cshellz
Ultra ALPHA
Oct 17, 2003, 8:24 PM
Post #4 of 12
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Re: [puplover467] stool eating
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Hi,
My pup did that twice when he was younger. I did some research on this habit on the internet and found out a few things. Poop eating, or coprophagia as some websites call it happen for a few reasons:
1) They like the taste  Apparently some even eat another dog's poo!! 
2) They are bored and have nothing better to do
3) Instinct - cause in the wild they do that so that their predators can't locate their scent
4) Lacking in some nutrition
5) Another instinct - the bitch eats her puppy's poop
Best thing to do is to start removing the poop right after your dog has done its 'business'  Otherwise you can give supplements that contains Vitamin B. You can also try those off the shelf toothpaste looking supplements eg Nutrigel, Nutripet etc. I've also read in some websites that if you add a bit of garlic or pumpkin to the dog's food, it's supposed to make the poo really smelly, thus turning them off from the 'delicacy'.
I dunno which works best. But from my experience with my puppy, the best way is to take the poo away and distract the puppy right after he poos. Maybe eventually he'll 'forget' about eating it  As disgusting as it is to us, esp if we teach our doggies to 'kiss'  , it's actually quite a common thing. Acquired taste I think...hehe
Anyway, a puppy is still young. Yelling at him wouldn't help much as he probably doesn't understand what's food and what should not be food. All doggies respond better to praises than scoldings. Perhaps you'll want to change your training method and praise and reward him instead when he comes to you after he poops and doesn't eat his own poo. Between eating the poo and getting lots of hugs and praises from you, if I were the pup I'll choose the latter too.
Hope it helps
(This post was edited by cshellz on Oct 17, 2003, 8:28 PM)
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