Dog eats his poo!!

[emetophobe12]

Our dog has ate his own poo since being a pup. Obviously we don't let him but a few days ago I was in a sticky situation where I had no choice but to be in our garden with my newborn who needed feeding with a dog who had diarrhoea and had already poo'd in the garden but I couldn't clean it up because I had little one in my arms.
As I'm feeding my little one, I look up and there he is taking a good few licks of his mess.
Why does he do this and how do I stop it?
We have trained him so that when he has a poo he comes in the house and he gets a biscuit and we pick it up straight away but it would be nice to not have to worry about this in future.
He doesn't eat other dogs poo either, just his own.

What's his diet currently, what do you feed him and what's his meal routine?

We have this. Our dog is 1 year old now. We STILL have to watch her like a hawk in the garden. It is draining. We have tried all the treats and rewards. I don't have advice but hope someone does!!!

Mine did this. We did the following.

You can buy tablets from pets at home to stop them.

picking up the poo immediately or not letting him out until it had been picked up massively helped.

We kept him on a lead when dd was really young and I couldn't put her down to go pick it up.

We also gave him an extra scoop of food each day.

The tablets make their poo smell and taste vile so they don't eat it.

It could be all sorts of reasons, really!

• Attention seeking. So if at some point you've laughed or accidentally praised him for it, he could be trying to achieve that result again.
• Poor Diet. Some supermarket/cheaper dog foods aren't great in terms of content and many dogs on those diets will eat their poo in an attempt to get more nutrients out of it.
• Fear - if he's ever been told off for pooing in the house, he may be eating the poo to avoid the same thing happening again.

Most likely, though, he just likes the taste. It's not intrinsically harmful for them to do it, though it is gross. The best way to stop it is just to always be there when he poos and pick it up afterwards to try and break the habit, but it's not easy, as if you miss a poo and he eats it (and likes it again), you're back to square one

Mine has never been interested in dog poo but he LOVES cat poo

My dog is 11 and she has always done this🤢🤢.

One of mine does this, I researched and tried lots of things and have now decided she's just a greedy labrador. She's 10 and still needs to be watched like a hawk. She's knows she's not allowed to do it so if we stare at her she doesn't attempt it, but would absolutely do it if she was alone and we hadn't picked up straight away

Usually it is due to how they were raised as puppies (loads of studies on this).

If the breeder allowed the puppies to poo in the whelping area and not clean it up puppies will eat their poo throughout their life. As soon as the puppies can move a bit the breeder should be encouraging an area for toileting away from the main area. This area needs to be kept clean.

It is very rarely due to deficiency in diet unless it starts out of the blue in a dog that does not eat poo

Never attention seeking behaviour.

If when you are out with your dog and they poo drop a treat in front of them. This gives you time to pick up poo while they are distracted and also helps in breaking the behaviour of have a poo and turn to eat it as you are encouraging them to move forward. Over time you can increase the distance in front of them in throwing the treat.

However this is not a cure but may be a good distraction for some dogs.

Adding pineapple and adding stuff to their food rarely helps.

@Shmithecat2 we feed him AVA (pets at home brand) Labrador breed specific dry food. 300g x2 a day. He's a pretty big lab.

@seepingweeping I'll have to look into the tablets! Didn't know they existed. We always pick his poo up immediately because we're very conscious of it and we want to make sure that we reward EVERY time he comes back in the house. He's never in the garden without us watching.

@cupsofcoffee I don't think it's attention seeking as when he goes over to his poo for a sniff he looks at us and knows we're watching and then comes over rather than taking a bite.
We feed him AVA Labrador breed specific food £35 a bag so not the cheap supermarket stuff. AVA is the only brand that stopped his runny poo's when he was a pup so we just kept him on it ever since. He's also never poo'd in the house so it's not out of fear either 🤷🏽‍♀️

@Leftphalange ours is a Labrador too and does the exact same thing. Maybe it's a lab thing 😂 greedy buggers!

@PollyRoulson interesting! When we arrived to pick him up when he was 8 weeks old, he absolutely stunk of poo!! The pups were all in their own crates and didn't look like they had specific areas to toilet. It was quite sad and I was very glad to be taking him home that day.
Interestingly he never even looks at his poo when out. We can easily pick it up without having to worry if he's gonna turn round and eat it. We do always reward him with a biscuit when he comes in the house though when he does it in the garden. It took a lot of time and training when he was younger but I think if given the opportunity or if we forget to pick it up because we're busy etc and then let him back out, he would more thank likely have a nibble 😬 this is when we're not looking though and we find out by looking on our cctv

Then I suspect it's just because he thinks it's delicious @emetophobe12

We got our greedy labs out of the habit by using pineapple juice in their food, but still working on the 6 month pup… I will research the anti poo pills!