How Train Your Dog

why is my dog eating poop,

Dog often eat poop but why,

The scientific term for the habit of poop-eating is coprophagia. In certain situations, it’s not uncommon for dogs.

Dogs eat poop for a variety of reasons. Some are normal and some are signs of an underlying issue. It’s uncommon for adult dogs to eat their own poop or another dog’s poop.Poop-eating is normal in the following scenarios:

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Nursing female dogs: They eat the poop of their young to keep their den clean.

Eating the poop of another species: The stool of other animals, such as horses or cats, contains nutrients that can be beneficial (but it can also contain harmful bacteria, so it’s best to discourage this).However, there are dogs out there that eat poop outside of these scenarios, and you’ll need to figure out what’s behind the habit.

Eating their own poop or another dog’s poop is not a common behavior. Here are four reasons why an adult dog will do this

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1. They Want to Get Your Attention

Some dogs may have started eating poop when they are young because they feel like it’s a game. For example, when puppies are young, they may explore by grabbing their poop with their mouths. If your dog does this, you will probably run towards them and yell some form of “drop it.”  When this happens, some puppies may be startled and will drop the poop and never touch it again. Other puppies may interpret the yelling as an excited invitation to play.

As a result, they dart away, and then suddenly, an impromptu game of chase occurs. These puppies have learned another way to get their owners to “play” with them.Your dog may not even necessarily want to play but might simply want you to engage with them. This is then carried over as your dog becomes an adult as a learned behavior that gets them attention.It’s really difficult to not pay attention to your dog when they are eating poop.

2. They’re Not Feeling Well

Some dogs may engage in this behavior when they are not feeling well.

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When you have a puppy or dog that eats his own or other dogs’ stool, you should have your pet examined by your veterinarian. Coprophagy can be associated with diseases of the intestinal tract and sometimes other parts of the body (liver, brain, etc.).

If your adult dog has never been a poop eater and suddenly develops the habit in association with symptoms of disease, like weight loss, lethargy, discomfort, other behavioral changes, vomiting, or diarrhea, make an appointment with your veterinarian.

Your veterinarian will need to perform diagnostic tests to determine if your dog has an underlying medical problem, such intestinal parasites, nutritional deficiencies, or gastrointestinal disease.

3. They Have Anxiety

Other dogs may eat poop as a displacement behavior when they are anxious. If an anxious dog is confined, they may defecate and eat their own poop.Possible sources of anxiety that can cause coprophagia include:

General anxiety

Worrying about being confined

You being away from them (separation anxiety)

Lack of enrichment activities when confined

4. They’re Scared of Being Punished for an Accident

Some dogs may learn as a puppy to eat their poop if they have been repeatedly punished by their owners for defecating in the house.

The dog may eat the evidence because they’re worried about being punished.

Here are other reason

Enzyme deficiency

Before domestication, a wild dog’s diet would be dependant on whole prey and local vegetation. When a dog eats whole prey it includes the digestive tract … which naturally provides the appropriate amount of digestive enzymes needed.

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Unfortunately many dogs today are fed highly processed diets.

Digestive enzymes help ensure your dog is able to properly absorb his nutrition. If he doesn’t have the enzymes needed … food will pass through undigested.Dogs can create enzymes on their own but they aren’t always enough. This is why you need to make sure they’re part of his daily diet.And by ensuring he is getting the proper nutrition you’ll help keep diseases away.

2. Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI)

EPI is a genetic condition that some young dogs struggle with … but they can develop symptoms later in life too. It’s also known as pancreatic insufficiency.Dogs with EPI aren’t able to create many if any digestive enzymes in the pancreas. If your dog has EPI they’ll need to be supplemented with enzymes as they can slowly starve from not being able to digest nutrients.

Symptoms of EPI include

Weight loss

Diarrhea

Stool eating

3. Parasites

Intestinal parasites need food too. If your dog has a worm burden he has to compete for nutrients with the parasites. This leaves him getting less nutrition as the parasites mature.

4. Conditions causing increased appetite

Certain diseases like diabetes and thyroid issues can make your dog feel hungry … even if he’s not actually hungry.Steroids can also make your dog ravenous enough to eat stool. And let’s be honest … many dogs don’t need much of a push.

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5. Other deficiencies

It’s possible that your dog may have a hydrochloric acid deficiency. Roger DeHann, DVM cautions that this can be a result of a poor diet or aging.

Hydrochloric acid is used by the body to break down proteins. If your dog doesn’t have enough he won’t be able to digest food and it’ll just pass through. He’ll then seek out poop for missing nutrients.

You may also see poop eating behavior if they have a mineral deficiency according to Joseph Demers, DVM.

6. Malabsorption

Any condition that leads to poor nutrient absorption can, in turn, lead to stool eating. He may resort to eating his own in attempts to get undigested nutrients back. Or he may find your cat’s stool even more delightful.

It’s important to consider whose stool he is seeking, because it may also be an indicator of a deficiency or illness in that pet.

7. Underfeeding

Make sure you’re feeding your dog enough food at regular times. If your dog is losing weight on a fresh, whole diet, then feed him more!And keep to a schedule, a hungry dog will look for other food sources you may not like. 

Behavioral Reasons

Now that we’ve covered some of the possible health reasons your dog may eat poop … let’s move onto possible behavioral reasons.

8. Cleanliness

There’s one key time that a dog will eat stool and it’s very much in the natural order of things. This is when a female dog cleans up after her puppies to keep the nest clean. This drive for cleanliness could also account for other dogs that “clean up” stool.

9. Puppies

Puppies are curious and exploring their surroundings is an important part of their development. It’s not unusual for them to eat many things, including poop as part of their adventures.

The good news is that most puppies grow out of the poop eating stage.

10. Scavengers

Dogs are natural scavengers and smells are a big part of that. Poop stinks to us … but to our dogs it’s amazing.

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11. Boredom

If your dog is home alone all day with not much to do, he’ll find something. If there happens to be some poop within his reach … he may just find a new way to entertain himself and get a little treat in the process.

12. Attention seeking

Our dogs love us and want our attention. It might seem odd, but for some dogs getting in trouble is still a good thing. They get your attention and the added fun of poop hunting all at once.

13. Stress

Dogs who are stressed can sometimes eat things they shouldn’t … and some may relieve stress by eating poop.

14. Puppy mills

It’s a sad truth but puppy mill dogs are more likely to develop this habit. They grow up in stressful environments and often have poor nutritional starts.

15. Punishment

Punishment for having accidents in the house might leave your dog worried that poop is a bad thing. Dr Becker, cautions owners to not make a big deal of accidents as some dogs may “hide the evidence” later.

16. Doggie see, doggie eat doo-doo

If you have a younger dog they can pick this habit up from an older dog. Sometimes they learn this from their Mothers who do this as a natural housekeeping skill.

Curiosity

No one is entirely sure why dogs do this but there are a couple of possible reasons. It may simply be that they enjoy it. Dogs interact with the world through their mouths, they like to carry sticks and love to chew on toys or bones.

Dogs also like things that have strong smells and excrement certainly falls into this category. It might seem odd, but eating faeces my just be your dog's way of examining something that interests him.

Confused pups

Puppies will sometimes eat their own poo during toilet training. It happens because they're still unsure of where they're supposed to defecate and where they're not supposed to defecate. Afraid they may have done something wrong they will 'destroy the evidence'. This kind of cleaning behaviour can also happen with adult dogs inside the house.

Mother dogs will frequently eat their puppy's faeces when cleaning them. This is possibly a residual instinct. In the wild, eating the puppy poo would reduce the likelihood of predators finding her vulnerable offspring.

Diet deficiencies

One of the most common theories for why dogs behave like this, is that they're compensating for deficiencies in their diet. The faeces of herbivores may provide vitamins that aren't part of your dog's regular diet.

Cat food is high in protein and so cat litter may prove appealing to your dog. You must curb this behaviour immediately, as cat litter can be toxic for a dog.