Hello

This is the first time I have used the site and hope someone can help me with a problem. I have a thirteen week old Daschund puppy and she eats her stools, I have tried picking it up before she gets to it and picking it up out of her sight, but sometimes she is so quick that she gets there before me!!!. This is a really nasty habit and one I would like to train out of her asap as I have a child and it is not very nice when puppy likes to lick you. yuck!.
She is so georgeous in every other way really good with children so far anyway! whether this will change when she gets older we will have to see, and a really sweet temperament.
Hope someone has some ideas.
Many thanks

This is perfectly normal behaviour, and if you keep doing what you are doing she is likely to grow oput of it.  It is actually part of natures survival kit, as a pups digestive system may not be that efficient and it's waste has plenty of reusable nutrients.

Puppies will do this for several reasons - once you know what the reason is, you can work to stop it, but remember it is perfectly 'normal' behaviour for a dog......

1) Inapropriate toilet training - punishing a dog when you find a motion will result in the dog reasoning that if there is no faeces on the floor, you can't punish them, and this is the only way they have of removing the evidence.

2) Learnt from the dam. Puppies who were not raised with access to two different substrates will continue to soil the bed area - the dam will remove the soiling, and this become a habit for the puppies - they copy the good and the bad.

3) Enzyme deficieny, often cured by adding a small amount of pineapple to the diet.

4) Bacterial overgrowth - most common in puppies who eat other dogs faeces as they are naturally driven to add the good bacteria from other dogs and even other animals guts that they are lacking. Needs vet treatment with long term strong antibiotics to restore the balance.

5) Most common - inappropriate diet - food it too rich or contains indigestible parts - such as a high grain content. This is why dogs often eat 'cat litter tray crunchies'.......

HTH

My beagle did this until I wormed her again.  She hasnt done it since.  :)

my baby has just stopped this at since we have been giving him pineapple chunks,.