Dog Eats Poop: The Saga Revisited
Could You Stay Mad At Her?
I tell you what I really really love my puppy. But I absolutely could not stand knowing the dog eats poop. Don’t get me wrong, something like that is definitely not a deal breaker for me. I believe that when you adopt an animal, you have a responsibility that you can’t just give back, especially over something as silly albeit disgusting as this.
I actually just got back from the veterinarian last night and looking at her records, when I 1st brought her in there she weighed but a scant 5.8 pounds. She is a miniature–a miniature schnauzer that is–but it’s hard to remember her being that time. She’s always been quite precocious and so full of energy it baffles the mind.
Sometimes in the middle of the night, she’ll actually get up and walk circles on the carpet. I tried taking her outside to go potty, to no avail. She just doesn’t seem to have to go–it must be that high-octane puppy energy (if only I could bottle that and sell it).
Dog Eats Poop? How About Plays With It!
But back to the topic, right from day one we noticed her playing with her own feces, which really is quite repulsive when you consider the fact that she walks all over the furniture as well as the bed would sleep in. I’d ever seen a dog play with their own poop until I met this one.
Anyhow, she didn’t just play with her own poop she ate. I tried plenty of behavioral intervention methods that my research turned up but I really had no luck ultimately. The only thing that works for us with this particular dog, who has proven to be extremely stubborn, was a combination of behavioral modifications and coprophagia tablets.
We decided to approach the situation on the cautious side as she was a young pup and we didn’t want to introduce anything that would upset her belly or make her sick in general. Naturally, we tried several of the most popular and effective methods 1st that didn’t involve any pills. Actually, I don’t want to say that these are only available in pill form because you can get powders and even a liquid to put on their food.
Here’s a quick breakdown of how we approached this problem behaviorally:
Obviously, if the poop isn’t there than the dog can’t eat it. So we made a huge effort to not only praise her when she went potty outside but also made sure that we clean up after her when we let her out right away.
Even though the weather was cold, we took the time to give our puppy plenty of praise every time she went potty outside and she also got a cookie. The idea is that hopefully the food will smell more enticing than the feces. If your dog eats poop, you might want to rethink allowing them to give you kisses especially on the face.
Once we were successful in establishing a routine for her we played with her more often because one of the prime reasons for coprophagia is simply to get some extra attention from you. If you’re not getting your puppy enough attention, but you react clearly when she learned he makes a mess in the house, she knows that this is one way to get your attention. Even just adding an extra 5 min. a day makes a huge difference–I take our puppies to the top of our staircase with a couple of balls and just let them chase them down the steps, bring them back to me, wash rinse repeat, etc.
Dog Eats Poop: The Problem Improved With Some Simple Adjustments to Our Interactions With the Puppy
So, up until now, we had gone with positive reinforcement for good behavior as well as not yelling unless the puppy is caught in the act of making a mess on the floor. We also committed to spending a little more time with her so she wouldn’t feel she had to miss behave in order to garner our attention.
But, as I said, the problem persisted. I ordered several different kinds of coprophagia tablets, powders, and a handy liquid that could be squirted on food or treats. They all had pretty much the same effect, but I found powder easiest to use. If you buy some pills, it’s easy enough to take a pair of spoons and use them to crush the pill into a powder form.
Dogs will smell undigested food in their feces and may be tempted to eat it again. You can minimize this by eliminating wet foods if used in implementing the use of dry dog food only.
There’s also a psychological component when a dog eats poop passed down from seeing their mother in any feces which may have been left behind which is natures way of not exposing the young pups to a plethora of germs and bacteria. The psychological aspect comes in when the behavior as a soothing effect, much like a distant memory of her 1st family.
So, in a nutshell, it’s probably best to start out by addressing the issue with behavioral changes for both you and for your dog. Switching to dry food may help reduce the behavior as well. Praise and rewards are important when training a dog and it’s no less true in this situation.
You may find, and I hope you do, this is all you need to curb this disturbing behavior. Should you find that the problem persists, consider some tablets, pills, powder or liquid coprophagia additives. Within a few weeks you can have the problem solved and not have to worry about if the dog eats poop.
-Jim
