My 3 yr old whippet has a discusting habit of eating faeces of other dogs & cats. Surely this must harm him. We always muzzel him now for walks, which seems a shame , Also a cat is fouling in the garden so we have to muzzel him when he goes into the garden. Any thought and ideas

If your Whippet has just started to do this, it may be worth getting her checked out at the vets to rule out any underlying medical condition. It could also be that she enjoys the attention she gets from you when she does this.

Let us know how you get on,

liberty :)

Edited to say it should be HIM not HER. I must, I must, pay more attention!

Hi liberty
Harvey has always had a tendancy to eat faeces. He will run off with it if I try to stop him I don't know if it's just a hound thing. He's very michievious if he thinks he has something he shouldn't and very hard to discipline as he just takes no notice and carries on. I've had many vet visits over his itchy skin condition/allergy without much help so I didn't really want another vet visit. What kind of health problem could it be?
Christine

Hi Christine

Some dogs will eat other dogs faeces if they feel the need to seek out certain nutrients, some have behavioural problems that can be solved by training. If it's not just attenttion seeking than all I can suggest is a visit to your Vet, be honest and if he/she is not prepared to help, go elsewhere.

Good Luck

liberty :)

Tamarind,

There are lots of theories why dogs like to eat feces, most of them are nonsense which we humans use to try to explain something we find utterly revolting. The best explanation I heard was a couple of weeks ago on the radio by a vet. He said some dogs eat feces because they taste good. There is no deeper medical reason. He also said the only way to stop them is to keep them away from temptation.

I have had dogs that ate feces. Dogs that did not. I have had dogs that did, dogs that did not, all on the same diet and all living with me at the same time. I have had dogs that did and gradually tapered off to almost never as they grew older. None of them had deficiencies of any kind which would have caused them to do it. My puppy now will eat some feces, but not others. Fox feces are preferred. Worse, she will try to roll in some -- I expect as an added booster to the grass she like to roll in that has been heavily scented with fox pee. She's a terrier - it's good hunting instinct to disguise your own scent. I had a Yorkie that occassionally escaped from the house and would come back so covered in deer muck that I would have to hose her off outside the house - twice to get rid of it. (She was the one that tapered off with age.)

The only harm that would likely come to your dog is ingesting eggs, so make sure he is wormed regularly.

My only idea is to relax about it. If you walk him on a lead you should be able to limit his ability to get to feces. The cat business - it annoys me too. I had wood chips put down in two of my garden beds and the darn cats treat them like outdoor kitty litter trays.

Stacey

Stacey

Stacey,

That's a perfect description of the habit. I too have had dogs that did it and dogs that didn't, on the same diet, at the same time. Some dogs were selective in whose faeces they considered edible, and when, (cats' pooh was always a bit of a delicacy), others didn't care, and others never did it. The best (worst!) example I can remember (don't read this if you are eating your dinner...) was when I was dog-sitting a friend's racing whippet who was due to race that afternoon and I saw her go into the front room and do a great big steaming coil of pooh on their parquet flooring - I went out immediately to get something to pick it up with and when I returned I was just in time to see her devouring the last of it, still steaming! Saved me the job of cleaning it up. I don't remember whether she won her race or not!

Feed your dog Pineapple or Pumpkin.This will stop the faeces eating.

I've tried all of the home remedies to stop feces eating, all of which didn't help at all. The only thing that worked was practicing the "leave it" command. Our lab used to be obsessive about it, and had even thrown up feces in our living room a few times, and we were at the end of our ropes. But by practicing the "leave it" command over and over and over, he rarely ever does it anymore. If we see him sniffing any, we just say "leave it," and he now knows not to touch it.

Yes we have had to do the same with MB our 7 month old Lab. She used to bring it in for us to see it ! Lovely girl. :)

We tried pineapple and also corgette but none seemed to work so the 'NO' command seems to have done the trick. Catching them in the act is important.
Min my oldie used to eat poo all the time . She was suffering from collitis and so therefore was not getting the goodness out of her food as it was good straight through her. After a diet change to manage the condition she broke out of the habit.

Lucy

Hi Tamarind

It is very common trait there is even a scientific name for it Coprophagia There are three types of Coprophagia…
Autocoprophagia is a animal eating its own faeces…

Intraspecific Coprophagia eating faeces from another animal within its own species…

Interspecific Coprophagia deals with an animal eating faeces from another species (ie cat, deer, rabbit, horse faeces etc) this is the most common

The cause of this behaviour in not fully known, these are some suggestions and theories

Attention-seeking behaviour: When the dog engages in coprophagia, their owner tends to reprimand them and, therefore, pays attention to the animal

Allelomimetic behavior: The dog observes the owner picking up the faeces and learns from them to do so as well.

Maternal behavior: A bitch with puppies will often engage in coprophagia, and this behaviour is normal. There are many theories as to why the bitch does this, including keeping the den clean and preventing the scent of the faeces from attracting predators.

Reinforcement: Something about eating the faeces itself reinforces the behaviour. Things such as taste may be a factor in this. It's simply appealing to the dog to eat the faeces, so it does so. This is the likely mechanism in interspecific coprophagia such as eating cat faeces.

And these are some treatments

Forbid (TM)(R): This is a powder supplement added to a dog's food. It is thought that this makes the faeces taste bad for a coprophagic dog. Note that this must be applied to the food of the dog whose faeces is being eaten. therefore in this case it won't work. It is by veterinary prescription only.

Deter (TM)(R): This is a pill given to a dog with its food. Like Forbid, Deter is suspected to make the faeces distasteful. It is not veterinary prescribed, but the same issues exist as with Forbid. once again won't work as you dog is Intraspecific Coprophagia

Bad taste on faeces: This is perhaps the most common treatment for coprophagia. Owners are advised to put something like hot chilli sauce on the faeces. The theory is that the dog will consume the treated faeces and will have an aversive response to it (due to bad taste) and will eventually cease the behavior. For this behaviour to be effective, it must be used 100% of the time. Every faeces must have hot sauce or other noxious tasting element on it or else the dog will not associate the bad taste with eating the faeces. so I think this is out as I cannot see you walkingaround with a big pot of chilli.

Simply pick up the faeces. Lack of access to faeces is the most effective treatment option. Some dogs will stop engaging in coprophagia if the cycle is broken by picking up faeces, so that treatment is much easier, much simpler, and more effective means of controlling the problem. However I don't see why you have to pick up after other thoughtless owners

I have used a water pistol to good effect but but do it on the sly in other words no command squirt the dog and pretend it wasn't you he will think it's the faeces that is causing the squirt.

The other thing I have used to very good effect is a spring loaded little cap banger you set it up put the faeces on top the dog picks up the faeces and bang! normally takes about 2/3 bangs
This is also effective for food thieves and chewers of shoes etc

Best of luck

Doglistener

Thanks for all the replies, it certainly helps to know its quite common. I have changed his diet to naturediet which he loves ( because of skin problems) fo this may help. The NO command might be helpful but Harvey being a whippet as a tendancy to run off with anything he thinks he shouldn't have so when he picks up cat faeces in the garden (NOT OUR CAT)he runs under some bushes where I can't reach him. So it's the muzzle for the time being and hopefully he will grow out of it when h's older.