My 1-year old Chocolate lab keeps eating poop whenever he's at the dog park. He's gotten really, really sick from this, and I'm reluctant to take him back even though he loves it. Does anyone know how we can get him to stop? PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!

put a basket muzzle on him when hes loose!!! yak!!!

I posted a reply to that effect earlier, it sems to have disappeared. I would add, try to find a muzzle with a metal buckle fastening, as those click fasteners can be esily broken or undone by a dog pawing at the muzzle to getit off, comes expensive when you muzzle a scavenger only to have it return from the bushes without it!

A muzzle just isn't practical for the dog park - he gets most of his exercise by playing fetch and when he's muzzled, he just lays down and goes to sleep. Any other suggestions? Please!!!

Hi,

have you had the dog checked out by a vet for any nutrition problems? Some dogs eat faeces because they are lacking something. Also, try to control it with treats, tell him off, if he obeys give him a treat. There is not fast solution to this problem, I'm afraid. Does he only eat his own faeces or also other dogs?

Taylor

He only eats other dog's feces, which I'm told makes a difference. The vet has said it's not his food, it's a territorial thing, but I found this hard to believe. He is a lab and not territorial about anything. I'm trying the treats and the "leave-it" command, but it's like he's becoming obsessed with eating them. Whenver we go to the park, he sniffs around and around until he finds some. He even sticks his head under other dog's butts while they're pooping! Yuck!!!

Has the vet checked the bacteria in his gut? A lot of dogs who exhbit this problem have a bacterial overgrowth in their own gut - they eat the faeces of other dogs to correct the inbalance..

A muzzle is a good suggestion but to stop him sleeping in the dog park then you could try taking him for a walk instead. What is important is trying to break the habit :)

A muzzle is the only thing that worked on Decoy, he habitually ate his own, the other dogs , foxes, horses in fact 'anythings' poo! He had become really quick, pooing and eating straight away before I could stop him. Muzzling him broke the habit, he had done it since puppyhood and the only way to crack the problem was to break the cycle - as making it taste nasty didn't have any effect, if I stood out with him to catch him straight away, he just wouldn't go to the toilet.
I had to stick with it for a good two weeks of hosing the muzzle out (he was that bad:()
Then a week of wearing the muzzle out and not touching the poo, and finally he had stopped!!! so doesn't have to wear it out anymore, I still watch him through the window in case he trys to taste it again.
Julie:)

I'm going to try this -- I hope it works. He's becoming obsessed with finding poop to eat. Hard to get him to even play fetch -- and he usually goes crazy for a tennis ball!

there are many reasons why people think dogs eat faeces or coprophagia.
try shouting at him when he does it.try changing his diet.muzzling isnt a cure so do try other things.read up on it on the net there are a lot of things out there to help you.look in google.co.uk
and search under coprophagia!
good luck

All the other 'remedies' failed for me :(. the diet was fine, there was nothing physically wrong with Decoy, the tablets , pineapple, courgettes didn't make an difference, it really was habitual, therefore I had to break the cycle and the only way because he was too quick to stop, he would little spin around and eat:( was the muzzle, so for me personally the muzzle was the cure :) I read a really interesting article on it that said the reasons dogs do this are many and varied - and that a study was being carried out and that dogs fell into different catagories - Decoy fell into all of them (eating own, other dogs, other animals:() Julie:)

Do you think it could because he's not eating enough? People always tell me that he's too skinny (even though we feed him the amount the vet tells us to, and she says he's perfect!).

A lot of people have a strange idea about how well covered a dog should be. Just like us (I wish :D) they are better a little thinner than too fat. If your vet also says he is fine I would quit worrying. Young dogs especially often lo9ok thin, as they haven't matured yet, like gawky teenagers.