[bucksmom]

Could someone please give any info on my 15 week old basset tries to eat his poop every chance he gets that I am not watching??
Thanks Kris

 

[2happybassets]

We have a similar problem with our puppy, Thor, who is about the same age. Every once in a while, we catch him trying to eat the poop of our adult basset, Hilda. We wondered if her poop smells different because she eats different dog food. My husband scolded Thor for trying to eat Hilda's poop. He then growled at the poop and ran away from it.

I'm starting to think it's just puppy curiosity. He seems to be mouthing and playing with it more then actually eating it.

 

[Mikey T]

Could someone please give any info on my 15 week old basset tries to eat his poop every chance he gets that I am not watching??
Thanks Kris[/b]

Because he can there are many theories most don't hold water. My favorite is by ray coppinger as told here ( caution word that may be offensive to some are part of the quote]

How Wolves Became Dogs

Jonica: it seems to me pretty reasonable that they go out and get pets. You know they go and get wolf cubs and so on. What’s wrong with that idea of domestication?

Prof. Raymond Coppinger: Well first of all wolves are just trained to run away from you. I mean they’re going to hide their little … isn’t this a much better model. You develop a better mousetrap. You develop a village. You get food in the village. Guess who comes? All right. Now you want to postulate some great scene where I’ve got to go out into the wilderness to get those things. Which one looks, which one looks easier to you? Far from we humans domesticating them, dogs invaded us. Not as pets, but as pests.
.. it’s the rules of natural selection. It’s Darwinism if you will. They’re coming to the food. They’re coming to the waste products and the thing about humans is that there’s tremendous numbers of waste products. Scavenging on village wastes was a wonderful strategy for the early wolf-dog - and maybe they weren't such a complete nuisance after all. Rubbish dumps breed disease. A mobile post-pleistocene garbage service might have come in handy. And it could help explain the dog's least endearing habit. Eating shit.[/b]

 

[Terry]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm. That one makes you think. Maybe there really is no other reason than that for eating poop?

I am VERY thankful that, though Moe has had many bad habits, poop-eating hasn't been one of them. At least, not for too long. As a youngster he did like to sample rabbit, skunk, and bird poop. Perhaps it was only youthful curiosity? Whatever the reason, he seemed to outgrow that particular habit.

 

[Elmer-n-Button]

There is a powder you can get from the vet. It's called Forbid and you put it on their food. Supposed to make Poop taste awful. Hmmmm, that's something, huh? :lol: I mean, how bad does it have to taste???!! :lol:

Seriously, I found that once we cut out denta sticks, (the minty, almost plastic -y looking treat sticks, and other treats that are that consistency,) that Button, our little poop eater, stopped doing that. Apparantly, these kinds of treats don't break down as much in the digestive tract and the flavor and bits of it must still come out in the excrement (Now, doesn't that sound better than poop?) We now stick with the regular treats, Milk bones or Science diet. They are the same consistency as dog food, and we find it discourages "encore meals".

Good luck!

 

[bucksmom]

Thanks so much elmer n button, i appreciate your information...Buck...trying to figure out how to down size my pics...they are too big to post, not real great with computer....

 

[shallhb]

Thanks so much elmer n button, i appreciate your information...Buck...trying to figure out how to down size my pics...they are too big to post, not real great with computer....[/b]

There's some hope---often they grow out of it. But not always...

 

[Mikey T]

food additive general prove to be useless

Owner Documentation of Coprophagia in the Canine
"Meat tenderizer: Some people theorize 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 feces to get a proper influx of nutrients. There are some reports of this treatment working.

Forbid ™®: This is a powder supplement added to a dog's food. It is thought that this makes the feces taste bad for a coprophagic dog. Note that this must be applied to the food of the dog whose feces 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 ™®: This is a pill given to a dog with its food. Like Forbid, Deter is suspected to make the feces distasteful. It is not veterinary prescribed, but the same issues exist as with Forbid."

 

[Missjoy]

I have a similar but different problem. Maggie only tried to really eat her own excrement when she was on antibiotics (strange, but my theory was that the antibiotics killed off a lot of the natural bacteria in the colon and didn't break food down as much). Now our problem is that when we are on walks Maggie tries to eat other dog's excrement. Sometimes it is impossible to stop her, she darts off to one side of the trail and won't give it up for a treat or anything. Any suggestions?

Missjoy and Maggie

 

[Lightning&Stomps]

I have the same problem with Lightning, and he's eight years old. So some dogs don't grow out of it. His idiosyncracies have always centered around eating, so I think at this point it's just habit with him. I'd wanted to try Forbid, but I didn't know that it had to be given to the dog with the delicious poop. Every dog in the neighborhood has access to my yard, so that's out. If anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to hear them (cleaning my yard every day isn't feasible--it's a very big yard and there are lots of neighborhood dogs). Is there a muzzle that would prevent poop-eating?

 

[Mikey T]

s Is there a muzzle that would prevent poop-eating?[/b]

a basket muzzle is what is general used for dogs with "pica" {eat non-food items, rock etc.}

Omni pet by Leather Brothers
also available in wire basket many supplier of this type of muzzle

 

[Elmer-n-Button]

food additive general prove to be useless

Owner Documentation of Coprophagia in the Canine
"Meat tenderizer: Some people theorize 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 feces to get a proper influx of nutrients. There are some reports of this treatment working.

Forbid ™®: This is a powder supplement added to a dog's food. It is thought that this makes the feces taste bad for a coprophagic dog. Note that this must be applied to the food of the dog whose feces 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 ™®: This is a pill given to a dog with its food. Like Forbid, Deter is suspected to make the feces distasteful. It is not veterinary prescribed, but the same issues exist as with Forbid."[/b]

I just had to ask: Who do you think tests these medications to see if they are effective and bad tasting? he he he :lol:

 

[bubbad]

Usually, there is no valid reason for this yucky habit except ,like someone said" he can". So that means that YOU have to make it that he can't. Which means, dog should be on leash so you have control. When the dog/puppy heads for poop pile give a stern no and go the other direction. It does mean that cleaning up the yard is pretty much a must,even a big one. If other dogs are able to do their thing in your yard your puppy/dog is being exposed to whatever those other dogs could be carrying disease,worms,etc. For the large yard problem you could section off an area just for your dog that others are not able to invade, make a small fenced in area or get a pre-made kennel 4x6 you can put him in to go and then clean up right away, remember, if you don't have control it isn't going to stop.