poo eating dog

A question about : poo eating dog

Hi, my lab is a year old and obsessed with finding poo in the park.

Apart from telling him to leave and I don't want to go down the muzzle route, has anyone successfully changed their dog to different dog food that has stopped this habit?

btw I am used to dogs eating poo, as previous dog used to do it - but not to this extent. e.g. today as soon as we arrived at the park, he'd picked up two separate pieces poo within a couple of minutes, I felt so exasperated that I decided to come home, especially in the last week he has suffered diarrhoea and vomiting.

I don't think he is missing from his diet (before anyone asks). He has raw meat, and another mixed products full of vitamins.

Thanks very much all.

Best answers:

• I've never had to use this method myself but my friend had a dog who did the same and she put pineapple juice in its food and it stopped, it changes their taste buds or something - if you google it you will find this also, a teaspoon or tablespoon of pineapple juice in its food (depending on size of dog).
• Food isn't going to prevent your dog eating another animals faecal matter, training will stop or at least improve it. My dog hasn't eaten poo but given the opportunity he would eat anything else including pebbles and even hub caps. He has been to various trainers and it hasn't made a great deal of difference with lots of trying and lots of praise such as giving a treat when he managed to resist something. I still however cannot trust him and so for his own safety he wears a muzzle on walkies.
  My last dog used to dig up cat poo, attempt to carry it home and when successful he would just leave it on the door step...
• It was really about I wondered if anyone had had any success with changing their dog's food which then stopped them having the need to eat poo.
  He knows exactly what leave means. At home I have left a very tasty treat on the floor, got him to walk past it and rewarded him when he left it, but he is totally different out and about - just wolfs poo down quickly, and it feels the walk is more about what he can find to eat rather than being sociable with other dogs.
  Do other dogs see a muzzle a threat, I think he won't be able to protect himself if another dog goes for him.
• I am used to dogs eating poo, as previous dog used to do it...Is this a joke?
  sounds like youve being giving all you dogs really cheap dog food..
  I can see you going to dogs trust to adopted a dog and they all start hiding from you.
• ps even better get more dogs and rent them out to the council so they can clear all the dog crap on the streets Youll be a millionaire....
• I think it's usually diet related, needs better quality food with more nutrients. Pineapple as said above can also help.
  https://www.paw-rescue.org/PAW/PETTIP...PoopEating.php
• It's the bromelain in pineapple that's meant to help coprophagia. Some dogs eat poo because they're not getting something in their diet - the digestive enzyme bromelain helps the dog digest the food and can help them get that "something" that's missing.
  In regards to a muzzle, no, other dogs don't generally seem bothered. Introduce it carefully - Chirag Patel does a fab training video here
  but I would say be careful - some dogs will just push the muzzle into the poo to eat it (don't be tempted to buy anything other than a basket muzzle - the dog must be able to pant and drink in any muzzle used for longer than a few minutes). You can get styles of basket muzzles with a more enclosed front, I'd perhaps go for that style over the completely open kind.
  I'd be working on applying the 'leave it' to poo too - start off with him on-lead so you have control over him before you've worked on the command, then upgrade to a longline, which you can eventually drop.
  I'd personally do it as a multipronged tactic. Vet check to discuss any potential underlying issues - it may not be his diet, but his digestive system stopping him from getting everything he needs. It probably won't hurt to add something to his food (if you don't want to add pineapple, you can buy bromelain from health shops - or I believe there are supplements specifically for dogs suffering coprophagia) in case it's diet (speak to the vet about what you could try adding), and then manage the situation with a lead/longline, use a muzzle to prevent him practicing the habit, and brush up on the 'leave it' and start applying this out on walks.
  https://pets.webmd.com/dogs/dogs-eati...ol-coprophagia
• We have a pooh eating hound, so I'll be watching this with interest. We tried the anti-coprophagia tablets, which TBH, didn't seem to do anything. We tried pineapple juice, tomato ketchup and all the other natural routes, but again, I don't think it made much difference. Also - it was all very well our dog not eating her own pooh, but the pooh of others, who weren't being treated, was obviously still very appealing. Yuck.
  There was an interesting theory about this on the programme "The Truth About Your Dog's Food" a couple of years ago. Cheap foods like Bakers use poor quality meat by-products, so as well as the sugars they add, they spray it full of meaty perfume to appeal to the dog. The dog's body can't digest fragrances, so it emerges relatively intact in the pooh at the other end. Another dog goes by the pooh and thinks "Oooh, meaty smell" and...well, investigates. Not sure how scientific it is, but it might explain it.
  Now we muzzle. I hate doing it, but in the three weeks we've been muzzling, no pooh eating. The first time she tried to eat pooh, it got stuck in the muzzle. Touch wood, she hasn't done it since.
• I'll visit the vets and see if they have any suggestions that are more helpful than prosaver who obviously doesn't read posts properly, and was put on this earth just to hide behind a computer thinking about stupid things to type on public forums cos he/she hasn't got anything better in his life to do than that, and has proven that they have no experience of a wide variety of dogs. If she/he/it did then they wouldn't be spouting out cr*p that was not even worthy of my dog eating it.
• A neighbour has suggested spraying water at him without him seeing the bottle and us doing it, but that would only really work if he is on the lead, and defeats the object of him having a good run.
• Lots of potential for aversive methods to go wrong, too. For example, you spray him in the face just as a jogger, a child, a dog, etc. passes, and the negative association may be with them rather than the poo eating.
• has anyone tried the citronella spray collar at all?
• Does you dog know the "leave it" command?
  My two were taught this from day one and wouldn't touch anything, including meat if I give the command to leave it.
• Some unfortunately just do it!
  Mine does given the chance!
  I get really p'd off with other dog walkers who don't pick up after their dogs as, if they all did - as they legally should! - our problem would be solved!
  I'm not sure if Maisie does it with being a mum and cleaning up after her pups
• In france or italy , not sure? ,they dna it ..
• People clearing up their dogs mess wouldn't solve the entire problem though, my dog ate something down the river bank, looked like some sort of faeces with berry's etc in, a week or so later he was admitted to the vet hospital, was on medication for 12 months then got the all clear. Five months later he ate some bird droppings/faeces, got ill again and was dead 3 months later. Fox faeces is the biggest carrier of hepatitis. His body couldn't break down the toxins and it damaged his liver/immune system to the point that his immune system was attacking his own body. I constantly worry about my other 2 dogs eating something now.
  Also if people cleared up their dogs mess then the Parvo virus wouldn't be such a worry.
• I have a 2yo lab that eats poo. Will drag you across the road if she gets a whiff of the 'right kind'. It's not every poo - will quite happily walk past or just have a sniff - but there are certain types that she goes nuts for. Strangely, has never eaten her own poo though.
  She has quite a good leave it command but that goes out the window if the right poo is there.
  I have read on a lab forum that spayed !!!!!es are the main offenders and that intact males are the least likely to do it..