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Stop Your Dog From Eating Poop

By DoodyCalls

Learning About Poop Eating and How to “cure” it

At DoodyCalls, we spend a lot of time with our dogs. In fact, our dog Rusty—who looks a whole lot like our mascot Doodle—sleeps right next to me at night. Although hard to wake up in the morning, once he’s up he says hello with a good morning kiss and quickly gets ready to go to work.

Because of Copropahia, there was a time when the thought of getting a kiss from Rusty would not have been a good thing. Rusty is a rescue dog and shortly after adopting him, we discovered that he ate his own poop! Fortunately, he no longer does this, and his kisses are a whole lot more pleasant.

When we adopted Rusty, he had a terrible case of intestinal worms and joining a new family must have been pretty stressful for him. It took some time, but he recovered from the worms and after he grew used to his new home, he stopped his poop eating escapades.

Dog poop eating is GROSS, but not necessarily detrimental to your dog’s health, and it can generally be stopped. Sometimes Coprophagia (when your dog eats his poop), can be an indication of more serious problems though, and you should have your pal checked out by a vet.

We discuss two of the more common reasons dogs eat their own waste below. To learn more about why your dog may be eating his own poop, visit the Coprophagia Wikipedia entry.

  • Problem: lack of nutrients in his diet – Dogs that have parasites or worms do not digest food properly, because the parasites consume many of the nutrients. Dogs may try to re-digest the food to get all of the nutrients they can from it.
  • Solution: Make sure your dog is getting Proper Nutrition
  • Solution: Have your dog tested for worms.
  • Problem: Stress: When dogs are in high stress situations they may behave differently. These differences include eating, which includes eating their own waste.
  • Solution: Did you just adopt your dog? If so, give him some time to adjust! Exercise is also a great way to reduce stress.

Off-the-Shelf Deterrents

By making your dog’s poop taste really, really bad, the following products will deter your dog from eating his own waste.

Do-It-Yourself Solutions

Do-it-yourself suggestions to help you stop your dog from eating his own poop include:

  • Coat stools with hot sauce or lemon juice. Add a few tablespoons of canned pumpkin to his food bowl each day. Pumpkin tastes good in food, but disgusting in dog poop.
  • Add meat tenderizer to your dog’s food (it will make the dog waste taste VERY bad).
  • Keep waste picked up on a regular basis. If you don’t want to do it yourself, call DoodyCalls and we’ll pick it up for you!

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