My one year old cockerpoo is always releasing that gross fishy smell from her anal glands, she does not seem irritated and does not scoot on the floor I have read that a change in her diet might help but don’t know where to start, she is currently on Royal Canin small dog adult, any suggestions?
Hello and welcome to the forum. Royal Canin make many varieties of dog food; the nearest I can find in the Dog Food Directory is Mini Adult and Royal Canin X-Small Adult. Neither score very highly and both contain a lot of red ingredients.
Regarding the anal glands, it sounds as if you need to take your dog to the vet to have them emptied. Not all dogs scoot when the glands are full. Long term, you want a food that produces good, firm faeces but not too small so that the anal glands are compressed as it passes through. You don’t say what the consistency is of your dog’s poo but looking at the recipe of RC, I would imagine that there is plenty of it and that it is fairly soft.
It is up to you whether you decide to change food but in the circumstances, I would say that it would be worth considering, especially as you can buy a much better product for the same, or less money. If you are minded to change, there is lots of information on this website about what to look for. You could use the Dog Food Directory to source a better product.
The forum has a thread here about the principles of selecting a suitable dog food, which might be helpful. The two most important things are 1) the ingredient list should be crystal clear so you know exactly what is going into your dog. 2) Meat (or fish) should be the first ingredient and it should be named.
Please ask if you need help to find a better product and feedback is always welcome.
She has two/three poos a day usually reasonably hard but obviously not enough, it is the mini adult food that we are using, any recommendations on a better food to use?
Go to the Dog Food Directory and look at the filters on the left side.
I would suggest that you try these filters but you can change them if you want to:
- Type of food - dry complete (if that is your choice)
- Food properties - natural, clearly labelled
- Rating - move slider - suggest 4-5
- Avoid Ingredients - all red ingredients
- Click ‘Go’
It will return a number of pages of suitable products. Have a look through and you should be able to find something appropriate to your budget. Cold pressed foods are said to be useful in minimizing dog odour and producing a good stool. We have a thread on them here. However, do have a good look at the Directory once you have set the filters to your liking.
just a thought, My dog Copper did not do very well on dry food and the smells he produced on it were not pleasant. :o
Now he is smell free as he is on raw food. May be you do not want to go down that road but well worth thinking about. 
It is the fishy anal gland smell that she is releasing far too often rather than anything else
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As mentioned, emptying of the glands by the vet might help. He or she will also be able to tell if there is an infection present. Cocker Spaniel/Poodle crosses are quite hairy and I imagine are prone to matting so it might also be useful to visit your groomer regularly just to have the hair in the anal region trimmed short.
Rebecca has a point about general doggy odour - it tends to be less when fed raw food. However, although the stools are usually firm when on raw, they can also be small so the anal glands might not be compressed enough as the poo passes through. A lot depends on the dog’s anatomy.
Thank you for all the advice, think first step will be to change her food.
My dog used to smell fishy often when we first had her. This did seem to stop after we switched her to a cold pressed food and she hasn’t had a recurrence even though we have given her some different foods since. She is now mostly on raw with some home cooked and some cold pressed. It could have been the change of food that settled it but it is also plausible that she did it due to stress. She took a while for her to settle in.
Have you noticed any patterns to when it happens? EG after walks.
Cannot link it to anything in particular, will definitely be trying different food
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