Need Solution: Dog Eats Poop! Sorry for Gross Question...

Ok... here's the situation....

As far as the dog eating the poop, many of the inexpensive foods aren't digested well, and the dog frequently will eat the poop to regain those lost nutrients.

One suggestion I've seen is to feed the dog pineapple... I don't know if it needs to be fresh, or if canned will do..... there is an enzyme in the pineapple that apparently makes it not so tasty then.

http://animal.discovery.com/tv-shows/its-me-or-the-dog/tr...

People have tried things like Adolph's Meat Tenderizer in their food, or a product/supplement called Forbid, which is supposed to impart a really nasty taste to the poop (like you need to make it any more nasty!), but for many dogs, it just doesn't work - really the best thing to do is keep him on leash when he's taken outside for potty, then pull him away and tell him NO as soon as he whips around to try to grab it. Then when he's back in the house, go back out and clean it up and dispose of it. It's always a good idea to keep the poop in the yard cleaned up because it will lessen the chances of any intestinal parasites contaminating the area.

p.s. I have known many dogs who are poop-eaters and they were all on very good, high-quality diets - no nutritional deficiencies. They just find it appealing for whatever reason and it's not a reflection of how good their diet is. Owners ask me all the time why they do it, and all I can say is, "They are dogs and many dogs are just disgusting - they will also eat and roll in the droppings of other animals as well as try to eat up whatever dead animal carcass they can find. They survived in the wild often by scavenging and sometimes that instinct is still there."

They make medication for it but most pups grow out of it. You can also try meat tenderizer, it will make them not want to eat it.

Not sure where your dog goes but I would also clean up after your dog. I never leave dog poop anywhere that my dog goes. It is disgusting and spreads disease.

My dog did this and we tried everything too. The only thing that worked was us cleaning it up right away so that there is no poop to eat. That wasn't possible at the time b/c she was a puppy and had to go more frequently so when we were out, she'd poop and then eat it in the house but as she got older and leanred to hold it until we took her outside the potty, it became a non-issue. Good luck!

Our vet told us the only thing you can do is monitor them really well so they don't eat the poop. He said it still smells like food for the dog.

I never had this problem with my puppy, though we generally pick up the poop immediately (and ALWAYS if it's in someone else's yard).

Not that she's an expert, but my chiropractor mentioned that dogs are natural herbalists (we were talking about how they know to eat grass when they're a bit sick to their stomachs).

I wonder if poop eating relates to a nutrient or mineral deficiency. The dog just instinctively knows it needs something more.

On the other hand it very well could be that the dog smells food in the poop.

I might try a different diet to see if that makes any difference (of course checking with your vet if you have any concerns whatsoever).

Well I clean up poop immediately after it happens, so there's no poop hanging around for the dogs to eat (or for the kids to step in, or for the flies to live on, or for the parasites to form on, etc).

:)

When our dog got older, he did that. Our vet recommended adding pumpkin to his food. We would keep a can of pumpkin in the frig and add a big spoonful to his food. It did stop him from eating his poop and loved the pumpkin.

My stomach did a flip-flop on this one. Please call your vet. (Have you done that? If you haven't, why not?)

I need to go brush my teeth now...

Dawn

We live in an area with LOTS of dogs & raccoons. No way to keep him away from poop.

So I stopped picking things up for about a week, and then put ghost pepper sauce on every poop I could find. It was never his own poop... Just other dogs & raccoons.

That was one UNHAPPY dog for a bit.

Solved the problem.

4 years later, he tried it again, so I used more hot sauce. Nipped in the bud.

((My dog likes spicy food. His fav foods are pizza crust & a 4 star Indian curry... But his 'gobble!!' foods include habenero buffalo chili, red Thai curry, stuffed jalapeños, etc. So I had to use a REALLY hot pepper -ghost peppers- to make it painful for him. I wouldn't recommend ghost peppers to start. Something simple like cayenne or sriachi would be my go-to. ))

My BIL puppy started doing that. Turns out, he had a parasite. Once the parasite was gone, he stopped eating his poop. Take your dog to the vet just in case.

I heard on one of those pet shows to put some pineapple in their food, and they don't like the quality of the poo after this is digested.

GL!

The Beagle we had growing up did this. The vet said she wasn't getting the correct nutrition so she was eating her poop to supplement it (whaaat?) Anyway, my parents tried all types of things - changing her diet, giving her things that would make the poop undesirable to eat (ummmm), but nothing ever worked. I think it's best to pick it up at the time too, if you can't find the root to the problem.

Now, my mom takes her dog out on a leash that has those small bags attached and pick it up right away, essentially gift wrapping each "gift" from puppy. I think it may get expensive and wasteful to put each poop in a baggie though, but that's just me. Maybe you can have a covered trash can with a larger garbage bag inside and change one a week or something. I dunno.