Hi there

I have a spanish person that has a rescue afghan, she rescues many others and gets them actually left at her door, when she lets this dog off for free running she eats other dogs poo, she also picks it up and plays with it.  She does not eat her own, as I already mentioned the pineapple but the problem is when she is free, she also eats the other dogs poo in the garden.

Has anyone got any suggestions?  This is a problem when she is loose or on her own in the garden.

No suggestions, but mine do it so would be interested in the comments, God it makes me feel sick

My newest youngster has this delightful habit - my first experience of this :(.  I spoke to the vet about it and she had no suggestions other than the obvious ie get there first and clear it up (bit difficult when they're all out in the garden in the dark!)  I suppose another possibility would be to use a muzzle?  I just do very frequent poop patrols.

Mine did this and I happened to notice a connection with the food I was feeding her.  I changed her food to JWB and she stopped doing it. I put her on a different brand and she started eating poo again.  Put her back on JWB and she stopped again.  I noticed the difference in behaviour after about 2 weeks from changing her food. 

She's been on JWB ever since.

but she does not eat her own, it is every other dog out there that poops on the ground and it does not matter how old it is she seeks it out, plays with it and eats it!  She has no interest in her own poo, this is why we are stumped.  A muzzle, i'll put it to her, I know she likes the rescues to run free as much as she can, so i'll ask her if she has tried this. 

Any more suggestions......

Mine didn't eat her own either.  Sorry I didn't make that clear. 

Many people suggest you give them pineapple but I have read of two different reasons for doing this: 1) the pineapple has enzymes that the dog is lacking 2) the pineapple makes their own faeces unpallatable (weird thought I know). I gave my dog pineapple but it didn't make any difference.

She used to eat other dogs' poo on on free walks. I've read some different theories on why they do this.  One is that the food they are given doesn't have the nutrients they need so they seek it out in other dogs' faeces.  Changing to a different brand is worth a try IMO but remember for my dog the changes weren't noticeable for the first fortnight.

so this dog as she was mal nourished (Afghan, skin and bone) is still seeking out of habit?  That sounds reasonable.  Pineapple won´t work as she is eating other dogs poo.  I will get back to Ale, she is in zaragoza and explain that theory and see if it relates in any way. Thanks

That would explain it.  I have read that this is a learned behaviour too.  That theory didn't fit with my dog because I asked her breeder who told me none of her dogs did this and my dog hadn't picked up the behaviour through learning anywhere else. However, with your case, it fits very well if the dog had been forced to survive on faeces the habit would be entrenched.  Perhaps in this instance then changing food will not be enough, the dog will have to unlearn the behaviour.  Possible, but will probably need a behaviourist.

This is Spain and Behaviourist does not come into it here, they are so far behind in the dog world you would not believe (and other animals), but we try and help as much as we can over here.

Through my experience with a dog with Colitis she used to always re eat her poo Duds my youngest always used to help her out as well

The problem was the food used to go through her like a dose of salts and so the food was never properly digested. It was al Nature diet so a nice tasty food and so second helpings must have been a necessity for Min ( the one with colitis ) as she needed to get more nutrients out of it and was tasty snack for Duds. Since Min went to the bridge Duds has never touched dog poo since. She is however partial to cat poo but so it Moose my other Lab. They also love rabbit poo or the occasional cow pat :-D I don't get too worried as make sure they are wormed on a  regular basis and I don't often have too many snogs with them ;-)

In Response to VivaEspana

the habit is a survival strategy as they are recycling, and of course if the dogs poo she eats have poorly digested food then it has plenty of nutritional value left.

I have had this problem with my foundation bitch when she was on a diet following a litter, so had two reasons to do it hunger and of course she had diligently disposed of her pups poo unless I got there first.

I did manage to break her of this my diligent cleaning up, and of course when she came off her diet she was less hungry.

Every now and then she would do it if I had a dog staying that was on different food from everyone else, or a pup on puppy food.