Older dog eatting feces

Okay...I know that this is a common occurance but my dog is 6 1/2 years old and I have never seen him eat feces before. I have always seen him actually avoid poop in the yard. For some reason this morning he went out front and over to the side of our house out of view, of course I followed and when I came around the corner he stepped into our neighbors yard and sniffed feces and then grabbed it. :eek: I told him no, drop it which he did. I have never seen him do this...if he was a girl I would have to call him a Diva because he just thinks poop is gross(obviously not any more). What would cause him to all of a sudden want to eat it? I also think it may have been his poop, as earlier he had also gone to that side of the yard and our neighbor just has a really little dog--poop was way to big to be his :D If anyone knows what might all of a sudden cause a dog to do this let me know. Thanks.

What food are you feeding?
And there is a product called " Deter" sold at petsmart that you put in their food that will deter this behavior..

Both are dogs are fed Beneful dry in the morning and then for lunch the get dry with a spoonful of canned food(our other dog is anorexic and has to have the canned to get her to eat, so he gets a spoonful too so he does not think he is being left out). He has been on this food for some time now and I never noticed this behavior until this morning, like I said he use to hate to be near poop in the yard. If this continues I will try that product. Thanks for the advice.

I'm not an expert on this but I've heard alot about it. I heard it usually means they are lacking something in their diet - but I'm not sure what. Even though your dog has been on that food for some time, he is getting older and their bodies change and maybe at this age he's lacking something. At 7 or 8 (depending on the breed), they are already considered seniors. Hope this helps a little bit. Anyone out there know what it is that dogs lack when they do this? :confused:

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Originally Posted by WELOVESPUPPIES

Both are dogs are fed Beneful dry in the morning and then for lunch the get dry with a spoonful of canned food(our other dog is anorexic and has to have the canned to get her to eat, so he gets a spoonful too so he does not think he is being left out). He has been on this food for some time now and I never noticed this behavior until this morning, like I said he use to hate to be near poop in the yard. If this continues I will try that product. Thanks for the advice.

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There is your problem right there- Beneful is high in grains and husk.. May I suggest a lamb and rice- something like Nutro.. BTW- it will cost you the same as they eat less of it..
That is exactly what is wrong I would bet- there are alot of fermented grains in that food.. ( think about it- its owned by a cereal company..)

Thanks to you both. I thought it might be a lack of something in his diet, did not really give his age a consideration with his diet though. I hate to think of my baby getting older :( I will look locally for Nutro brand dog food as I do not recognize the name. If we do not have it locally I will ask our vet what he recommends. I guess we will now have to possibly by two different age groups of foods as our other dog is only 4. I will give this a try and see if it helps, thanks again. :D

It is called "copraphagia" and this has been discussed here many times. For more information, for example, see this thread.

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Originally Posted by borzoimom

There is your problem right there- Beneful is high in grains and husk.. May I suggest a lamb and rice- something like Nutro.. BTW- it will cost you the same as they eat less of it..
That is exactly what is wrong I would bet- there are alot of fermented grains in that food.. ( think about it- its owned by a cereal company..)

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How weird. :eek: I just received a coupon for this food in the mail!! The pet store down the road carries this brand so I will be picking some up this weekend. Thanks.

I was reading about this and it is really common, dogs eat poo for no other reason than it tastes nice to them. Disgusting I know but the article said it is nothing to worry about.

Yes, apparently it is really common and I've seen it in our dogs too.

Dogs are scavengers/opportunists by nature so if they come across a stool that is palatable, they might decide to eat it.
Meaty diets create more attractive stools than dry diets.

In one of my dog behaviour books, it says:

"Yet, for the dog, coprophagia is not usually a problem. It is simply a case of a scavanger maximizing his intake and taking advantage of a nurtient source."

It also says:

"Of course there may be increased risk of gastric upset or parasite infection for dogs which engage in this behaviour but otherwise the main danger is that the owner may reject their dog as a result of it."

In the UK, there was a series of pet health helplines set up one time and the most rung line by far was the coprophagia line.