Our boy has been really pushing the boundaries lately and one of his new habits has been eating poo!

He started by just eating our cats poo out of the litter tray which was bad enough but last night he pooed in our lounge and ate it!

This is soooo disgusting and i'm sure it can't be good for him, is there anything i can do to stop this behaviour?

Why would he have started to do this now, he is 9 months old and i know that some puppies do this as real youngsters but he never did this before and it is really worrying me!

I have heard that if you add a little garlic puree to the food it may stop it, and please do not encourage him to kiss your mother in law! Its not nice!! LOL

Ha ha...thats a thought! (kissing the mother in law that is!)

The cats actually look at him in disgust!

last night he pooed in our lounge and ate it! :D :D what a party trick!!!

Have you changed his food recently? if its not getting absorbed to him its as good back in as it was the 1st time round :) theres many potions and remedies but i find the easiest way is to pick it up as soon as its done for a few weeks, or cover it with pepper and leave it... (good for a laugh if anything else but then i'm cruel) :)

What are you currently feeding? Food can play a part in poop eating,they may not be digesting it properly,it may not be providing everything the dog needs and i have also heard of dogs having this habit if they are fed a limited range of foods(exclusively dry food and not much else,for example). The dogs i have known who have done this have more often than not been fed grain based foods.

The above is just  but one theory on this habit.

personally I think they do it because they can !! :)
Have  had one pup do this I just got there before her picked it up she stopped it once she reached one .All my dog are fed the same food.
As for cat tray I have a gate on the stairs so the dogs cannot get to the trays .

Roni~

I have dogs that eat cat poo, horse poo, goose poo, and of course roll in good old smelly fox poo, but eat there own poo?
Yuk!
Is he attention seeking?

Is he attention seeking?

Are you for real? would you eat your own sh*t to pee your partner off i could think of better things to do :D :D
If a dog is fed a food its not absorbing you can tell a mile off when you pick it up apart from the poo covering inside its as good as the day it went in... what do they know!!  they arent human and share the same disgust as us..

>If a dog is fed a food its not absorbing you can tell a mile off when you pick it up apart from the poo covering inside its as good as the day it went in

They are also not quite as firm as they could be,and  larger than they should be.I think if you can see the food clearly in the poop then there is a definite digestive problem going on which would probably warrant vet attention??.

This is not an uncommon problem with dogs (called "cophragia") but it is totally yeuk!!   Our dogs delight in raiding the cat litter tray if they get half a chance - ferraro de roche a la chat! :rolleyes: .   I can control this by keeping the access to the cats' litter tray unavailable to the dogs.   But I can't stop them eating rabbit droppings - which they've been known to snack on.

If your dog is eating his own faeces, you should  look at his diet. The richer the diet, the less is taken out as it passes through the digestive system and the tastier the faeces! Try changing to a dry diet with a lower protein level .  You could also try adding courgette, pineapple or pumpkin to his diet - for some reason this makes it totally unpalatable.  However, I'm not really sure that mine would relish any of that three - unless of course, they were only found in the cats litter tray ;)

There is also a theory that if puppies are denied sufficient and easy access to food that cophragia can result and that an ad lib. or generous feeding regime of an appropriate diet should prevent the problem occurring.    

Margot

Just to add there can be a habitual side to it as well - dogs that start as pups and just develop coprophagia as a habit.  Very, very hard to break - as my Soli is testament to.  She's done it from day 1 with me, and tried to do it out on a walk the day I met her.  She'll do it if I'm there, if I'm not (if she's mooching in the garden while I'm indoors), whatever - and she'll eat any of my dogs' poo, not just her own.

She's done it through eating Iams, Autarky, Pero and raw feeding - she'll even try to eat it if she's got the runs, which is just truly vile and making me ill thinking about it!

The only thing that'll stop her is a remote spray collar - she's had two sprays so far and hasn't tried since, thank dog, but I'm still putting the collar on her as it's such a long-standing habit.

Have you ever made a big deal about clearing up his poo? If so, you might haveaccidentally taught him that his poo is something special, that you want - therefore he has to grab it quickly!

Dogs eat cat poo because cat food is so high in protein that even cat poo is higher in protein than most food - therefore it's obviously a delicacy! Put the cat's litter tray somewhere that the dog never has access to.

All my bichons have done it... past and present. My current tribe did it all the time - until I changed over to raw feeding them and they haven't done it since!

They will still go for the cats given half the chance though (who aren't raw fed!) and horses is an absolute favourite, but not their own any more - phew! :D :D

He hasn't done it since and made no attempt to do it when out for his walk or in the garden just when he pooed in the lounge. His poo is still firm with no bits in it and the same size it has always been. I don't feed him any less than usual but he has been eating less, he seems to be a bit bored with his own dried food. We went through this a couple of months ago but then he was fine again. I put a jwb sachet (freebie sample) in his food last night and he wolfed it all down!:rolleyes:

The cats litter tray is hard to put out of reach as he has access everywhere except our bedroom and i refuse to let my cats poo in my room!

We are watching him like a hawk though now!:rolleyes:

Just wanted to add that Cat Litter depending on the kind and what is added to it to deodorise is poisonous, and there will always be some clinging to the poos so please find somewhere dog inaccessible for the litter tray.

Poo eating is a perfectly natural adaptation to recycle nutrients, and of course bitches do it to keep the pups nest clean and hide their presence from predators.  Some bitches are loath to give up the behaviour especially if the pups are being fed high protein food and not digesting it for some reason.  Pups learn to do it for the same reason.

It is disgusting to us, but dogs are naturally scavengers and will eat the most disgusting things if there is some nutritional benefit.  That is why it can happen if they are lacking something in their diet, or not digesting it properly.

Then you have behavioural reasons, such as hiding the evidence of their crime, attention seeking etc.

The best way to stop the behaviour is to not allow it to occur which means vigilance and cleaning up as soon as they eliminate, if it is their own of kennel mates at home.

A condition can develop at around the age he is...I forget what it is called but the symptoms is eating poo, of any sort!

I would be quicker on the removal of cat poo, I couldnt have it there longer then 0.1 seconds anyway!

Agree with Brainless as well to be quicker on the cleaning up of his poo, and if you see him about to eat it, a sharp 'No' should be used to discourage it!

The problem has been where he is allowed free access everywhere and we don't tend to follow him when he is walking into the kitchen for example which is where the litter tray is, of course if i am around then i can stop him but like you say there is litter attatched to it which is how i know when he's done it as he is covered in cat litter!

We will put a baby gate up today to prevent him having access to the kitchen!

Honestly unless i stood guard at the cats litter tray i couldn't clean it up any quicker and i would like to have a life also lol!

What is the condition is it medical?

Perhaps i will try adding a wet food to his dried or human food although the thought of raw egg etc makes me feel sick but i can cope with raw beef and lamb etc, would i just add this to his mixer in its natural state?

We used to have a cat with a cat tray, and we did have it behind a baby gate!

The condition is nothing to worry about, its a natural condition, I will try and find the name of it for you.

I think what youve just siad is the best route, as the saying goes, ''prevention is better then cure!''

Along the lines of what JG mentioned, has he been punished for pooing in the lounge? Punishing a dog for pooing in the house can leave with them with the impression that it's not safe to have it there so they better hide the evidence - and eat it.

As for cat poo, well yes, protein rich dog treats! Yumm

No i would never punish any animal, apart from not wanting to do it i don't believe it helps training at all in fact i think it hinders training. Only practice reward training!

I didn't mean beat him Angels :) I know from your posts you'd never do that. As punisiment I include telling them off. Breath sucking and a frown from me I consider a punishment in my house. As is banishment from the room (only needed that with the small pups) etc. I wasn't implying you were chasing him around with a newspaper. :-D sorry if you took it that way.

:d :d @ Lori

Chasing him with a newspaper!

The same here with our girl, punishment is a dissapointed sigh and a look into her eyes! :p
The poor girl is often trying to worm round me in seconds tho trying to make me feel guilty! :rolleyes:

Sorry i was a bit defensive wasn't i...:rolleyes:

He is told no then walked outside to the garden if he has an accident but it hasn't happened since he was little, he was a breeze to toilet train!

I am sooooooooooooooooooooo glad that we turned down the chance of a puppy in December as i would be tearing my hair out now!!!

Hi Angels,
My two did this on 4th Feb this year - I know the date as it was on my Birthday - we were out on a morning walk when my two found a big pile (not their own) and chomped away Me with the hangover from hell after birthday celebrations threw up there and then - I was mortified and after days of mouth washing, I could still smell it. Anyway, they haven't done it since thank goodness and the circumstances were'nt the same as yours. My friend however has a Cocker who started eating his own poo. He was fed Burns at the time. She changed his diet over to Eukanuba 'especially for Cocker spaniels' :rolleyes: (gimmick I know) and has been feeding a couple of chunks of fresh pineapple every day since and he has stopped completely. The pineapple apparently has enzymes in it that makes the poo taste horrid to the dog Is poo not horrid enough already
I know just how your feeling right now! Hope you can nip this in the bud.

Years ao, I once caught my manchester terrier not even waiting until the pooh was completely out of the cat into the tray! Now that is yuk! But, she had had a litter previously & was only doing what came natural. She obviously thought it was a delicacy though & enjoyed it. I had 2 small children at the time & used to spend all my time watching the damn cat in the tray, so that i could remove it first. My current dogs love cat pooh, on a regular walk there is a cat that regularly leaves it's mark. They have never eaten dog pooh, but many do, it's not abnormal. You will just have to get there quick enough to clear it up, my cousin even tried sprinkling curry powder on pooh when her 2 collies did it. They just picked the pooh up with their teeth to avoid burning their lips & swallowed it as quick as they could. It didn't work & I haven't asked her lately if they still do it. Good luck.

I think its Shaws make some tablets called Deter which I have used on previous GSD, he ate our other dogs, but only the rotts not the xbreed -they are both fed exactly the same food!!! You give it to the dog if it eats its own or to the dog whos poo is getting eaten, gave advised amount for about a week then down to 2/3 tabs (big dog) for about a week then just when he started again -anything from a week to 6 month gap.

Only one of our dogs (our 10-month old ACS) eats dog poos... and he only eats the poos from our vegan dog, never touches any other or his own! This makes me think that he either likes the taste (yuk...) or that he gets something out of it that he hasn't in his diet, eventhough he is on a high quality diet and gets bits and pieces of healthy human food besides it too!

Vera

He hasn't even attempted to do it again, perhaps it was his way of hiding the poo because he had done it in the lounge although a behaviourist once told me that dogs don't actually feel guilt!

Anyway he is doing much better, he is seperated from the cats as they aren't getting on very well at the moment but thats another story.... lol

I think we will leave it a few years until even mentioning another dog, at least until we have got him EXACTLY how we want him (in terms of training)