Hi guys/girls...

I was just curious as to why some dogs eat theirs and others poop! I have noticed this from a lot of dogs I have seen while being out and about over the years and I have never really thought much about it... except having the odd laugh! Is it because the food isn't completely digested the dog smells something tasty in the poop????

I have heard of dogs eating human poop like its a dessert as we dont digest the food as well as a dogs intestine...

Any ideas?

I dont know its yuck, my dog wont eat his own but eats everybody elses, rabbits, cats even horses.

Coprophagia, or poop-eating, can sometimes be due to a nutritional deficiency in the dog. But sometimes it's a mystery as to why it happens. A tip many people have found that will deter a dog from eating its own poop is to add fresh pineapple to its diet. For some reason this often puts them off, whether it's the smell or whatever I don't know but it's often been successful. If the dog is eating the poop of your other pets you could give them pineapple too. If it's the poop of other animals that you pass by while out on walkies then you might just have to resort to a muzzle and a very short lead!

Quote from Wikipedia:
The link to that paper mentioned: http://home.gci.net/~divs/behavior/coprophagia.html

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Arran used to eat his own when he was a pup, I tried the pineapple trick but he seemed to like it even more . It's quite a common thing for pups to do and he soon grew out of it.

Terri

One of my labs, Crumpet, is obsessive about poo eating. So much so that she will actually 'grid' the garden and spend the whole day walking up and down looking for any that I've missed.

She eats her own but prefers that of my other lab Fidgit. I tried feeding Fidgit the pineapple but all that did was upset her tummy so much that it was impossible to pick up her poo

I've now had to resort to a cage type face mask in order to try and curb this habit. Sometims it works othertimes she strains the poo through the ends of the mask This results in getting the hosepipe out and giving it a good wash - I usually leave the mask on her whilst I'm doing this.

This has bee going on for the two years we've had her (she was a rescue) and she is absolutely food obsessive and I think she will always be like it.

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