Can You Stop Your Dog Eating Poo?(Coprophagia)

Why?

1. Nutritional Deficiencies

A dog may eat its own feces or that of others if it lacks essential nutrients or digestive enzymes in its diet. Poorly digested food in their stool can make it smell appetising to them. Switching to a high-quality, raw diet can help this. It may also firm up stools avoidng so many issues with the feces eating.

2. Instinctual Behavior

Dogs may inherit this behavior from their ancestors, who used feces disposal to prevent attracting predators. For nursing mother dogs, eating their puppies’ feces helps keep the den clean, a natural instinct that some dogs retain into adulthood. Eating human feces was part of domestication as wolves wondered closer down towards our settlements.

3. Attention-Seeking

If a dog receives attention—positive or negative—when it eats feces, it might repeat the behavior to gain more interaction from its owner. 

4. Environmental Factors

Boredom, stress, can lead to coprophagia. Dogs without adequate mental and physical stimulation might turn to unusual behaviors as an outlet.

5. Health Issues

Underlying medical conditions such as parasites, malabsorption syndromes, or diabetes can drive a dog to eat feces. It’s important to consult a veterinarian if the behavior appears suddenly or is accompanied by other symptoms like weight loss or lethargy.

6. They just like it!

Sorry but they do and therefore like going for a tasty burger there is no lacing it with hot pepper or anything like that, that has been ever shown to work to discourage them.

How to Address It

Therefore start by ensuring your dog is on a balanced raw diet and getting regular exercise and mental enrichment.

Manage by Cleaning up feces promptly.

Continue to work on alleviating stress.

Reward Leave it or alternative behaviour.

After all you can’t teach a dog what not to do only what to do.