Why do dogs eat poop?
Dogs eat poop for a variety of reasons including –
- Nutritional imbalance – When a dog eats his own poop, it may be because the stool still has undigested minerals and nutrients.
- Stress – A dog may poop because of extreme anxiety (e.g. when left alone), and then eat up his own feces as a displacement behavior.
- Boredom – Lack of activity and interaction may cause a dog to start playing with his stool and sometimes eat it.
- Enjoyment – Many dogs like the taste of leavings from cats or other animals. My dogs also like smelling the stuff and scenting it with their tongue.
- Clean-up – Some dogs may eat poop inside the house to keep their living space clean. Dogs that are physically punished for potty training mistakes, may learn to eat their own poop to avoid our anger or strong discipline.
- Any combination of the above.
Whether eating feces is harmful to our dog will depend on whether it is contaminated with worms, fleas, or other parasites that may carry bacteria and viruses. The consequences of eating contaminated feces will also depend on the immune system and general health of our dog. Young puppies, for example, have developing immune systems, and may be more susceptible to bad stool; especially if they have not been fully vaccinated. To be safe, I only take my puppy out on hikes and neighborhood walks, after he has received all of his vaccination shots.
The most effective method to stop our dog from eating poop, will depend on the reason for his behavior, his temperament, as well as our own preferences.
1. Feed our dog a healthy and balanced diet.
The easiest balanced food to give our dog is dry kibble. Dry kibble is nutritionally balanced and results in less teeth tartar.
Make sure to get a high quality kibble, with good protein sources, and no unhealthy fillers.
Some well reviewed kibble brands include Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Nature’s Variety Instinct, and Orijen.
2. Fixed feeding schedule and on-leash supervision.
If we keep our dog on a fixed eating schedule, it will help keep his poop schedule regular and predictable as well.
A fixed schedule makes it easier for us to supervise our dog, and prevent him from eating his own feces or those from our other dogs.
During poop time –
- I put the problem dog on a leash, and walk him out on-leash to do his business first.
- If he tries to eat his own feces, I no-mark him (Ack-ack) and lead him away from it. I get him to do some obedience commands, and then try again. If he does not try to pull towards the bad stuff, I praise him and reward him well.
- I keep sessions short, and end on a positive note.
- I make sure to clean up after him.
- If we have other dogs, only let them out after cleaning up.
- Make sure to keep the problem dog on-leash, so that we may supervise and prevent poop eating when our other dogs are out.
3. Keep our dogs busy and well-exercised.
Bored dogs will frequently develop behavioral issues and cause property damage.
It is important to walk our dog regularly (preferably every day), and to provide structured, interesting activities, to keep his mind sharp and engaged.
My dogs work for all of their food, either by performing dog obedience commands, or through interactive food toys. If we provide a lot of alternative activities for our dog, he will be less likely to find unacceptable entertainment on his own, including eating his own feces.
If we are busy in the short-term, and do not have the time to give our dog the attention that he needs, consider sending him to dog daycare or hiring a pet sitter.
4. Keep our dog’s environment clean.
Scoop up after our dog, as soon as he is done with his business. If we keep things clean, there will be less chance for him to engage in opportunistic poop eating.
During retraining, it is also important to supervise our dog closely, so that he does not practice any bad behavior on his own. We may have to go back to dog potty training basics, to fully stop him from eating his own poop.
5. Help our dog reduce stress.
Identify situations that cause extreme stress in our dog, and try to reduce the number of stressful encounters. In the meantime, practice managed desensitization exercises, to help reduce his stress response.
To desensitize my dog-
- I make sure that I am in control of the training environment. Then, I start by exposing him to very low levels of the stressful stimulus. Low enough that he is able to stay calm and learn.
- I treat and praise him for staying calm.
- I do some simple obedience commands (e.g. Sit), so that he is focused on me, and looks to me for direction while under stress.
- When my dog is comfortable with the low-level stimulus, I very slowly increase its intensity, and repeat the focus and training exercises.
If our dog starts to react badly, then we have moved forward too quickly. I move a few steps back, help my dog to calm down, and then do some simple focus exercises so that I can end on a positive note.
While conducting desensitization exercises, it is important to keep sessions short, fun, and rewarding for our dog. In this way, he will begin to re-associate the bad stimulus with positive experiences.
6. Teach our dog the ‘Leave-it’ command.
- First, I get some yummy treats that my dog likes.
- I put one treat in my hand, and make sure my dog knows it is there.
- I close my hand into a fist, and hold it still.
- My dog will naturally nose all over my hand, while trying to get to the treat. I say Leave-it, and wait for him to briefly stop nosing my hand.
- As soon as he stops, I mark the behavior (Yes), and treat him from my other hand.
As our dog learns the command, we can slowly lengthen the time he has to leave our hand alone, before we mark and treat him.
Once we are comfortable with this exercise, we can practice the Leave-it command with a treat on the floor. Make sure that we are fast, or have our dog on a lead. In this way, we may stop him if he decides to lunge for the treat. If necessary, we can also cover the treat with our hand.
As soon as our dog leaves the treat alone, mark and treat him from our other hand. It is important NOT to give him the treat that is on the floor. This may inadvertently teach him that he gets rewarded with whatever is on the ground, which is often not the case in real-world situations.
Keep practicing this until we have a really solid Leave-it command. Now, we can use it when our dog gets tempted by animal leavings during walks.
Note that independent minded dogs may choose to eat the feces anyway, if they decide that our reward is of lesser value. If this happens, I try upgrading my rewards, and make sure that my dog does not get within striking distance of the bad stuff. In addition, I quickly march my dog home and end the walk, if he manages to sneak in some poop eating. This teaches him that if he eats the stuff, the nice and interesting walk ends. That is usually enough of a deterrent to stop any roadside temptations.
7. Make the dog poop taste bad.
Adding meat tenderizer containing papain, in small quantities to our dog’s food, will sometimes prevent poop eating. Make sure it does not contain other additives such as MSG or salt. Some people also suggest adding pumpkin, pineapple, or stool deterrent supplements as alternatives. Our vet can also give our dog medicine, that will make his stool taste extremely bitter.
Only use one additive at a time, so that our dog’s digestive system does not become overly unbalanced.
Remember to consult with our vet, before using any of these additives. Adding too much, may give our dog digestive issues. Some dogs may also be allergic to the added ingredients.
Instead of adding to our dog’s food, we may also coat our dog’s poop with taste deterrents such as Bitter Apple.
Note that taste deterrents are added to the feces, and *not* to the food.
However, stool deterrents only work when our dog is eating his own feces, or those from other dogs in the house. Results are usually much better and longer lasting, when we correct the source of the poop eating behavior, through the other methods listed above.
Hi: I have a ten month old Yorkie who occasionally eats her poop. Her groomer told me that if I buy a can of chunk pineapple and give her just one piece a day, she will not eat the poop any more as they won’t like the acid in the pineapple. It made sense to me so I will give it a try. Good luck to anyone else with this problem.
Jill
HELP! I have a 5 year old lab. He hasn’t been right in the poo department for about 1 year. He struggles to get it out and walks and walks in circles doing little bits all the time. The vet has tried everything. 1st they said it was his bottom glands and they got the ick out and put him on antibiotics. They they said his prostrate was swollen and they castrated him. They say it’s not swollen (the prostrate) now and has just had a colonoscopy. We get the results tomorrow and are of course they are thinking bowel cancer. They also say he definitely has inflammatory bowel but now in the last week he has taken to eating his poo – within seconds of it coming out! He had his diet changed to a vet brand called advance by the vets request and now have been told to give him rice, veg and chicken with bran flakes on top. Any ideas? I feel so sad for him, I just want him to do a poo and not eat it. Thx
Big HUGS to your Lab. Health problems like this can be very stressful for everyone.
It sounds like you are already doing all the right things to help him through this. The only other thing I can think of is to perhaps get a second opinion from another vet.
When my Sibe had issues with her leg, our vet recommended that we go to a specialist who was able to accurately diagnose the issue.
Hope your Lab feels better soon.
Thanks for the reply. Good news is that baxta doesn’t have cancer. He does have severe colitis and is in hospital on cortisone and antibiotics. he is responding and should come home tomorrow for a life of a very strict diet! I will supervise him as best I can but seeing he has such an urgency to go, I just can’t leave him inside overnight as last time we ended up with big messes š I woke to him trying to clean it up!!!
I am so glad to hear that Baxta is responding well to the colitis treatment. It is good that they have identified the issue, and hopefully, it will clear up soon.
He is lucky to have such a caring owner. š
wE HAVE A BIG YARD in a rural area…but the neighbor feeds wild cats AND racoons.
Our Springer (1-1/2 yr. old) runs free in our BIG yard..and into the woods and all…(also watching the deer poop!)..
but she runs to the neighbors and eats cat poop!
Euuuu ! Help!!! What can I do?
What worked best for my dog’s poop eating habit is supervision. In the short term I had to limit my dog’s freedom and only let her out in poop areas during walks where I am right there with her. In this way I can consistently correct her every time she tries to eat poop. I non-mark her when it looks like she is going to eat the stuff, and if she actually eats it, I end the walk and she has to come home where it is a lot more boring.
In this way she learns that eat poop = don’t get to be outside.
During training we can also fence off a smaller portion of our yard and make sure it is poop free. In this way, our can play around in there in addition to the supervised walks.
OMG……my dog Frankie (roti-lab cross and 8 months old) came home last week (we live in the country…farms etc.) and within 2 hours, he tried to stand but couldn’t, his back legs would not hold him….became very lathargic so rushed him to the vet…….long story short, the Vet induced vomiting and he threw up at least 5 lbs of horse poop! By the next day, he was better………vet gave him an antibiotic shot and pills for a week….now, how do I stop him from eating horse poop (I think he eats our other dog’s poop too!)???????? The vet said something like he lacks vitamin B (or is it vitamin B1?)………….
As I understand it, it is vitamin B1. Your vet can probably provide the best advice on how to supplement Frankie’s diet with B1 goodness.
OH MY GOD I HAVE 2 6 MONTH OLD DOGS THAT EAT THEIR OWN POOP AND MY OTHER DOG’S POOP. IT’S SOOOO DISGUSTING AND MY MOM WANTS TO TAKE THEM TO THE POUND BECAUSE SHE’S TIRED OF SEEING THEM EAT POOP ALL THE TIME. I’VE SEEN THEM DO IT AND IT’S NASTY BECAUSE THEY SEE MY OTHER DOGS POOPING AND THEY JUST GO UP TO THEM AND EAT IT RIGHT THEN AND THERE WHEN IT’S NOT EVEN COMPLETELY OUT YET. IT HASN’T EVEN TOUCHED THE GROUND YET AND THEY HAVE ALREADY FINISHED EATING IT. THEY PRACTICALLY TAKE OT OUT OF THEIR BUTTS. IT’S SOO GROSS. THIS IS A SERIOUS CASE. I SERIOUSLY NEED HELP. IDON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO. HELP!!!!!!!!
Hello Gizmo,
One thing that really helped a lot with my dogs is to put them on a very fixed eating schedule. If they eat at fixed times, we can better predict when they need to go poop.
During poop time, I only let the dogs out one at a time. Then I can clean up the poop before letting the next one out.
My dog, Hank, is almost 5 1/2. He never ate poop, just rolled in it- I live in a somewhat rural area, lots of woodland, so who knows what kind of poop it is. Right around the time he was to turn 5, he began eating his own poop. I won’t let him lick me or come close to me with that ucky mouth. I feel bad. I asked the vet what to do, and they recommended the meat tenderizer. I did that for about three weeks, there were lots of landmines out there that did not have the tenderizer in it, so I could not tell if it was working. I thought for a hot minute that it did work, he would sniff the stool then pass it up. But, he is back to eating it- more hard core than before. He’s a machine! Hank has even reared up and growled at my husband over poop. This is not like him to behave that way. He eats IAMS, so I do not know why he is doing it. I am at a loss. The vet is talking about doing some bloodwork on him… I’m concerned that this is going to get expensive. What can I do?
What worked best for my Siberian is very close supervision. I would keep her inside the house and whenever she is outside I would be right there with her to supervise. In this way, she never gets any free poop. If she manages to get one before I can stop her, she loses her pass to be outside and has to come in.
During her poop eating phase, I also put her on a very fixed feeding schedule – so she had a very consistent poop routine. This helps a lot because I can scoop it up as soon as it is produced.
On a side note, many well-known kibble brands contain a lot of grains including corn and wheat that are not very digestible by dogs. In addition, some dogs may also be allergic to them. My Shiba is allergic to wheat and my Siberian is allergic to oats. I now use Innova EVO which is a grain-free kibble.
This article has more on finding the right kibble –
http://shibashake.com/dog/feeding-your-dog-a-healthy-diet
My dog eats my cat’s poop. I have two dogs and a cat, he leaves his own and the other dog’s poop alone and eats my cat’s poop. It’s horrible, my cat is only 8 weeks old and whenever I come downstairs I only see the mark where the poop was before it was eaten. I don’t know what to do about it, I tryed swapping his food for a better quality one.
hi, can someone please help? my dog is now 1 and a half she has been eating poop since she was eight months ive always try to train her not to but nothing works shes an outside dog now ( i really dont think that helps ) and cant come inside until she stops please help!
MY PUPPY IS 4 MNTHS OLD AND HAS EATEN HER OWN POO SINCE WE GOT HER AT 9 WKS I FOLLOW HER AS SOON SHE LEAVES THE ROOM AS SHE IS NOT COMPLETELY HOUSE TRAINED YET BUT MOST OF THE TIME SHE IS TO QUICK FOR ME, I AM GOING TO TRY ALL THESE IDEAS AND IF ANY WORK I WILL LET YOU KNOW.
Hello Patricia,
Yeah definitely let us know how things go with your puppy. Each dog is different so it is always great to share dog experiences and learn from each other. š
Big hugs to your new puppy.
I got a boxer pup about a month ago, and he is now 3 months old. In the past week, I believe he has eaten his poop 3 times now. He does it while I am at work during the day and he is in his crate. Awesome hub shibashake. Not only did I read the hub, but also comments and your responses. I definitely learned a couple new techniques. The meat tenderizer is one I wasnt aware of, so is the canned pumpkin. I will give them a shot. I make sure he poos everynight before bed, and every morning before I go to work. I really dont know what hes pooping out. Thanks for all the great info!