The most disgusting habit of all

[MaureenSowerbutts]

My cute, beautiful, nine month old puppy is the best thing ever. He has truly changed the family, we have had him since August except for one thing...

He eats his own poo! Who knew that was a thing?! I didn't! The happy puppy handbook didn't mention that!

Anyone got any ideas on how to stop it?! Have tried putting pineapple in his food as was told that might help but no he's still gobbling them up.

Not all the time, occasionally he obviously doesn't fancy it but 99% of the time it's gone straight way.

All suggestions welcome!!

It many cases this is a phase they go through, provided you don't let it become habit.

Pineapple etc is old wives tales. The only sure fire way to stop him eating his own poo is to pick it up before he gets a chance. If that means standing over him while he does it, then that's what you gotta do (sorry).

p.s other things to try - making sure he is fed a high quality food (sometimes they eat poo for the nutrients because their diet is deficient) and make sure you don't over feed him (over feeding results in food passing not fully digested so still quite tasty when it comes out).

Mostly still a phase, though.

My puppy did that! He grew out of it quickly though

A spoonful of live yoghurt each day is good for this.

Our springer pup did this for a while, truly vile habit. She's stopped eating her own but is quite fond of cat, fox, sheep, rabbit poo when out for a walk it's a bloody good job she's cute.

So glad my boy is not some sort of canine weirdo!! Thank you.

We do stand over him but on the odd occasion we don't notice it is literally eaten in a flash. But that being said some mornings I come down and he has been on his pad in his run ovetnight and it is stone cold...so odd.

Quite careful about what we feed him, maybe we are over feeding him though...might try and strip the diet back to see if that helps.

Thanks for the advice

Mine used t do this and stopped eating his own poo almost overnight when I put him on a better quality food.

Sadly he still loves other dogs poo and I haven't worked out how to persuade all other dog owners to switch their dogs onto the same food as mine 😉

Can I ask what food you use BabyBlackbird?

Mine has never eaten his own, but he'll eat the cats' poo when given a chance. We have to keep the litter trays where he can't get to them. Also, if one of the cats is sick he seems to view it as a delivery meal

By the way I have also read that it can almost become a resource guarding thing if you get stuck in a habit of rushing to stop your dog eating it. Your eagerness to stop him is supposed to make him think it must be so high value he must do it !!

It certainly feels like that with mine because he will gobble it up even faster if he sees me closing in on him to try and stop him.

As you can tell I haven't found the answer yet and mine has been doing it for nearly 4 years.

@MaureenSowerbutts I switched him onto Millie's Wolfheart kibble.

Thank god I don't have a cat!!

Thanks @BabyBlackbird I shall do some research.

My 8 month old goldie retriever puppy only ate cat and sheep poo but then, once the snow and frost set in, he suddenly decided his own, iced poo lolly was much more exciting!

So when it snowed again this past weekend, I was making sure I picked it up before it froze!

It’s a vile thing indeed OP!

My bitch had puppies last year, the pups loved eating each others poo. You could be picking up a poo one of them left on the floor and turn round to find the other 9 clustered around a fresh shit dropped while you weren't looking. Disgusting creatures.

Has he been wormed?

@Verbena37 oh yes mine definitely gets worse when it's freezing cold. We call them poopsicles 😳🙄

He has @hodgeofthehedge

He's nine months old and not clean overnight? Why is he using pads?
Take him out to toilet on a lead. That way he can't eat it.
Mine used to do this on kibble. She doesn't now she's on raw.

Mine eats her own poo - but not all the time, and I think it is something of a game. When she has a poo in the garden I am standing nearby with the shovel to pick it up straight away. She will poo and spin so quickly it's a race to the turd. However, on the odd occasion that she has had a surprise poo in the garden (and I am watching from inside - probably because it is raining or snowing) I notice she will just sniff it and walk away, presumably just because I am not standing there. I wonder if I have created the problem myself.

@Lucisky that sort of confirms my theory about mine almost resource guarding it ! Pesky little buggers!