# He won't stop eating poop!



## olik (Apr 13, 2008)

clean up rigth away.This is only the way!!!


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## Murphysmom (Nov 2, 2009)

Well unfortunately I'm 7 months pregnant and having a rough time getting around, lol. DH works a lot, so he's not home much, which makes for a problem.


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

UGH! If you find the solution - please share!! :yuck:

Mine has been eating poop for 10 years! She doesn't eat her own - so none of the "solutions" I've read about work for me. She eats other dogs' which their lazy-ass owners have left in parks and on the street. The most vile thing everrrrr. And every so often, it makes her sick.


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## Penny & Maggie's Mom (Oct 4, 2007)

Yep, we have to scoop as it happens or Mags is right behind "cleaning up". ICK


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## BajaOklahoma (Sep 27, 2009)

I'm desparate enough to think about a muzzle he goes out. Not only does he eat poop, but he eats grass and shrubs. We've been taking him out on his leash, but he is quick. <sigh>


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## walexk (Nov 13, 2009)

Gable has the same problem. He will go for a period without eating his own then all of a sudden will whip around so face and gobble it up. We have tried everything so he is always on a leash and we are ready to walk him away and then go back and clean it up. If anyone comes up with a solution I will be more than happy to try it. He is good in every other way.


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## lynn1970 (Feb 6, 2011)

Just throwing this out there, don't know if it works or not. I was watching It's me or the Dog the other night and Victoria Stilwell said that feeding a dog pineapple would make the feces taste bad. So maybe feeding a little pineapple to Molly might work??


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## fudgedog (Feb 13, 2011)

Our last golden lived to be 13 but never gave up loving any poop. It was just her instincts.


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## goldensrbest (Dec 20, 2007)

I have tried with our lab, for 8 years, many ,different things, even tried hot sauce on fresh poop, no , she ate it hot sauce and all, i hate this problem, bab when they throw it up, in your house, just awfull.


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## luvgolds (May 20, 2009)

Buddy was following Harley around and eating his right after it came out! EWWW! Not his own though. I just bought some natural 'treats' at petco to try. 
Healthy Select Coprophagia Soft Chews Dog Stool Eating Deterrent

Each of them gets 2 a day, one in the AM one in the PM. They seemed to work for Buddy right away. I watched him, and on day 2 of giving the chews he sniffed and walked away. I haven't seen him do it since, and I've been able to account for the fact he hasn't done it, as I clean up either once or twice a day 

It's working so far for us, so it seems to be worth a try. I've been giving them about a week, and I think I'm going to stop soon as it seems to be working. They don't give a recommendation for how long to use the chews, but I'm thinking now that he hasn't been interested in it, it may be ok to stop.


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## Maxs Mom (Mar 22, 2008)

Mine won't stop either.... Nothing has worked for me. Sorry.

However there is a product (expensive) called "For Bid" that worked, as long as my dogs were on it (all of them) the minute we took them off, the poop eating continued. I have not found ANYTHING to stop it. Sorry. I tried papaya juice, to be honest I didn't try it long enough. I do want to try that again. I don't know if it worked or not. I guess just keep picking up the poops.


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## iansgran (May 29, 2010)

I have heard that if you feed them pineapple that works.


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## luvgolds (May 20, 2009)

Maxs Mom said:


> Mine won't stop either.... Nothing has worked for me. Sorry.
> 
> However there is a product (expensive) called "For Bid" that worked, as long as my dogs were on it (all of them) the minute we took them off, the poop eating continued. I have not found ANYTHING to stop it. Sorry. I tried papaya juice, to be honest I didn't try it long enough. I do want to try that again. I don't know if it worked or not. I guess just keep picking up the poops.


Yep, tried For Bid too, with the exact same results. I'm curious if when I stop the chews Buddy goes back to the same old habit. I'll post if he does!


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## Laurie (Sep 20, 2009)

When my guys were younger, they were doing that as well. We would clean up all poo but leave one pile and put pepper on it....it made them sneeze for a bit but cured them. No more poop eating!!!


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## Murphysmom (Nov 2, 2009)

So in other words, I just don't have much hope, lol. But I will try some of the deterrent treats since I haven't done those yet. I even put chili powder on Molly's poop and then they were both licking it up!


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## GeorgiaOnMyMind (May 4, 2010)

I can second the pineapple suggestion.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

I don't know about stopping a dog, aside from managing and training him to "leave it."

However, sometimes when a dog is eating his own stool, it's because he smells undigested nutrients in it. It can be a signal of a problem in the GI tract. Sometimes it's purely behavioral, but it's worth keeping an eye on in case it's a health problem.


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## The_Artful_Dodger (Mar 26, 2009)

Dodger does this too. I've tried using a powder on thier food that makes the poop less appetizing, but that didn't work for him. I also tried putting hot sauce on the poop but he would just avoid poop with hot sauce. The only way I can stop him is to pick up the poop right away - but I've seen him eat Annie's poop before it even hits the ground :yuck: He has also taught other dogs to eat poop.


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## sophiesadiehannah's mom (Feb 11, 2007)

i have 2 poop eaters and no matter what i have tried or how quick i am or say leave it, one will manage to eat yuck


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## vrmueller (Jun 14, 2008)

You would think that by now someone could have come up with a full proof cure for this horrible behavior. The first time I saw Ruby eat her poop, I lost it. I didn't know dogs could do something like that. We also tried everything and I mean everything. She is 3 1/2 and does it when she is in the mood. If I take her to the doggie day care, she will inevitably come home and puke up some other dog's poop. I truly feel your pain.


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

If it's really important to you:

- Consult with your vet. In most of the cases I've worked with, either the pooper OR the poop eater had some sort of health problem resulting in constant hunger (thus, desperate to eat anything!) or poor digestion (meaning it's all the more tastey)....and when both of those happen at once...all the better.
- Read the book "Mine" by Jean Donaldson and work through the exercises. The book is about resource guarding. We want the poop-eating dogs to NOT feel the need to guard (and gobble) the resource. Unfortuantely, in our panic of "gag that's gross" our haste/hurry/interest in the poop only increases the speed at which the dogs consume it.
- Teach a really good leave it. 
- ALWAYS take the poop eater out on leash. As soon as he poops, call him over to you, feed really great treats while walking him into the house before you clean up. If on a walk, call him away, really great treats, and have him sit-stay while you cleanup. If he doens't know how to sit stay yet...toss a handful of treats/kibble on the ground for him to eat while you are cleaning. If you have multiple dogs, take them out one at a time.
- After 2-3+ weeks of VERY good management, we go to the next steps of giving the dogs more freedom and more opportunities to make a choice, but you need the foundation of the above exercises.

Most people I've met who have this problem have decided that it's not important enough to put in the time.


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## luvgolds (May 20, 2009)

RedDogs said:


> If it's really important to you:
> 
> - Consult with your vet. In most of the cases I've worked with, either the pooper OR the poop eater had some sort of health problem resulting in constant hunger (thus, desperate to eat anything!) or poor digestion (meaning it's all the more tastey)....and when both of those happen at once...all the better.


I heard this somewhere before about health problems. I was a bit concerned about that in Buddy's case, but in preparation for his neuter they did blood work on him and all came back fine.

Can you give an example of a health problem that could cause this? Buddy is so skinny yet he gets 4 cups of what I consider to be fairly decent food every day. I was thinking that maybe his poo eating and skinny-ness may be correlated but when is bloodwork came back just fine I started thinking he's just on the thinner side and likes to eat Harley's poo. Is there something other than bloodwork that could/should be doen to check for health issues?

Oh, just to add, we do give Harley and Buddy fish oil pills, and I think I read on another posting that the fish oil might make them want to eat their own or others so I also thought that could be what our issue is with Buddy.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

luvgolds said:


> Can you give an example of a health problem that could cause this? Buddy is so skinny yet he gets 4 cups of what I consider to be fairly decent food every day.


Parasites, hypothyroid, hyperthyroid, intolerance to one or more ingredients in a food, food that's too rich for the dog's system, too much fat (from treats or scraps especially), etc.

What does he eat?


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

I had another question: where did you get Murphy?

I ask because it might help you learn a bit more about whether it's behavioral or not. A really good breeder will clean and manage the puppies's space when they're little, and that really decreases the chances they'll learn the behavior. A dog from a broker, BYB, mill, pet store, or other place that doesn't monitor puppies carefully is more likely to pick up the habit.

Obviously, sometimes a dog learns coprophagia no matter how good the breeder is, but I figured it was worth a mention.


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## luvgolds (May 20, 2009)

As for Buddy, the eating Harley's poo did seem to coincide with the start of us giving fish oil pills. I'd say it's occurred off/on for the last 4-5 months or so. 

At the time he was eating Blue Buffalo Large Breed Puppy formula. In the last 2 months we've switched him over to Blue Wilderness.

He gets no people food. On a daily basis he doesn't get doggie treats, although sometimes we do give treats, usually a blue buffalo biscuit. 

Since he stopped doing it with these chews I bought, I was thinking it was probably related to the fish oil making it more enticing, but obviously there could be something much more major wrong...

I think I'll check with the vet to see if she can run some extra tests for thyroid, and talk to her about parasites. We give a heartguard pill each month, but I think that only covers certain parasites, not all.


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## 2dollys (Jan 24, 2011)

*product for this*

We used a product called dis-taste that you put on your dog's food and it worked great. But no advice for eating random poop in public--ewwww.


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## caligal (Jul 28, 2010)

I was told that food gobblers are more prone to eating their own poop. The food isn't broken up enough and isnt digested completely. Sometimes you can still see it in the poop! I put a giant flat rock in Davis's bowl and that seemed to help him eat slower.

Also, I was feeding him way less than he actually needed, so he was always hungry. I was going by the weight recommendations on the bag and not by his activity level. I was feeding 4 cups a day and he really needs 5 1/2. He needed 1800 calories a day, not 1400. He hasn't gained any more weight either. Since His eating has been slowed and I started feeding him more, he doesn't eat his own poop. Once in a while, he comes across a very enticing nugget on a walk and I can get him to drop it if I have something good to give him.

My friend feeds her dogs pineapple slices everyday and they have both stopped eating the poo.


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## Duke's Momma (Mar 1, 2007)

Ruling out health issues - if he's been on antibiotics it smells different than normal so it "doesn't belong there" and they'll try to clean up their space. Cole ate his pooh when he was on an antibiotic for diarrhea but is so done with it now he won't even go near a ball that's close to his pooh.

He sniff's unidentified pooh on walks but only to sniff - if I give him the time.

I've heard to stop the behavior of eating his own pooh give about a tbs of pineapple juice in the food. It makes it taste horrible and smell even worse to them. I've heard :yuck:. Also pumpkin, while bulking it up, also has the same effect.

Good luck!


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