Hi

my 1 year old springer spaniel eats his and anybody else's poo. this has become a habit since tiny. i've tried pineapple in his food, i've tried telling him off. i pick up the poo as soon as possible. but now immediately he or any of my other two dogs poo, he is there ready to scoff it down, apart from being disgusting, will it do him any harm? He also eats foxes and horses poo, I haven't seen him eat any strange dogs poo when we are out, but that doesn't mean he hasn't! has anyone got any suggestions to help? He came from quite unsanitary conditions as a pup, the puppies had nowhere but the bed they where confined in to toilet in. He is fed on Burns Real Dog Food which is a holistic complete food. He is healthy otherwise.

Some info here: http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/pets/study.htm

Hi M/Dogs,my dogs also used to do this & a few days after I started feeding them raw foods they stopped.
Christine2

Don't worry too much about it! Just make sure that you pick it up where possible, keep him regularly wormed and don't let him lick your face!! :)

thanks lara

i had kind of given up, but wondered if anyone on the board could help. we had all resigned ourselves to avoiding facial contact with him, especially the kids, my little boy always tells people not to let him lick them cos he eats poo!!

Sometimes the reward of a fragrant hot snack (Yuk!) is worth any preventative aggro you might take in a quick highly driven dog like some young Springers!
Good Luck anyway - rather you than me :)

hi christine

thanks for all your advice!!
my springer did stop when he was on a raw bone diet for about a week. he has been fed on Burns for two months now and has started up again.
sometimes he is so quick in eating the poo, i don't see him do it, and when i go outside after letting the dogs back in to clean up the poo there is just evidence of poo left and obvious signs it has been consumed. its really difficult to stop when we are out as well as he will spot one and run off munching it, so i can't catch him in time.

That's interesting Christine someone on another list was posting the opposite she was changing to BARF and her dog had started eating poo, others not his own. He did it as a pup then stopped but has started
again, any ideas?
Anne

Hi Anne lol, just shows how different the all are! I did use fresh pineapple with great success tho after a while they got used to it,so changed to tinned unsweetened in juice & then just p/apple juice itself but over time they still did it so had to keep alternating. Have heard brewers yeast added to food works for some but never tried that myself. If I come across anything else I`ll post it here for you. By the way mine only ever ate each others & never other dogs.
Christine2

Christine2
Just had a thought, could it be quantities she is feeding that are wrong and dog is hungry? Or just one of those strange things they do to annoy us;-)
Anne

Anne,

its worth a try - i'll up the quantities i feed him and see if that improves. i feed Burns, and the quantities suggested do look very meagre, although he has always done it, except for a very brief spell. i'll give it a go and if that works i'll feel really guilty - maybe i've been starving him all this time!! all of my dogs are lean as i feel its healthier for them. thanks muddydogs.

hi
i've just read the link, very educational, the cause may be several of the ones suggested i think. muzzle seems a good idea to break the cycle, i might give it a go.

thanks

If you type "Coprophagia" into Google you'll find quite a bit more about the subject.

I was just scanning down the thread and about to say try a muzzle when he goes out to toilet. If he physically can't do it he *might* break the habit. :)
We used tablets from the pet shop called "Deter" for our little terrier, but I would have muzzled if they hadn't worked (also she was only eating her own).
Good luck. :D
Nicky

i think tablets would work if he only ate his own, but he eats my other dogs poo too, unless i give them to everyone. i'm going to get a muzzle today and give it a try , along with upping the feed. let you all know how i get on!!

i tried a muzzle and had a terrible time cleaning poo off it . my springer didnt understand what the muzzle was for lol he stopped after i spent 2 weeks making sure everytime he pood i was there to pick it up. wonder what he thought i was doing with it.

Hi smurf, funny this should be resurrected now , I was actually going to post an update but was terrified of tempting fate!!! After one horrific weekend whereby he had eaten so much of his poo (he became really obessessive, wouldn't go if I watched him or if on a long line, but the minute he was out on his own he would swing round at the speed of light and eat it straight away, same with the other dogs, nose under bum ready to scoff it up URGGGHHH! he had diahorrea and lapped it up :( (It wasn't as if I didn't pick up the poo - No poo was left for any period of time, he was just SO quick) - I decided an all out battle plan was called for! so I fed all of my dogs pineapple and courgettes and decoy wore a muzzle, I spent a good week hosing out the muzzle as he still used to try to eat it with it on, and now alternate him being let out with and without the muzzle, so far he hasn't touched a poo since last weekend:) but I'm not declaring a ceasefire yet a while!!! :D Julie:)