Zer0_pt, Flickr
Meet Mary Burch, American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen Director and Paw Nation's new expert columnist addressing your questions on animal behavior.
Dr. Burch has over 25 years of experience working with dogs and she is one of less than 50 Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists based in the United States. She is the author of nine books, more than 200 articles and has been a lobbyist on legislation concerning hazardous dogs and responsible dog ownership.
Dear Dr. Burch,
My dog has a disturbing habit -- he eats his own poop! Why does he do this?
Dr. Burch Says: If there is a dog behavioral issue that makes us cringe, it's when dogs eat their own waste. We're talking about when the dog eats his own or another dog's poop.
There are several reasons dogs eat feces. A few of the most common reasons include:
A Nutritional Deficiency: When there are inadequate nutrients in a dog's food, he feels hungry and eats whatever is readily available. Nutrients can be depleted as a result of parasites like tapeworms. Not enough or too much food can cause the nutritional deficiencies that result in coprophagia, the consumption of feces. Too much food, especially for puppies, can cause diarrhea that depletes nutrients. If there is a period of time that dogs are starving and they eat feces to survive, like some feral dogs, they may develop this hard-to-break habit.
A Desire to Clean House: Dogs like to be clean. When confined in dirty crates or small areas, some dogs will eat their feces to clean the area. Dams (mother dogs) will often eat poop to keep their puppies clean. When puppies are newborns, dams lick them to provide stimulation that results in urinating and defecating.
A Need for Self-stimulation: Dogs who are bored will sometimes eat feces simply to have something to do. Confinement combined with neglect can cause maladaptive behaviors like eating feces. Some dogs are copy-cats (or copy-dogs, as the case may be) and they will join in if other dogs in the household are providing waste management services in the backyard. Training is a good tool for managing this behavior. A reliable "come" and "leave it!" will help prevent the problem in instances where the dog finds something before you do. Your veterinarian can talk to you about nutrition and the appropriate food for your dog.
Basically, the main reason dogs eat poop is because it's there. If your dogs are eating feces when they're in the backyard, remember, they can't eat it if it's not around. Do some quick patrolling and cleaning of your yard before the dogs go out.
Do you have an animal behavior question for Dr. Burch? E-mail your questions to mary@pawnation.com.
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We have 3 dogs...We pick dogs' waste up in backyard almost daily 1) to prevent rats coming in yard to eat dog feeces if they can not find food and 2) we can play outside and do not want to stomp on feeces. One of my dog eats feeces sometimes...yuck. I do not let my dogs licking my face.
Adding about 1/4 cup of thawed frozen spinach to a dogs food will often stop the behavior. Or you can sprinkle the dog food with meat tenderizer like Adolph's Meat Tenderizer. This will take a couple of meals to take affect. It doesn't work with all dogs but if caught early it really helps. The best deterrent is to relieve your dog on leash and give a quick collar correction if he/she turns to consume. Then pick up the deposit and dispose of it.
I had a dalmation that used to do that. My wife said there must be something we could put on it to keep her from doing that and I said, baby it's poop, what can you put on poop to make it taste worse than poop?
I had to pick it up when it fell out of her butt.
They do have a supplement that when supplied with the food makes there Fecis taste very nasty. The problem is dogs, puppies will eat anything if any body tells you they have a scientific reason for this do not listen nobody still knows why. I have a German Shepard and as a puppy I would catch him eating our other dog's Fecis Alpha and Beta animals will do this. My best advise is out of site out of mind. You have to be dilligent in the clean up as soon as your dog goes pick it up. eventually through good food and not having it available your dog will stop.
add accent sprinkled on their food and it will stop
if you put a few chunks of pineapple in his/her food he will stop. It makes the poop bitter I guess.
Kevin, that is the funny thing I ever heard. Thanks for giving me my great laugh of the day.
I have a rescue 2-3 year old maltese she was from a puppy mill. If I don't catch immediatly she'll eat her poop. I believe it is from being caged and neglected. She is doing well adjusting to the good life, and gets lots of love, exercise. She is worth all the extra TLC...........
My dog is well fed, I walk him every day and I clean up right after his finished, so no excuses for him, He's a 4 years old lab now and he's been doing this since he was a poppy, I've tried everything to change his bad habit, medicine, pineapple, pepper and so on...he knows it's wrong because he even watch if we're not around and try to eat it, of course he's been watched and I don't let him do it . The spinach is new to me, I'll try even tough at this point I don't thing there is a cure for it. He's a wonderful well behave dog and I guess no dog is perfect.
I learned a new word from this, "Coprophangia" will have to rember that.
Well Bob, looks like you did not learn much, you misspelled the word.
I have one question: what kind of sentence can you use this "new" word in???
This is one reason among many that I switched from dogs to cats a long time ago. Cats are such clean animals and groom constantly. My two new kitties which I adopted after my last cat died even groom each other. You'll never see a cat eating poop from from its litter box or eating their own vomit like dogs do. I've, also, never seen a cat walking around with poop entangled in their fur and dangling from their rear that is common with dogs. If you don't want to be disgusted by your animals behavior, get a self-grooming, well-mannered cat.
Holly, I beg to differ. Cats will eat poop and they've had it hang on their butts too. I have to shave the hair from around her butt, so it won't hang. As far as grooming goings she's not to good about that either. She keeps knots on the side of her neck and bellie and again I have to shave her. You would be amazed at how many animals in the worl do this poop eating. I watch America's funniest video and watch people let their dogs lick them in the mouth and if they saw what I see every day they would vomit.
@Holly
Cats have individual personalities and issues just like people and just like dogs. There are cats who will eat their own vomit. There are cats who walk around with poop stuck to their butts. Never seen one eat his own poop directly. But have seen them step in the poop in the litter box. Leave a trail across the house, sit down and then clean (read: lick) it off the paws. That's eating it, isn't it?
You're new to cats. Give it time, observance and thought.
Thanks for providing this service My dog picks what we call "nuggets" out of the the cats litter box, and leaves one or two in the hallway. I HOPE she not eating any. I wonder if this is done for the same reason as eating their OWN poop.
I believe you can train your dog not too do this disgusting habit, I know my two Bichon Frise don't have that habit and the maid or gardener cleanup immediately so it's never a temptation.
Maid or gardener?? What world do you live in?
Yeah, I let my husband do it!
Yeah, I'm buying that you have a gardner and a maid. Perhaps your personal assistant is actually the one slummin' it on aol for you?