Dogs Eat Poo

Dogs Eat Poo

When dogs eat poo, I don’t know about you, but as often as I may see it, it always turns my stomach; even though the dogs apparently couldn’t care less.

Coprophagia is the technical term for this revolting habit, and fortunately not many dogs develop a taste for it. There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of logic involved when dogs eat poo, and scientific studies, dog trainers and vets the world over haven’t really come up with a definitive answer as to why they do it.

Many dogs eat poo belonging to other animals, particularly other dogs, sheep, cats, horses and cattle, and will tuck in heartily when the opportunity arises. It’s a common behaviour but one that’s not very well understood.

The truth is, that nobody really knows why some dogs eat poo as it’s lying there on the grass and others don’t. We understand and accept that it’s natural for dogs to want to sniff the poo; the depositor has all but left a ‘post it note’ via its own anal glands for other dogs to read. Perhaps some of these passing dogs think it’s only natural to consume it, much as we would put a business card in our purse?

The actual act of dogs eating poo seems to be purely a matter of personal preference. Some dogs love to, whereas other dogs, by nature, seems to be much more fastidious.

There are several theories about what causes this strange habit.

Dogs Eat Poo Theory 1

Dogs eat poo to supplement their own diet which is deficient in some way of the nutrients they need. He is not getting enough vitamins from the food he gets at home so he chooses to eat the poo of other animals, usually other cats and dogs, in the hope that he can soak up any residual nutritional content left in it.

This theory is vaguely plausible, apart from the fact that studies have been conducted using dogs suffering from malnutrition and well nourished dogs with a completely clean bill of health and the instances of dogs eating poo was virtually identical in both groups.

Dogs Eat Poo Theory 2

Dogs eating poo may be derived from their carnivorous and scavenging heritage. Generally, when carnivores make a kill, they consume the whole carcass of the animal; everything from the actual meat to tendons and offal which is made up of the organs such as stomach, digestive tract and what it contains; this will include a certain amount of poo. Some parties believe that when dogs eat poo, they are merely demonstrating some age old behaviour patterns from their history.

Dogs Eat Poo Theory 3

There aren’t many specifics to this theory, only that when dogs eat poo, it is because they may be bored or stressed. This is particularly relevant to dogs who are under-exercised or under-stimulated, or who spend large amounts of time excluded from family life, human attention and affection. These dogs often resort to strange behaviours such as fur pulling or spinning in endless circles. Similar behaviours are also seen in horses stabled for long periods of time and animals confined in cages in zoos for example.

In other words, it could be said that dogs eat poo purely because there is nothing else to fill the time.

Dogs Eat Poo Theory 4

Some believe that it is the presence of internal parasites that cause dogs to eat poo. These internal parasites, such as worms, will be leaching nutrition and calories from the dog’s stomach and digestive tract, depending on the species. Dogs usually have good appetites, but the presence of worms will increase it considerably as the dog feels drawn to consume more food to counteract the deficit of food value going to the parasites.

In advanced cases of parasitic load, a dog will turn to other technically edible substances in the absence of other more palatable types of food in order to fill the gap.

Dogs Eat Poo Theory 5

Some people believe that improperly housetrained dogs will eat their own poo in an attempt to conceal the ‘crime’ from their owners. This can develop from dogs that are punished when they have a toilet accident in the house. A dog that poos in the house has either not been housetrained properly, in which case the fault is not his own, or the reason is a medical one and the advice of a vet should be sought. This is particularly important if the onset of this problem has been sudden.

Dogs Eat Poo Theory 6

Nursing female dogs eat poo belonging to their new born puppies. This is done to keep the nest clean and also to hide the existence of her puppies from potential predators. It is thought by some that puppies can start to eat their own poo due to them emulating the behaviour of their mother. Sometimes this can be a habit that stays with them.

It’s quite obvious that there are many schools of thought on why dogs eat poo, yet no definitive answers for why this socially unacceptable habit has taken a hold with some dogs and not others.

All is not lost however. Here is a bit of a list of things that you may want to try in order to prevent your own dog eating poo as much as possible.

As soon as the dog does a poo, clean it up. The simple truth is, if it’s not there, he can’t eat it. Not to mention the fact that you won’t have to cope with the flies, the smell and the inevitability of someone walking in it!

Teach your dog the ‘leave it’ command. This will make life so much better for times when you want to able to let your dog off the lead, and you will know that you can reliably tell him to ‘leave it’ just as he gets to a nice steaming pile! This will also make life safer in general; he may be about to goggle down something unsafe; slug pellets or something treated with herbicide for example.

Some people try boobie trapping piles of poo left in the garden with things like Tabasco sauce or lemon juice. To me, this seems like a great deal of trouble, when you might as well pick up the poo while you're there. Apart from the niceties of handling piles of dog poo, the success of this method is pretty erratic and doesn’t really point to a failsafe method of stopping dogs eating poo. It seems that most dogs hell bent on eating poo, will put up with the brief burning in the mouth!

There are substances that you can get from the vets and pet shops that you put in the dogs food that claim to make the poo unpalatable to the dog trying to eat it, but most dogs can’t read the labels on the packs and don’t realise that’s what the plan is and they eat it anyway!

If you want to have a look at more information about strange dog behaviour issues and find out ways of dealing with them, have a look at Secrets of Dog Training. You can get a free report of the myths of dog training from here, and get a free 6 day mini course on dog training from here.