Dog Eating Poop - Why and How to Stop It
81There are many types of poop eaters.
Some dogs only eat their own poop, other dogs love eating cat poop, and some special connoisseurs only enjoy grass-flavored poop, especially from horses and goats. Bird poop is also a delicacy that is in frequent demand by very many dogs.
If your dog is eating poop, you are definitely not alone.
It is actually a very common thing among dogs. Dogs are not humans, and they have very different sensibilities than we do. What smells good and what tastes good to them, can be very different from what smells good and tastes good to us.
However, for reasons of cleanliness and health (intestinal parasites), it is generally a good idea to train your dog to stop eating poop.
Why Do Dogs Eat Poop
The most common reason for dogs to eat poop from other animals is simply because they enjoy the taste.
Other reasons for eating poop include stress, boredom, or a nutritional imbalance. When dogs eat their own poop it is usually because of one of these reasons.
1. Nutritional imbalance.
Poop eating can occur because the dog is lacking certain digestive enzymes. When this occurs, the dog will eat his own stool, to conserve those much needed enzymes. Studies have shown that insufficient vitamin B1 can cause stool eating.
2. Stress.
Dogs will sometimes eat their own poop to relieve stress. This usually only occurs under extremely stressful conditions.
This has happened to my Shiba Inu twice; both times at the vet, when he was getting his shots. My Shiba Inu is extremely sensitive to handling, and to pain, so vet visits are always a high stress affair.
Different dogs will have different fears and different stress triggers that may result in stool eating. For example, dogs with extreme separation anxiety may poop and then eat their own poop when left alone.
3. Boredom.
If dogs are left alone all day, with little very human contact, and very little to do; their only choice for self-entertainment may be to play with and eat their own poop.
Imagine if you were cooped up in the house all day with nothing to do; you would go a bit crazy as well. Think cabin fever and The Shining.
Here are some techniques to stop your dog from eating poop.
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Stop Dog Eating Poop 1
Feed your dog a healthy and balanced diet.
The easiest balanced food to give your dog is dry kibble. Dry kibble is nutritionally balanced and results in less teeth tartar.
Make sure to get a high quality kibble, with good protein sources and no unhealthy fillers.
Some good kibble brands that I have tried include Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Nature's Variety Instinct and Orijen.
Stop Dog Eating Poop 2
Help your dog reduce stress.
Identify situations that cause extreme stress in your dog, and try to reduce the number of stressful encounters.
In the meantime, practice managed desensitization exercises on your dog to help alleviate his stress response. To desensitize your dog, make sure that you are in control of the training environment. Start by exposing your dog to low levels of the stressful stimulus.
Treat and praise him for staying calm. Do some simple obedience commands (e.g. Sit) so that your dog is engaged with you in the presence of the stressful stimulus. When your dog is comfortable with the low-level stimulus; you can slowly increase its intensity.
If your dog starts to react badly; then you have moved forward too quickly. Stop and restart the exercise with a reduced stimulus level.
While conducting desensitization exercises, it is important to keep sessions short, fun, and rewarding for your dog so that he will begin to reassociate the stressful stimulus with positive experiences.
Stop Dog Eating Poop 3
Keep your dogs busy and occupied.
Bored dogs will often develop behavioral issues and cause significant property damage.
It is important to walk your dog regularly (preferably every day) and to provide interesting toys and activities to keep his mind sharp and engaged.
My dogs work for all of their food, either by performing dog obedience commands, or through interactive toys. If you provide a lot of alternative activities for your dog, he will be less likely to find unacceptable entertainment on his own, including eating his poop.
If you are busy, in the short-term, and do not have the time to give your dog the attention that he needs; consider sending him to dog daycare or hiring a pet sitter.
Stop Dog Eating Poop 4
Keep your dog's environment clean.
Scoop up after your dog as soon as he is done with his business. If you keep things clean, there will be less opportunity for him to practice his poop eating habit.
It is also important to supervise your dog at all times so that he does not get the chance to practice his poop eating behavior.
You may have to go back to dog potty training basics to fully stop your dog from eating his own poop.
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Stop Dog Eating Poop 5
Teach your dog the 'Leave-it' command.
Get some yummy treats that your dog likes and put one in your hand. Make sure your dog knows it is there. Close your hand into a fist and hold your hand still.
Your dog will naturally nose all over your hand while trying to get to the yummy treat. Say Leave-it and wait for your dog to briefly stop nosing your hand. As soon as he stops nosing, mark the behavior (Yes), and treat him from your other hand.
As your dog learns the command, you can slowly lengthen the time he has to leave your hand alone before you mark and treat him.
Once you are comfortable with this exercise, you can practice the Leave-it command with a treat on the floor. Make sure that you are fast or have your dog on a lead, so that you may stop your dog if he decides to lunge for the treat. Cover the treat with your hand if you need to.
As soon as your dog leaves the treat alone, mark and treat him from your hand. It is important NOT to give him the treat that is on the floor because he may learn that he gets rewarded with whatever is on the floor; which is often not the case in real-world situations.
Keep practicing this until you have a really solid Leave-it command. Now you can use it when your dog gets tempted by poop during walks.
Note that independent minded dogs may choose to eat the poop anyway if they decide that the poop is much better than your reward. If that is frequently the case, try upgrading your rewards, and make sure that your dog does not get within striking distance of the poop.
You can also quickly march your dog home and end the walk if your dog manages to sneak in some poop eating. This teaches your dog that if he eats poop, the nice and interesting walk ends.
Stop Dog Eating Poop 6
Make the dog poop taste bad.
Adding meat tenderizer containing papain, in small quantities, to your dog's food will sometimes prevent poop eating.
Your vet can also give you dog medicine that will make your dog's stool taste extremely bitter.
However, results are usually much better when you correct the source of the poop eating behavior, through the other methods listed above.
Does your dog eat poop?
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Comments
That is really interesting. Was the margarine used to enhance the taste of her food? or did it contain something to help with stress and digestion? I briefly looked up margarine and it seems that the fatty acids may help to carry certain vitamins. Interesting stuff, thanks for sharing.
We live in a rural area. Lots of people walk their dogs along the country roads. My pup is interested in sampling cat-- or other critter poop. She pees on other dog's poop, and ignores her own.
lol - my pups love cat and grass flavored poop. I am trying to break them of that habit. I usually let them smell, but when it looks like the are a bit too interested, I tell them to "leave it". Most of the time they are pretty good; but sometimes they will try to sneak one in. I end the walk and march them home when they do that.
Thanks for dropping by Rochelle.
my coco oh how I love her' but''' I don't know how to make her stop eating poo''' I have two other yorkie's females, and one boxer, female,,, then came my coco', from the breeders home is were I feel she picked up this yuk habbit''' my other sweetie pies do not do this' I have tryed all the obove way's, but nothing has helped. does any one have any tip's?,,,
Hi Diann, Poop eating can easily become a habit if a dog gets to do it without any human supervision. That may have been the case at her breeder's place. It is however, always possible to break a dog of a habit, but that will take more time and repetition. Because it is now an ingrained habit, it is very important to supervise her at all times, similar to potty training time. Consider leaving a drag-lead on her (using only a flat collar) so that you can more easily control her and stop her from eating her own poop. Alternatively, you can just attach a lead when you take her out for potty runs.
Just like potty training, I would take her out when she needs to do her business, wait until she does it, praise her for doing it, and then praise and treat her for doing successful leave-it commands. Make sure you are holding the lead so that you can stop her from eating the poop if need be. When you cannot supervise, then crate her.
You can also do leave-it command training sessions by carefully setting up the environment. Put a lead on her and walk her to some poop which you have placed as bait. When you get close, give her the leave-it command. Treat and praise as soon as she leaves it on her own (i.e. she turns away from the poop on her own). This is important because if you pull her away, she will not understand what she is getting treated for and what behavior you want from her. As she gets better at this you can let her get closer and closer to the poop. Use very high priority treats, especially initially. Only give her those special treats doing leave-it training sessions.
During the training period, it is important to prevent her from eating any poop so that she does not continue practicing the habit. If you are consistent, she will learn that poop eating is an undesirable behavior, and not doing it gets her better stuff.
Wally is wierd. He won't eat his own poop. He hardly gives it another sniff (he kinda "points" at it like he's saying - Here it is!)
But another dog's poop? Just tonight I had to get him off another dogs poop. The "fresher" it is, the more attracting it is to him, and it smelled..."fresh".
I almost wish I could walk through a poop-laden field and then I'd have opportunities to really train him off it. But when we stumble across it once in a while - it's hard to get consistency. It would be MUCH easier if it were his own poop that interested him.
lol kb - that is a good point.
You could take him to some hiking dog parks. There is usually a lot of poop around, in the ones that I go to :) I just go early in the morning so that there aren't too many other dogs around.
My dogs don't really like dog poop - cat poop on the other hand they love. Also goat, horse, and of course bird.
lol - so many bad habits, and yet we love them :D
Ellie ( 2yr old rat terrier (terror) loves other dogs poop!! It is her most disgusting habit. I have tried the rx meds, given to both my dogs, but it didn't turn her off at all. Have tried pineapple, pumpkin, meat tenderizer, hot sauce....nothing helps. Just have to be meticulous about the yard. I love to take them to dog parks, but hate that other people do not pick up after their dogs. I spend most of my time there chasing Ellie. I have been dubbed "the poop police". Too bad people don't just follow the rules and clean up after their dog!!
Hello QSuz,
"Too bad people don't just follow the rules and clean up after their dog!!"
I really agree with you there. I used to take my dogs to enclosed parks as well, and many people there were the same way. They would also get angry at me when I tried to tell them that their dog just pooped :-/
Nowadays I just go to the larger hiking parks. There is still poop there but it is easier to avoid because there is a lower density of dogs.
When I walk Shania in the neighborhood - she will sometimes try to sneak a few poops in when she thinks I am not looking - so I started watching her like a hawk and every time she did, I just walked her quickly home, while ignoring her. She has been poop free for a couple of months now :) Fingers crossed.
Hugs and kisses to Ellie.
Thanks, Shibashake. I have 2 dogs...Ellie and Sadie...They are great! Ellie is the only one with this issue. And they LOVE the off leash parks because they get to "play" with other friends. It's a win-win...except for the poop thing. It is sad, too, because the county parks here supply all the clean up bags. People just don't get it. Maybe Ellie is just trying to assist with the clean up. BLEH!
"Maybe Ellie is just trying to assist with the clean up."
Actually there may be a lot of truth in that :) When mother wolves are nursing their young in the den they will often eat up feces and such from their young to keep their den clean. Mother dogs will do that too if they need to.
You should recruit other dog owners to help do poop patrol. If you can get official like looking t-shirts, you can probably scare people into picking up after their dogs.
There was this one park that I went to that had a team of volunteers doing this and it was an extremely clean park. Whenever people saw their bright-yellow shirts around, they would get a lot more diligent about picking up dog poop - lol.
I found an advantage to Wally's poop fetish.
He finds it so I can avoid stepping on it. So at least I don't have a "surprise" stuck to my shoe. Last time that happened, he kept sniffing my shoes the whole time.
Maybe I can make this his "job" - some dogs hunt game or flush out birds. Mine gets to be a poop stalker. Er...yeah.
Suppose it would be possible, but again, it's the every-once-in-a-while that really hurts.
You ever find a poop-laden field? Maybe I should ask for people to leave their poop in a box so I can collect it. I imagine THAT would get some strange looks LOL
Shiba..Ignorning the last comment. That is really disgusting. Sure this person is just not a serious dog lover! I know I have talked to other dog owners about holding people accountable for their clean up and it seems to be catching on. I do intend to put an editorial in the paper...we are a very small town and have 3 off-leash dog parks that are county owned in close proximity. People do not realize what a gift it is to have access to these. All they ask is that 1.) Your dogs shots are current 2.) You pay the $20 annual membership fee (for bags and such) and 3.) You clean up after your dog. I worry that the owners that do not follow #3 are surely not following 1&2. It is on the honor system, so it becomes the members responsibility to be the police. It is hard, because the park is all about the dogs...but have to reinforce their dogs are NOT safe with ill-maintained pets. I guess most do not appreciate what a gift a nice off leash park is.
Heh - well if you mean my comment - I hardly think I'm NOT a serious dog lover.
In fact - if I had the poop in a box, I'd lay it around, then train Wally to "leave it!" about 100 times - like I did with food off the kitchen floor.
It was a joke on how I could get consistency with training the leave it behavior with poop.
And he actually does find it. He'll be sniffing around and come up on it. Of course, I don't let him eat it, but I'd like him to not even TRY to eat it. Just bark at it or something.
Hello QSuz -
"I guess most do not appreciate what a gift a nice off leash park is."
Yeah I agree. Most won't realize it until it is gone. Sadly it is human nature to be need driven and to ignore all the rest. That is why most of the time the only training that most dog owners are willing to do is potty training :)
Btw. KB was just kidding. He is a silly fellow but he knows a lot about dogs :) If you have some time, check out some of his dog articles - they contain a lot of good information, are funny, and really shows a lot of heart :)
lol KB - you are such a trouble maker :)
Actually I like that poop training. I have been thinking of teaching that to my Shiba. He is a very clean dog and never shows any interest in eating dog poop, but sometimes he will sniff out my other dog's poop in the backyard which helps me significantly in the collection department. He is very lazy though, so he will only do it very occasionally.
This also reminds me of the training they do with drug sniffing dogs. Would be a fun training exercise!
Glad to see you are back KB. I am actually going to reduce my HP time in the coming weeks. Going to spruce up my home website and start moving my articles over. I am more than a bit peeved over the whole second Hub Challenge thing :-/ But it has taught me some really important lessons.
LOL well I'm like a dog who's bored. I've gotta get into something! :D Since I can't dig holes - I make crazy comments.
I was laughing (thank goodness no one was around) earlier because Wally stopped in his tracks, sniffed around, and found some poop that was buried under some wood chips (they are brand new so it's probably a beacon for every dog to claim the "new territory" that just appeared.) Thing is, it's under playground equipment. I praised him for finding it, then told him leave it - praised him for running like 8 feet from it (dramatic dog, I tell you he's a diva LOL) and picked it up.
I gave it one more try with the latest EADT - but I think I just got my confirmation. Pretty much a token pat on the head and be on your way now doggie!
Fewest visits yet - just now in double digits so...yeah. I read that hub you wrote on the hub challenge.
Anyway, I'd like to see your site when it's spruced :) Can I search "shibashake" on the automagical googling device, or will that just show me 1000 pictures of Shiba Inus? :)
Speaking of which, there was a stray one a few days ago. Took everything in my power not to pick her up and take her. So adorable :)
Sorry I took offense. Your comment was something my sister would post late at night when she cannot sleep, and wants to mess with someone!! I spent a lot of money on training for my cocker..obedience and agility. She minds pretty well...when she wants to. Ellie is just playful. If she grabs a "jewel", it becomes a game of keep away. I am determined...I will perservere!! Ellie will not win this poop war!! I did put my comments about people cleaning up after their dogs at the park in the paper. We will see what happens. I am sure that most will take the "take what you want and leave the rest" approach, and turn on their selective listening skills. What can I say....we are flawed, at best. Have a blessed day!!
@kb -
"Since I can't dig holes - I make crazy comments. " LOL! Yeah I am not much into digging holes either.
"Anyway, I'd like to see your site when it's spruced :) Can I search "shibashake" on the automagical googling device"
LOL you are too funny! Actually I am doing mostly backend functionality stuff so there won't be much visible interface changes.
Things I am working on - (1) Comment areas for my articles (just finished YAY!) (2) Transfer my HubPages comments over when I move my articles - (starting work), and (3) Some polling capabilities. It is a fun programming project and will give me lots of new things to write about as well as keep me away from digging holes ;)
@QSuz -
"I did put my comments about people cleaning up after their dogs at the park in the paper."
I think that is a great positive step!
People are just bad about pickup - even in my neighborhood, people leave it all over the place. Sometimes there is a whole trail on the sidewalk - UGH!
I was toying with the idea of placing some wireless cameras outside my house to detect who these people are. Then I will just post their pictures up in the neighborhood - lol. A few posters and I think people will shape up really quickly :D
"Ellie will not win this poop war!!"
LOL - I'm putting my money on you :)
"I was toying with the idea of placing some wireless cameras outside my house to detect who these people are. Then I will just post their pictures up in the neighborhood - lol. A few posters and I think people will shape up really quickly :D"
Especially if you put POOP FIEND as the title on the top, their picture and the "evidence" in the middle and on the bottom say:
Beware, if you see this POOP FIEND approach with his (or her as the case may be) dog or dogs, watch where you step or better yet, shoo them along to the next neighborhood.
Heck, create a website. There's a "registry" for everything else - you could create a poop fiend registry. Could turn into a nationwide database of poop leaving fiends.
Could call it "shibahatespoop.com" or "shibapoopfiends.com"
And since you'll have a camera - you could even post vids of the fiends caught in the act.
I love the camera idea. Most of the people in my neighborhood are avid bag carriers. Makes me proud. We don't have a lot of rule breakers here. It is just in the places where my girls can stretch their legs and run free. I guess every good things comes with a price. Maybe I should just start snapping people's pics at the park and posting, there. Caption: "Step in something?? Let this person know how you feel about that!" or maybe "Things piling up around here? Thank this person!" Perhaps I have become just a little too obsessed with this issue. What can I say...I guess I am just always amazed at how people who claim to be avid dog lovers do not have any respect for other people, their property and their dogs...I mean...really...isn't this really what the bottom line is.
Yeah, I mean when I saw (well when Wally found) that poop near the playground equipment, that was like "WTF?" Why would anyone even let their dog GO there? I call Wally off places I don't want him to poop even off-leash. Goodness.
And the trash can was, literally, a foot away from where it was left.
I found some trash (also by the playground *sigh*) to pick up the poop with. Wally was sniffing it like he knew it was about to be thrown out. It was like "let me at least sniff what it could have tasted like". So I let him get a good sniff and then threw it out.
Of course, as much I can understand the angst over left-behind poop, it's causing Wally and I problems because they assume it was Wally. I walk him 3-5 times a day so they see us a LOT and some think "Well it has to be him, I see him all the time." I almost made a sign to put around him saying "I don't know what poop you're talking about, but it wasn't me! My master picks up my poop!)
Wally even got injured once because I was training him to jump over a log and some guy basically assaulted me with "evidence" of my dog pooping and leaving it behind. It was some big nasty pile that a 10 lb dog can't possibly make. I was so mad I picked Wally up, show the guy his butt and said "You tell me. Could something that big and huge come out of a butt this little?" The guy slinked off in shame.
So yeah, the cameras would be great.
"I am just always amazed at how people who claim to be avid dog lovers do not have any respect for other people, their property and their dogs...I mean...really...isn't this really what the bottom line is"
Agree with you 100%. People are just lazy and will try to get away with whatever they can get away with. I know there are some people who will only pick-up if they see other people around. One time someone told me that they usually take their dogs behind cars and such to poop so that they don't have to pick up afterwards.
"I walk him 3-5 times a day so they see us a LOT and some think "Well it has to be him, I see him all the time.""
You know, I bet many of my neighbors think the same thing about me - lol. One time I just moved off the sidewalk to make way for this lady who was coming at me with 2 small kids, and a baby in a stroller. She started shouting at me for moving into her lawn. Jeez. I calmly explained to her that I was making way for her and she apologized to me afterwards.
It is really too bad with these poop fiends. They give everyone with dogs a bad name.
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Iphigenia says:
7 months ago
My dog did this as a puppy (her own poop) - the vet said that it was stress-related as she adapted to her new home. He prescribed a small dollop of margerine with her meals for a coule of weeks. Somehow that worked. She's never eaten it since and she's now 12.
Good advice here.