Why Does My Dog Eat Poop?

Dogs are one of our most favorite companion
animals and we love them lots. So most of their
owners see poop eating by their dogs as a rather
disgusting problem they want to get rid of sooner
than later.

Why would dogs actually ingest faeces?

Coprophagia, the medical term for eating faeces
is a quite common canine behavior. It is also a
known behavior in other animal species and dogs
usually ingest faeces from other carnivores or
herbivores.

Ingestion of faeces is seen as totally normal
for bitches with a litter of newborn puppies,
when keeping them and the whelping box clean and
hygienic by licking her puppies excrements away
and to help them to develop regular motions and
urinating. Young puppies may start to
investigate and eat poop when they get more
active outside the whelping box area.

Ingestion of poop is unnormal in that moment
where a dog suffers form a medical problem that
keeps your companion hungry and searching for
food all the time. Conditions that can cause
this problems are usually metabolic disorders or
malabsorption. The theory about deficits of
vitamins or macro nutrients is not well
supported by studies yet.

Behavioral problems are here a more common
reason: Most dogs that try to eat their own poop
or that of other canines and other animal species
cause their owners to be rather disgusted by it.
Usually what happens is that you'd try to stop
this behavior, which turns for your dog easily
into a "game" with rules we don't really know.

What should you as a pet owner do, what should
you avoid?

Catch your dog in that moment and don't start to
make a big event out of it. Better is to try to
get your dog to play with some of her favorite
toys, which will help to distract her from this
kind of behavior.

You will agree that a dog showing the "eating
poop behavior" will always appear to be fairly
disgusting, but depending on how gross you find
this personally, it is certainly not an abnormal
behavior pattern as such. Certainly, it is not a
healthy behavior either and will expose your dog
to a greater risk of ingesting different forms of
harmful parasites that contaminate faeces of
domesticated and wild carnivore animals.

Where should you get help from to get this
behavior better under control?

A good idea is to consult your veterinarian
first to rule out any underlying disease that
could be the cause for being hungry all the
time. Behavior modification may work well, so if
the problem is still persistent and everything
else excluded you could ask for advice from an
animal behaviorist.


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If you find the article about dogs who eat poop
interesting and helpful, you may also be
interested in further reading on Dr Ellen's
website http://www.Pet-Health-Pro.com , where
you can find further interesting topics about
pet health, veterinary medicine and veterinary
acupuncture.


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