Poo eating.....

_HP_

_HP_

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I have a 11 month old terrier who has a horrid habit of eating poo. I know this its normal for dogs to eat poo such as horse poo, rabbit poo etc but this little dog will eat dog poo while it's being pooed. he will literally stand behind my other terriers with his mouth open. *gags
I've not made a big hoohar over it because I cannot tell him 'no' without giving my older dogs a complex about pooing. It'll be very difficult to let them out separately as they basically have the run of the place all day/evening. It's only the fresh stuff he eats.

Will he just grow out of it? He doesn't go out of his way to do it but if he notices one of them having a poo, he'll make a beeline over.
 
A long time ago we fostered a two year old flatcoat for a year who did this, was forever hoovering up behind our lurchers. His breath smelt vile and his nemesis was in drinking a load of water after eating poo and throwing the lot up all over the kitchen...two square yards of liquid dog poo, warm and stinky. Our vet suggested it was a mineral deficiency but it was so long ago that I cannot remember which mineral was involved. Luckily for us his own family were ready to have him back soon after that episode. Shame, he was a lovely dog without that habit.
 
Try adding pineapple or grated courgette to your older dogs food. It makes the poo taste horrid!!! Unfortunately coprophagia is a self rewarding behaviour and difficult to stop. One of mine indulges in it ( other dogs in the park only never her own or my other dogs) and I tried most things. She now carries a ball on our walks as she cannot eat and carry at the sand time.
Good luck
Ps: people wonder why I don't let dogs lick my face......enough said I feel
 
Thanks for your replies ...

I'll try the pineapple AND the courgette...my older dogs will eat anything :D

I did wonder about a deficiency....he's a funny little thing, very fussy about dog food .He'll eat fine for a few days and then get all fussy for a day or two.
 
I would have to muzzle him. Our dogs have never done it but a friends lab did and it made me vomit, let alone the dog!
 
One of my dogs did this as a puppy. She's the only one I've ever had who has done it so I researched it avidly. Turns out its often quite natural for a young dog to do this, often it's nothing to do with nutritional deficiences but rather a primitive trait. They say to not tell the dog off for doing it, I generally whooshed her on and carried on quickly away from the poo. She would even eat her own poo so once she'd done it, again I briskly walked away from the poo with her reluctantly in tow. She's almost 2 years old now and hasn't eaten any dog poo for at least a year now although she does still wander over to sniff at fresh poos and then looks up at me and immediately trots along after me.
 
Thanks SF
Well let's hope he grows out of it :) It's hard because I don't walk my dogs , they just have free run of the place and so I'm not always there when he does it but if I am, I just try to distract him.

Thanks all...
 
_HP_ said:
Thanks SF
Well let's hope he grows out of it :) It's hard because I don't walk my dogs , they just have free run of the place and so I'm not always there when he does it but if I am, I just try to distract him.

Thanks all...
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Same here. My dogs all have free range of the farm but they do mostly do their morning poos while I'm going round feeding all the horses so I'm on the move with them the whole time. The ex-poo eater at my house tends to hang around wherever I am so I can see her all the time and was able to take avoiding action if I saw her taking more interest than she should do about poos. From what I read, most young dogs do grow out of it so I wouldn't overly worry about it.
 
Our oldest Spinone used to eat the other dogs poo we tried all sorts of things to stop her, she stopped when we changed her over to a raw diet. She still eats other animals poo in the park, but no longer other dogs.
 
Switching to raw mostly made ours stop, but they occasionally revert. Makes me hurl. We stopped them by picking it up super quickly and 'owning' the poo so they weren't allowed it. Can you teach a very strong 'leave' command so you can stop the dog doing it whilst not freaking out the other dog? I feel your pain, it makes me absolutely gag!

Some foods smell very strongly and are 'nice' to eat even when they've gone through the system. It's often the commercial sugary colourful foods that encourage dogs to eat the resultant poop.
 
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