Our dogs love to roll in poop or dead animals they find. They have also been known to eat cat poop. WHY?

Answer 1

Coprophagia is defined as the consumption of faeces by an animal and is a common complaint of owners to their veterinarians. Since there has been little research done on this particular behaviour, the veterinarian is usually poorly equipped to give a recommendation to the owner. This study is intended to provide epidemiological information about the incidence of the behaviour in the canine population, the age of onset, age of disappearance, and various other pieces of information crucial to form a basis from which to study this very important behaviour.
Proposed Causes
Coprophagia may result due to various medical problems. Primary among them are exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, pancreatitis, intestinal infections, malabsorptive syndromes, and over-feeding (especially high fat content diets). However, with the majority of these conditions, many other signs beside the Coprophagia will be prominent, particularly diarrhoea. Coprophagia is usually only a small aspect of these medical conditions.
There have been a variety of behavioural theories put forth as to why canines engage in Coprophagia. It is important at this time to define different kinds of Coprophagia. Autocoprophagia deals with an animal eating its own faeces. Intraspecific Coprophagia deals with an animal eating faeces from another animal within its own species. Interspecific Coprophagia deals with an animal eating faeces from another species (dog eating cat, deer, rabbit, etc faeces). Several behavioural explanations of Coprophagia are discussed below.
Attention-seeking behaviour: When the dog engages in Coprophagia, their owner tends to reprimand them and, therefore, pay attention to the animal. This may be a sequellae to a medical condition which brought about the Coprophagia initially and, now that the medical condition has cleared, the animal continues to engage in Coprophagia in order to get attention from the owner. This is unlikely in well-treated animals, however, because they will likely get all the attention they need without having to draw negative attention to themselves. This is being examined in our study.
Allelomimetic behaviour: The dog observes the owner picking up the faeces and learns from them to do so as well.
Learned behaviour: The dog observes other dogs engaging in Coprophagia and mimics their activity, thus 'learning' it from other dogs within the household or those living nearby. This begs the question as to what started the first dog to engage in Coprophagia. This is being examined in our study.
Maternal behaviour: A ***** with puppies will often engage in Coprophagia, and this behaviour is normal. There are many theories as to why the ***** does this, including keeping the den clean and preventing the scent of the faeces from attracting predators. This is being examined in our study.
Dominance behaviour: There have been reports of a submissive dog consuming the faeces of one or more dominant dogs in the same household. There are other examples in nature where the submissive members of a group participate in apparently bizarre behaviours. This is being examined in our study.
Reinforcement: Something about eating the faeces itself reinforces the behaviour. Things such as taste may be a factor in this. It's simply appealing to the dog to eat the faeces, so it does so. This is the likely mechanism in interspecific Coprophagia such as eating cat faeces.
Feeding behaviour: Many people feed their dogs only once per day. Some postulate that dogs naturally want to have multiple meals throughout the day, hence they use Coprophagia to supplement their feeding schedule and fulfil this need. This is being examined in our study.
Treatment Options
These treatments are all the opinions of the authors of this study. We make no claims about the efficacy of these treatments, nor do we endorse using any specific products herein. This is provided merely to inform interested individuals of what has been used in the past, and the authors' opinions of these treatments. Our study will provide more objective data regarding the efficacy of some of these treatments.
Meat tenderiser: Some people theorise that adding various enzymes to the diet of a coprophagic animal may help. The suspicion is that these enzymes break down more of the nutrients in a dog's diet so that it gets adequate nutrition and need not ingest its faeces to get a proper influx of nutrients. There are some reports of this treatment working.
Forbid (TM)(R): This is a powder supplement added to a dog's food. It is thought that this makes the faeces taste bad for a coprophagic dog. Note that this must be applied to the food of the dog whose faeces is being eaten. It is by veterinary prescription only. The efficacy has not been proved to the satisfaction of the authors. Note also that this can only be given to dogs, so will only be effective with autocoprophagia or intraspecific Coprophagia.
Deter (TM)(R): This is a pill given to a dog with its food. Like Forbid, Deter is suspected to make the faeces distasteful. It is not veterinary prescribed, but the same issues exist as with Forbid.
Bad taste on faeces: This is perhaps the most common treatment for Coprophagia. Owners are advised to put something like hot sauce on or in their dogs' faeces. The theory is that the dog will consume the treated faeces and will have an aversive response to it (due to bad taste) and will eventually cease the behaviour. For this behaviour to be effective, it must be used 100% of the time. Every faeces must have hot sauce or other noxious tasting element on it or else the dog will not associate the bad taste with eating the faeces. It is the opinion of the authors that the owner should simply pick up the faeces instead. Lack of access to faeces is the most effective treatment option (described below). Some dogs will stop engaging in Coprophagia if the cycle is broken by picking up faeces, so that treatment is much easier, much simpler, and more effective means of controlling Coprophagia.
Scolding/Punishment: This is a common method of trying to have an animal stop a behaviour. Barking is a good example- owners think if they scold their pet for barking, it will cease to bark. Punishment almost never works as well as reinforcement, however, and should only be used as a last resort. This may actually lead to more Coprophagia as the dog learns that it gets attention (being scolded) if it eats its faeces.
Ignoring: This is often used by owners because they have figured out that their dogs may want attention from eating the faeces, so they ignore the dog when it's engaging in Coprophagia. This is likely better than scolding and punishment, but probably not as effective as reinforcing a good behaviour (such as coming when called).
Pickup: This is a treatment strategy by preventing access to the faeces by the animal. In extreme cases of Coprophagia, a muzzle may have to be administered when the dog is let outside to prevent it from eating the faeces. Usually simply picking up shortly after the dog and preventing the dog from eating faeces during walks is sufficient. Often this may break the cycle of behaviour as described above under scolding/punishment.
Other chemicals: There are no less than several dozen purported chemical treatments for Coprophagia, including homeopathic remedies. Of course, only anecdotal information is available about these compounds. Some supplements which have been suggested include pumpkin seeds, breath mints, papaya, anise seed, and pineapple. If you're aware of a compound which worked, please email Erik and he will hopefully add a comprehensive list and discussion of rare or exotic remedies.
Muzzle: If the dog engages in this behaviour when unattended, or consumes the faeces directly when it comes out, a muzzle may be a practical solution to the problem. If it is well tolerated and the dog does not have to have it on for extended periods of time, this may be one of the more practical ways to deal with a dog who is coprophagic and unsupervisable.
Wait: Anecdotally, this seems to be a behaviour most often occurring in younger dogs. Many owners report that their dog eventually grows out of it. While not exactly treatment, it is possible that the dog will stop being coprophagic as it ages.
Positive Reinforcement: This is the process of reinforcing another behaviour instead of the Coprophagia. When the dog is about to begin eating faeces, the owner can use any variety of commands. "Leave it", "come", "sit", etc. can all be used. The idea here is to distract the dog long enough to allow the owner to pick the faeces up and make the dog forget about the Coprophagia behaviour.
Combination: It is almost impossible to recommend a single best treatment for Coprophagia for all dogs. Because the mechanism and reasons why dogs engage in this behaviour are unknown, it is not known which behaviour modification therapies will be most effective. It is the opinion of this author that a combination of reinforcing desired behaviours and picking up faeces is the best combination for treatment of Coprophagia.
Health Implications
Most of the time, Coprophagia is merely a habit which is disgusting to owners but causes no real problems for the dog who is eating it. There are some important exceptions to this, however. The most critical is the possibility of ingesting internal parasites. Usually this will happen if your dog eats the faeces of unfamiliar, infested dogs or the faeces of wild life (such as deer). If you keep your animals properly dewormed, the dog eating the faeces of these animals is usually not at risk for internal parasites. However, the possibility of picking up a parasite from a strange animal (especially wild life) is very real, and the dog should be prevented from eating such faeces as much as possible.
In addition to internal parasites, organisms such as Toxoplasma gondii is transmitted in some cat faeces. This can cause a dog a variety of problems, including CNS and muscle damage. Try to keep the dog away from cat faeces as much as possible because of this.
It's also possible that the faeces, if left to sit too long, can become infested with fly larvae, foreign bacteria, fungus, etc. It is best to make sure your dog avoids these sources of disease as much as possible. Be sure to keep your dog away from strange faeces when on a walk and clean up any old faeces in your yard as soon as possible.
Some important canine viral diseases can also be transmitted by the faecal-oral route and infection could result from Coprophagia of infected dogs' faeces. Hepatitis and canidiseases, which are two important diseases which can be transmitted in this manner. Fortunately, vaccinated dogs are at little risk.
Put a slice of fresh pineapple or 3 pineapple chunks in the dog’s food daily OR
One tablespoon of pure natural pineapple juice (these two can take up to 14 days to take hold) OR add half a teaspoon of cider vinegar to food each day. OR A piece of kipper in
each meal OR a sprinkling of nutmeg over the dog’s food has been known to work. OR Courgettes in small pieces, cooked in olive oil – add one dessertspoon to the food daily

Answer 2

Lots of dogs eat poop - cat box crunchies, chicken poo oysters, you name it. It doesn't really hurt them, it just bothers people. The anti-corprophagic powder my vet gave me could go on cat food to make their poo not taste so good. It is much easier and less expensive just to make sure you keep the cat box clear and pick up the dog droppings in your yard so that they're not there to be eaten. As far as rolling in stinky stuff, dogs just love it. They do like to disguise their own scent to improve their chances at hunting, especially after they have had a bath. My dog grew out of that somehow, though.

Answer 3

Animals (like my beagle) like to roll in dead animals to cover their own scent. Dogs are a predatory creature (well, wolves anyway) and rolling in something to change their scent helps to hide them from their prey.

Why dogs eat poop, I have no idea. Sometimes it is a lack of nutrition in their own diet, or just because it smells yummy to them.

Answer 4

The vet says that cat poop is like candy to dogs, and they can't get enough of it. It's not good for their prostrate, however.

As for rolling in carrion and such, to them it's like a perfume. They like the smell, it is a strong and powerful smell, and they'd like the other dogs to admire this on them. It's a social thing with them, although it has the opposite effect on us.

Answer 5

My dog, whose a labrador retriever, also eats poop. Go to your local veterinarian and he/she should recommend for you to get a power spice from the grocery store. you are supposed to sprinkle it on the dogs poop, so that when they eat it, it leaves a light, burning sensation in their mouth. I put in on my dogs poop for about a week, and now she never eats poop! I think she's scared that it might be 'sprinkled'. This powder spice stuff, doesn't hurt them at ALL though. I forget the name of it, but it stopped my dog from eating her poop. So, contact your local veterinarian and see what he or she has to say. Don't forget to ask about what i said! Thanks, Kay! *pick mine as the best answer, please*

Answer 6

KB is right. They roll in poo to cover their smell - kinda like scent camoflauge. My dog loves cow poop and she eats it sometimes too, which makes me want to barf. Not only is your dog covered in poo, but their breath smells like it too! I don't really appreciate dog kisses after that. Apparently no one really knows why dogs eat poop but poop eating has a fancy name: Coprophagia.

Answer 7

they want to smell like it, they basically are not happy with the way they smelt before

Answer 8

BECAUSE THEY'RE DOGS SILLY!!!