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Article 17

Dog Training Tips - Stop Your Dog From Poop Eating

Authored By Jerry Yap

Most dogs, at some point, will be tempted to taste another's waste. Poop eating or coprophagia, can be embarrassing for you if your dog is prone to this. However, you are not the only dog owner facing this problem. The canine palate is very different from ours. Dogs can smell many more things than we can imagine. To use a dog's elimination is just that-something to get rid of. However, some dogs find feces appealing.

There are several different categories of poop eating:

• Autocoprophagia: When a dog eats its own feces

• Intraspecific coprophagia: When a dog eats another dog's feces

• Interspecific coprophagia: When a dog eats feces from other species (such as cats)

Coprophagia can be caused by physical problems, such as exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, pancreatitis, intestinal infections, malabsorptive syndromes, and overfeeding. It can also be behavioral. Behavioral reasons why a dog will eat feces include:

Attention-seeking behavior. In times of stress or boredom, your dog may have learned that this behavior receives a reaction from you. When she can't get positive attention from you, she will seek negative attention as consolation.

Observance or allelomimetic behavior: Your dog watches you pick up and sometimes "keep" poop (not realizing it's just until you can find a trash bin) so she copies the behavior, perhaps thinking that because you like to do it, it may please you! Her mouth is akin to our hands!

Parental behavior: A mother dog with pups will often eat feces to keep the nursing area clean and, depending on the breed, past history and whether she is wild or homeless dog, to prevent the scent of feces from attracting predators.

Learned behavior: A dog whose sibling exhibit similar behavior will learn it from them. She may have witnessed other dogs in public eating poop and she follows.

Hunger: A dog with constant hunger issues will seek out sources in any form. This is common in dogs that are fed only once a day and remain hungry. They eat animal feces, sometimes their own, as a way to supplement their diet.

Poop eating could be hazardous to your dog's health because she could be ingesting other dog's medications. The best response is to discourage your dog from eating it. Discipline her the moment she tries it, by issuing a firm command to "Leave it" while using a shake can containing few pennies or squirting lemon juice in her mouth with a kid-sized squirt gun. You must give your dog a negative association with the behavior, so she learns that it is not acceptable.

If your dog remains stubbornly interested in her own feces, ask your vet for a special powder, which, when applied to your dog's food, creates an unpleasant smell at the end of the food chain.

If you have a litter box for your pet, remember to clean it every time it eliminates.

If poop eating occurs only on walks and nowhere else, put a soft nylon muzzle on your dog to prevent her from opening her mouth wide enough to pick anything up.

Poop eating is one of most annoying dog behavior problems but it is not impossible to fix. Be consistent about prevention and corrective training and remember, praise is a must. Giving treats is a great way to keep her attention on you and to remind her what "good food" is all about.

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