why does my dog eat her poop

flattop · 01-11-2007, 06:56 PM

my minatuer dash has from time to time eatin her poop why?

britishbandit · 01-11-2007, 07:01 PM

What are you feeding? If it's low quality food missing a lot of nutrients, sometimes dogs will eat it trying to get those missing nutrients. Also if it contains non-digestable food like corn.

Lorina · 01-11-2007, 07:29 PM

Poop has a lot of food-matter in it that still smells like food to dogs. The best thing to do is clean up after her immediately after she goes. No poop = no poop eating.

There is also a powder called Forbid that you can put on her food to make her poop not seem so appealing.

animalcraker · 01-11-2007, 08:28 PM

Some dogs also eat their poop out boredom, or curiosity. My dachshund used to do that when he was a pup, my solution was to clean it up as soon as he was done. Like Lorina said "no poop = no poop eating"

Leila12345666 · 01-11-2007, 09:19 PM

I wonder why they do that too. I remember my Dalmatian actually eating my cat's poop after she was done. It was nasty when i saw her i cleaned it up immediatly.

MagicToller · 01-11-2007, 09:59 PM

Simply? Most dogs just like doing it. We may think it revolting, but it's just right up their with rolling in that dead mouse behind the yard and licking their genitals religiously. Don't panic, unless there is another medical reason that you know of otherwise. As stated before, the best way to deter this problem is to eliminate the poop from the equation. My puppy came from the breeders with a LOVE for eating it. I would set up situations on walks where I knew he'd go for it, then I'd tap a signal on the leash as well as give my correction noise and then once the attention is taken away from the poop I'd give him a toy and praise like mad. I can now walk him off-leash without the fear of him eating all that dung

Dogged · 01-11-2007, 11:14 PM

Because she is a dog, and dogs do that no matter how disgusting we think it is. There are many schools of thought on this, but nothing has ever been decided on this matter. There are products on the market to help stop the dog from doing this and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. One is called For-Bid, and another is Deter. They are powder or pills that you give the dog that are supposed to make their stool inappetizing to them (I know, you wouldn't think it would be to begin with, would you?). Most pet stores or vets will carry these products. Also try to keep the yard picked up so there are less of them for her to get.

I have been known to run across the yard with a pooper scooper screaming "MINE, MINE!!!" to my dog when he was about to eat one. Not something I'm proud of, but that is life with dogs.