scooting and smelly anal gland discharges in under 2 weeks.
We added Blissful Booty to our Cockapoo's raw dog food for four weeks and saw a noticeable absence of scooting after a couple of weeks.
Oh, and Wagateur are so confident in all their products that if you aren't happy they'll offer a full refund.
They also offer a Subscribe and Save 10% option which is great if you intend to add Blissful Booty to your dog's food long term.
In terms of side effects, you might hear your dog’s tummy gurgling for the first few days as they adjust to the higher level of fibre in their diet.
Once they’ve adjusted, there are no unpleasant side effects to adding BlissfulBooty at all.
Let's talk price, depending on your dog's weight, Blissful Booty will cost between 64p (dogs under 20kg) and £1.93 ( dogs over 40kg) a day, so it could be worth exploring the Subscribe & Save option Wagateur offer when buying direct.
Ingredients: Flaxseed meal, psyllium husks, carrot powder, pumpkin powder
Reasons to Buy
+ All natural product
+ In powder form so great for fussy dogs
+ Suitable for all dog diets
+ Works in under 2 weeks
+ Money back guarantee
Reasons to Avoid
- Money-saving option for large breeds
- Needs to be combined with wet/raw food
Buying Options
Wagateur's health and wellbeing range : at a glance |
Scaredy Paws: Tested in our popular article | Best Calming Products for Dogs |
Canine Gold: Features in our review | Best Joint Supplements for Dogs 2023 |
Skrap the Skratch: Features in our review | Itch Relief for Dogs : Best Products Review |
3. Best Chew Supplement
Dog's Lounge - Scooter
Dog's Lounge are a small UK family company that have an ever-expanding range of premium, natural dog supplements. One of their best selling products is the aptly named Scooter.
Formulated by vets, Scooter soft chews contain a natural blend of active ingredients which add extra fibre to your dog's diet that helps to bulk up the stool and help to reduce scooting.
The chicken liver flavoured soft chews can be offered whole or alternatively crumble over your dog's food.
Freddie, like most Cockapoos is very fussy and we normally have to go to elaborate lengths to hide any tablets in high value treats.
No problem with Scooter though ! We didn't need to crumble or hide them.
Freddie ate the soft chews as if they were dog treats straight from our hands. Big plus for Scooter 👍
Dog's Lounge suggest that you should see a reduction in scooting behaviour between 1–2 weeks. We tested Scooter for three weeks and saw a significant improvement.
Let's talk cost. Smaller dogs ( <17kg) need 2 chews daily and larger dogs ( > 45kg) need 4+ chews daily. So costs vary from 61p a day to over £1.23 depending on the weight of your dog. So similar costs to Wagateur's Blissful Booty.
Dog's Lounge also offer a 10% Subscribe and Save option in addition to a loyalty program. The aptly named Woofs Club, a points based scheme that awards points (woofs) every time you make a purchase, engage with Dog's Lounge on social media, refer a friend and more. Your woofs can then be used towards future purchases and free shipping.
Ingredients: Beet pulp, psyllium seed husk, flaxseed, dandelion root and pumpkin.
Reasons to Buy
+ All natural product
+ Highly palatable
+ Easy to administer soft chews
+ Works in under 2 weeks
+ Money back guarantee
Reasons to Avoid
- Could be pricey for heavier dogs
Buying Options
For 10% off your first order - use discount code SMARTBARK10 at checkout.
You might be interested .... |
The Dog's Lounge range also includes Chomper, a natural dog plaque remover which we feature in our product round-up article Best Dog Plaque Removers |
4. Best Value Supplement
Glandex
Our last option is Glandex from US company Vetnique. They offer an assortment of all-natural supplements, and Glandex is one of their best selling products specifically designed for dog anal gland health.
The patented Glandex scientific formula works in multiple ways to keep the anal glands healthy They use a unique fibre blend to help promote bulky and firm stools.
Glandex is available in two forms - powder and soft chews (peanut butter flavour) depending on which your dog prefers.
They state that on average, dogs see results within 3–5 weeks but it can take up to a 8 weeks to fully benefit.
It's worth noting that there can be mild side effects, related to the increased fibre content in Glandex. These can include loose stools and gas/flatulence. You can avoid these side effects by giving half the recommended amount for the first 5–7 days to allow your dog to adjust to the increased fibre content in Glandex.
When calculating prices per day, the powder works out better value than the soft chews. A small 70g tub of powder costs between 23p a day (dogs under 11kg) to £1.00 a day (dogs over 34kg) so significantly cheaper than the first two options.
The one flaw with the powder is the lack of measuring scoop. This sounds like a minor issue but with a small dog you need to be able to accurately measure out 1/8th tsp !
A hugely popular US supplement with countless 5 star reviews but with possible short term side effects.
Ingredients : Pumpkin Seed, Apple Pectin, Quercetin Dihydrate, Bromelain & Probiotics
Reasons to Buy
+ Available in both soft chews & powder form
+ All natural ingredients
+ Best value
Reasons to Avoid
- No measuring scoop
- Possibly more short-term side effects
Buying Options
Our Verdict
All four products we feature can provide a healthy fibre boost to your dog's diet, firming up stools and helping to maintain healthy anal glands.
If you're looking to 'Boot the Scoot', we'd recommend visiting your vet first to get your dog's anal glands expressed and once they're emptied, start using one of these recommended supplements to keep them healthy and prevent them from blocking again.
Which option you choose, is really down to whether you think your dog will prefer a soft chew or a powder sprinkled onto your dog's food.
An initial visit to the vet can also make sure that the glands are not infected and double check that's the source of your dogs issue.
FAQs
Can my dog have Weetabix to help with scooting?
Generally more fibre in your dogs diet will help with anal gland health and reduce scooting. However Weetabix also has sugar and salt to make it more palatable for humans. Pumpkin is a far healthier alternative and is the key ingredient in Blissful Booty and Scooter.
How can I tell that my dog's anal glands are full ?
To start with your dog will be scooting and licking excessively. You may also notice a little leaking out in brown patches on the carpet or floors with a pungent smell.
Thank you for stopping by and reading our article on Best Dog Scooting Treatments