What do you do when your new puppy trys to eat her own poo?

Question

The lady I bought her from never told me about that!

When I'm there I pick it up! But she trys to get to it before I get to it!

Answer 1

Although most people find it repulsive, it is quite natural for dogs, especially puppies to eat feces. (Feces found in kitty's litter box is an especially favorite treat.) Fresh feces closely resemble the first solid food the puppy ate: warm, semi-solid, semi-digested food that mom regurgitated for her pups to eat.
Often this behavior will just go away when the pup matures. In the mean time, keep the pup's toilet area as clean as possible. Be sure that the puppy is checked for worms and other possible problems such as something lacking in the dog's diet. It is a good idea to have the dog's diet approved by your vet, or switch to a nutritionally complete dog food sold by your vet or pet store.

Many owners have had success in stopping this behavior by supplementing their dog's diet with one spoonful of canned pineapple or a teaspoon of spinach. There are products on the market such as 'Forbid' that can also be added to the dog's food to help stop the problem.

If the dog is still fond of feces, try teaching your dog not to touch it using the command 'Off.' Put your dog on leash and walk him by some feces. If he shows any interest in it, tell him, 'No, off.' If he continues to go for it, then loudly scold him, 'OFF!!!' and pull him away from it with a short, sharp tug on the leash. When he stops, praise him. Continue walking and keep returning to different piles of feces over and over, repeating the off procedure until he gets the idea that you disapprove of his dietary interests. Whenever he shows no interest in the feces, be sure to tell him how happy you are through praise and reward.

It is also possible to make the feces unappetizing by sprinkling them with hot sauce, lemon juice or anything the dog finds distasteful. Some dogs like hot sauce and will consider it a garnish, so find out what your dog does not like before using it.

Be sure to clean up your dog's feces immediately after he defecates so as to prevent the problem in the first place. Do not give him the opportunity to indulge himself.

Answer 2

Although it is a gross habit, dogs will do that. My friends have 2 french bulldog puppies and they do it all the time. It's unbearably yucky. What he used to do was take a small rolled up newspaper and whack his hand with it really hard to make a loud noise and startle them and it worked cuz the younger one was peeing on the carpet as well as eating poop. And then his mom brang over this electronic negative and positive dog whistle thing. the positive tone is suppose to be a soothing alternative to the negative which is really screeching loud and unpleasant to hear especially since dogs have excellent hearing. and whenever they do something wrong they pressed the negative button and they scurry away. and the positive is followed by a little treat. and they've been doing that for a week and they said they don't do it anymore. problem is i don't know where'd you find one of those things.

Answer 3

Quickly pick up the poo and replace it with food. This is very helpful when trying to house break a dog. A dog will not poo where they eat. Also, a poo eating dog may be a sign of poor nutrition or a outward sign of a parasite. You may need to have the little one checked out by the vet... Do not hit your dog or rub their nose in it. By doing this you teach your dog to fear eating or using the potty.

Answer 4

Dogs do that because they are missing digestive enzymes in their diets. Puppies, generally do it more than grown dogs, but dogs given inadequate food will do it, too. (And females will eat the poop of their puppies until they are almost a month old or older.) To stop this, feed a good quality dog food, or add some plain yogurt to their food. The yogurt has the digestive enzymes that they need.

I got a Dane when he was two years old and had been fed Hill's Science diet. He ate his poop every day. I switched him to a high protein, high fat food (Diamond Hi-Energy Sporting Dog Formula) and he has not eaten his feces for the past year.

Answer 5

well i guess the best thing is to say slap lightly on the knows an say no bad dog an then clean it up an flush down an get this dog house broke it my fill that it know it done wrong or the lady made it do it before so you have to brake the habit buy a slap on the noise an let it out side

Answer 6

My friend's new puppy had this same problem. The vet suggested putting Tabasco sauce on the feces - it doesn't hurt them and the bad taste hopefully teaches them not to eat it. He also said its totally common among puppies. Good luck!

Answer 7

Try Adolphs meat tenderizer on the food. It won't hurt the dog, may like it. However, when it comes out, something happens to it and the dog really is offended by their own poop. It worked on my dog. My vet told me about it.

Answer 8

Dogs do that because
they don't digest all the nutrients
in food the first time around.

it won't kill her,
and probably won't make her sick

and there is very little way to keep her
from doing it

but just try to keep an eye on her and
swat her nose if you catch her doing it
because it IS gross
and can make YOU sick when she
kisses you

Answer 9

It means she is missing some nutrition. Get a better dog food and look into a supplement. You can find some good stuff at my third source below

Answer 10

Just tell it no and take the dog away from it every time it tries to eat it. Eventually it will stop trying to eat it.