Please help me! Puppy eating shit 🤢

[TheShitEater]

My 4 month old small breed dog.

If she poops outside she just walks away.

Shea still learning so is having accidents inside and she immediately starts to eat it.

It's all in a split second and I usually catch her gobbling it.

It knocks me absolutely sick.

I know puppyhood involves shit but I didn't expect this and it's affecting my affection with her as I find it hard to have her lick me or be near my face cause she does this 😭

I take her out after waking, each meal etc... But maybe once a day she's pooping inside and eating it.

She's on a really good food (orijen puppy)

our dog ate other dogs and cat poo when he was a puppy. it's grim but not unusual and he grew out of it after about a year. might stop with yours as soon as she's fully house trained.

Usually down to the breeder not having a clean area for the mother and puppies.

The Bitch will tidy up after the puppies, the puppies watch their Mother and coy them. If the breeder keeps the area clean the puppies will not need to clean up themselves.

In your case you need to get your puppy outside more often. So take out more regularly. If they dont poo inside or near their area they will not eat it. Best to crack this early or if can become a learnt behaviour.

This is the thing I take her out constantly. I'm always in the garden and I have treats near back door for when she goes.

Breeder was great, pups had a whole room and toilet area was in corner and she took them out regularly from 6 weeks.

Is there anything I can do to make her stop?

I had this problem with my cocker spaniel puppy about 20 years ago, although it was mainly outside.
I spoke to the nurse at the vets about it. She said it is called cophragia (or something like that). She advised to fry off some courgettes & mix it in to the dog's food. Apparently that tastes bitter & they don't like it.
It worked well for us, hope it does for you too.

We gave our dog a few chunks of pineapple to help him stop eating his poo.

Yes take her out more regularly. If she has the opportunity to do one poo a day inside that it just literally feeding the habit.

You may say "this is thing that you are going outside regularly" but it is not enough for your puppy if they are pooing indoors. its a bore and it is time consuming but it will only be for a few weeks at the most (possibly even days)

it is very very rare for it to be due to a dietary issue at this age and as the puppy is only eating the poo done inside I would dismiss dietary issue. you can mess around with pumpkin pineapple and courgette etc but will be wasting your time

Small breeds need to go out more often than larger ones as they just don't have the bladder capacity to hold it for as long - and that's doubly true for puppies.

I know you say you're going out with her a lot, but if she's having accidents then it's not often enough - we took ours out every 30 minutes or so at that age, as well as after food, drink, play, training and meals. We also took him out straight after walks too.

You also need to make sure you're cleaning up any accidents with proper pet enzyme solution - otherwise she'll be able to smell where she's gone and will keep doing it.

Our puppy did this - to break the habit I took her outside every 30 mins then extended it to once an hour when we were managing to not poop in the house at 30 mins - I kept it at an hour for a while I'm afraid then as she aged she went longer between poops and eventually was taken out maybe 4 times a day and she would only poop those times - it took a few weeks of watching her intensively though

Are you telling her off if she poops in the house? Only she could be eating it to avoid a telling off

Absolutely not. I never, ever shout at her.

If she goes outside, praise and a treat.

If she goes inside I just clean it without any acknowledgement.

OK, I was doing every hour but I'll switch to 30 mins and see if that helps.