Hi my 14 week old lab has started to eat his own poo.  I try to catch him having one then pick the poo straight up, but sometimes he is left outside in the garden on his own and when I go out,there is the remains of what was a poo.  Is there a reason why he is eating it.  I give him the right quantity of food.  Julie

Go to Google & type in "Coprophagia" :)

HTH.

Try giving him a garlic tablet before his tea every night.  This will make his own poo taste disgusting and should stop him. :)

Hi just been on google, blimey there are a lot of things to take in.  I am feeding him on pedigree puppy complete so I really don't know if I should change it, what do you think?  It also states in one of the articles that it is harder to prevent coprophagia with greedy dogs eg labradors (which is what he is).  I am going to try with the garlic tablet but knowing my luck he will probably like the taste, there was also something called 'deter' have you ever heard of it?  Anyway hopefully he might grow out of it!!!! Thanks for the advice.  Julie

Penny has been eating her own poo since we got her at 11 weeks(7 years now), actually it's not only her own, it's from the cat's litter box, it's our other dog's, horse's, sheep's and every thing else other than strange dog's poo. :D 

We have tried everything, yeast tablets, garlic tablets, deter, even sprinkling tabasco sause and hot curry powder.  The only result of the curry powder is now every time we have a curry, she comes over and drools all over us begging for some.

The only thing that works is to always pick up everything she and our other dogs do immediatly, we also put in a baby gate to the toilet so she can't get in and nick from the litter box.  But don't despair, maybe if you catch him now the habit can be broken.  Perhaps changing his food would help, that works temporarily on Penny.

Good luck. 

                                                                                                                                      Kate

Deter is also very effective, it has worked on almost all of the copraphagic dogs I have worked with.  The garlic tablets worked  a treat on the dog I had at the time.  If your dog is only interested in his own poo then hopefully your problem will be sorted, but obviously Deter and garlic tablets have zero effect if he has a taste for other dogs poo aswell!  Good luck! :)

Hi what sort of dog is Penny.  I feed him on Pedigree Puppy complete any suggestions what food to change him to?  I will try him with deter aswell.  It has only happened when I haven't been there to actually pick up the poo straight away.  Oh well we will see what happens.

Thanks for all the advice.

Julie

Penny is a Gordon Setter.  I would suggest Nutro Puppy, Pronature Puppy, or Pro Plan Puppy as I know the results of feeding these foods.  Good Luck with your boy.

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As I understand it there can be several reasons *why* a dog does this - you need to find the reason before you can apply an appropriate 'cure'.  For some dogs it's a health problem - down to a lack of vital bacteria in the gut, and they will seek to replace it with 'left overs' from somebody elses.  The cure for this would be natural youghurt.  For some it's a lack of ammino acids - pineapple or courgette or meat teneriser added to the dogs meal will help.  Sometimes it's a training issue - caused by owners showing displeasure at the dog (often on returning from being out) so the dog is trying to destroy the 'evidence' - this can be the hardest to cure as it has become a habit that can also be self rewarding (see following reason) - clicker training can help, but it has to be consistant.  There can also be a dietary reason - too much food (so the waste is passed out and appears still appetising) or a diet too rich in protein (which gives the same results - a taste 'poo pie'......) in which case the diet needs changing.....

my lab used to be terrible for doing that, horse poo, cow poo, sheep poo and dog poo!! now that's a lotta poo!!! but he has just grown out of it really.  He did used to get ignored tho after he had eaten it (mainly due to the smell!!) and shouted at if he went to eat it so I don;t know whether that helped him too.

There are tablets that you can get from the vet that stop them eating their own poo but I think they are just attracted to minerals etc in other animals poo.

My Labs all do this and the oldies teach the youngsters to do it, Labs were born to eat and to them it is food. I have tried 'deter', pineapple and I give them garlic every day but I'm afraid I think to them it just adds to the taste. The only thing to do is not get stressed and pick it up asap.

I agree that deterrants seldom work esp with labs as everything tastes nice to them! have to say my lab is not too keen on grapes but that is about it!

Besides the risk of parasites from eating other poo besides their own, it really won't hurt them. In fact, it is said that if a dog isn't eating a raw food diet, they NEED to eat poo to fulfill their bacterial needs. Many dogs do this and it's gross to us, but apprently not to them. You can get some probiotics online or at the feed store.

Mine especially love deer poop. Horse poop and deer is just a lot of vegetation and not too disgusting when you really think about it. My Lab use to do that when I had horses.  I'm just happy if they don't roll in it. I've heard too that pineapple is the trick. But garlic, I think dogs often like. I guess I wouldn't worry too terribly much. And just wait 7 minutes before they kiss you. LOL.

Grapes are toxic to dogs, so be careful with that.