pup with bad breath

[evelyn1157]

my 4 months plus puppy eats her own faeces when i'm not looking.is there anyway i can stop her from doing this? she knows she's not suppose to eat it and only does it when i'm not looking!!!

[evelyn1157]

does anyone else's dog do this?

[jackiesdaisy1935]

Yes, there are other dogs who do this, from what I understand there is not much you can do except be out there and pick it up right away before she gets a chance to eat it. Maybe someone else on here as other ideas.
Jackie

[Albea]

I read some time ago that if you mix a bit of meat tenderizer with the food they will stop doing that. I don't know if you have such a thing in your grocery stores. The other theory is that they do it because there is something missing in the food. As always, the best bet is to ask your vet or go to: http://www.vetinfo.com

[kobieeli]

My parents have an older female Great Dane that does this, and they have tried almost everything possible to stop her. The vet recommended hot sauce (like Tabasco or similar) on the poop at first, but after that failed they tried a vet product called Forbid. It's a powder that's mixed into the dog's food, I believe. Anyway, even that didn't work, and the vet was stumped. Now my folks are just resigned to having to follow Lizzie around when she goes outside and cleaning up after her IMMEDIATELY!

The vet did say that most dogs can be cured to some extent, but some dogs never stop. It's not known why they do it, either.

[tatsxxx11]

My lab wants to! Since puppyhood. I know her time for "going" though, and stand right beside her and just scoop on the spot! I read something recently about it being related to some instinctive maternal behavior. Gotta check it out again!

[KYS]

When my Rocky was a puppy,
he would eat Sheba's and Pepper's poop.
He would actually run to Sheba when she
was pooping and it barely had a chance
to hit the ground. YUCK!
He was my very first poop eating dog.
I found out his mom was a poop eater too.
Well I learned to clean up the poop RIGHT AWAY, before he had a chance to get at it.
My vet said that there was a good chance he would grow out of this habbit as he matured. Guess what! HE DID!!!

[evelyn1157]

hahaha!rocky really made me laugh.i hope zoey grows out of it too.soon, i hope. zoey is toilet toilet trained. but for the past month she doesn't seem to want to poo in her cage where she's suppose too. she does it outside and she doesn't seem to do it after her meal anymore.

[evelyn1157]

she's also having some problem when it's eating time. it started yesterday . she seems to only eat a few bites and i had to force feed her by hand. what causes this lost of appetite? i'm feeding her eukanuba by the way.my friend has a shih tzu too and hers has had stages when she would hardly eat too.

[Dixieland Dancer]

Dogs who eat poop usually have a nutrient defficency of some sort. It usually comes from a insufficient source of meat protein. Check the labeling on your dog food and see how much meat is actually in the food. I think you will be surprised to see it is mostly a grain based product.

My suggestion is to switch to a different food (such as Innova, Wellness, Eagle) which is made up of more meat than grain. See if you see a difference! You should also notice an improvement on your dogs coat too!!!

[evelyn1157]

i am feeding her eukanuba(chicken)for small breed puppies.The Eagle brand that you have mentioned,issit the same as eagle pack?

[tatsxxx11]

I finally found the article that explained the "maternal" aspect of poop eating! I also believed too that this was due to some type of nutritional deficiency, such as pica in pregnant women. (They crave eating dirt, clay) Seems there are a variety of reasons; and solutions. Hope this is of some help!!

Coprophagia

Coprohagia is the technical term for eating feces. This has been studied in dogs by several people with no definitive answer for "why" being found.

Nutritional deficiencies may be present in some dogs, but not very many. This may be boredom related in many dogs. It has some "natural" roots in the fact that dams often eat their pup's stools, apparently as a method of hiding their presence from predators. Dogs will eat the stools of other species, especially cats and rabbits, too. Dogs obviously do not find the taste of feces objectionable or the behavior would be self correcting. So I think of this as a natural behavior that upsets people. Since dogs have to live with people, it is becomes an issue. There is a product sold that is supposed to help with this habit -- Forbid. It doesn't work in all cases (it might not even work in most cases). Another alternative is putting meat tenderizer in the dog's food. This works for some dogs. Walking a dog on a leash and working hard to keep it from turning and eating its stool is helpful. It is sometimes possible to distract the dog by running a short distance after the dog has a bowel movement or by taking a couple of rapid steps then telling the dog to "sit" and giving it a treat. These behaviors may stay on as substitutes to eating the stool. If you can keep the dog from eating stool for a month or so it is sometimes long enough to break the habit. Picking up stool to prevent its ingestion works in dogs that don't quickly eat their own stool but do so when put in the yard alone. "Booby trapping" a sample of stool by cutting it in half lengthwise, and putting some Tabasco type sauce on the inside of the stool, then putting it back together so that the dog is not aware of the hotsauce until it eats the stool can help in some cases. This can be a hard habit to break.

Mike Richards, DVM

[ October 03, 2001: Message edited by: tatsxxx11 ]

[Logan]

One of my friends believes in Alum powder. It has such a disgusting taste that the dog will truly walk away. She suggests it not only for the "poop", but also in digging areas, chewing areas, etc.

Thank goodness I haven't had this problem, but I'd try ANYTHING if I did!

[RachelJ]

Ever since I cut the dogs rations a bit to prevent weight gain, Tucker will occasionally try to do this. What makes it worse is that *he likes it fresh* That is, poop and turn around and nibble. I've caught him in the act a couple times and when I chastise him, he stops. I'm going to try to feed him a snack in the middle of the day which Hannah won't get, to try to see if a little more food might help. He's been eating a lot of crab apples lately too and I wonder if that makes the poop taste better or something. This is so upsetting because, I have a nice fenced in yard so I don't have to outside with them every single time, and now this which necessitates watching him.

[ October 03, 2001: Message edited by: RachelJ ]

[Pam]

Rachel, I too am forced to follow Bella into the yard even though the yard is fenced. I really have to do this on rainy days (of all days) to make sure she doesn't dig. Logan, where can I buy alum powder? I would love to sprinkle it in the areas where she digs!