Why Your Dog Eats Poop and How to Stop It

Of all the repulsive habits our canines have, it’s the poop-eating habit that hurts the most. They may not know how disgusting this habit is to us but they don’t eat poop to irritate us either. Researchers have studied the behavioral and psychological/medical reasons why our canines eat poop and have come up with several scientific-backed reasons. To start with, the art of eating poop is known as coprophagia. It is common in most dogs, although, different dogs eat different amount of poop with some being mild eaters while others are serious eaters.

If your dog eats poop, do not give up on it. Since there are reasons why it eats poop, you can help it stop this repulsive habit by addressing these reasons. Let’s see some of the reasons dogs take poop as a delicacy.

Medical Reasons Why Your Dog Eats Poop

• Enzyme Deficiency

Domesticated dogs lack some essential nutrients and enzymes that are important for digestion. The processed food modern dogs eat do not supply digs with these enzymes. The dog may develop ailments or craving making it turn to its feces for nutrients.

• Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency

This is a condition that arises when a dog is unable to create adequate digestive enzymes in the pancreas. Without these enzymes, the dog begins wearing out and develops the symptoms of diarrhea, weight loss and poop eating in a bid to get these enzymes from poop.

• Parasites

There are intestinal parasites that eat up nutrients that are important for the well-being of the canine. Due to deficiency of these nutrients, your dog resolves to acquire them from stool.

• Underfeeding

If you are underfeeding your dog, this may be the reason it is looking for other sources of food including poop. When dogs begin to lose weight due to feeding on little food, they tend to compensate for the inadequate food by turning to any other available source of food.

Behavioral Reasons Why Your Dog Eats Poop

• Cleanliness

A female dog wants her puppies to live in a clean “house”. When the surroundings are dirty, she cleans up the kennel by eating poop to ensure that her puppies stay in a clean kennel. This is a common behavior with many female dogs.

• Puppies

As puppies grow, they begin to have an interest in their surroundings. At a young age, they don’t wander from their mother, so they concentrate on whatever is near them- poop. They eat their poop as part of their exploration process.

• Boredom

When dogs are enclosed in their kennels all day long with little or no company, they become bored and will turn to anything to get some entertainment. If there is poop nearby, they won’t hesitate to give themselves some little treat just to keep the boredom away.

• Attention seeking

Dogs are attention seekers. They will jump at any opportunity to gain your attention- even eating poop. When you ignore your little canine companion for a long time, it won’t mind getting into some problems just so that it gets your attention.

• Punishment

You have probably punished your dog when it relieved itself on your coach, right? Dogs know when they commit sins. When it poops in your house, it may eat poop as a way of concealing evidence so you won’t know if it pooped in your house again.

How to Stop Your Dog from Eating Poop

There are many reasons why your dog is an avid connoisseur of poop. The big question is how you stop it from practicing this repulsive habit. Here are a few ways to make your dog keep off poop.

• Clean up Your Dog’s “House”

Don’t let your dog fall into temptation of wondering how the fresh piece of dung tastes. Clean up after your dog. If you have other pets, clean up their places to eliminate any traces of poop.

• Entertain Your Dog

Keep your dog engaged regularly. Play the fetch game with him or other games like brain-stimulating training. Give him toys to play with so that he won’t have time to think about his poop.

• Raw foods

Your canine friend needs to feed on raw, whole meals like green tripe and flesh. Raw whole foods have digestive enzymes necessary for food processing. These nutrients are not available of cooked foods.

• Add Minerals

For mineral deficiency, add kelp and apple cider vinegar to its food to compensate for the inadequate minerals.

• Parasites check

To ensure there are no parasites in the dog’s intestines, check for parasites in his stool regularly.

• Avoid Punishment

Instead of punishing your dog, train it on good behavior such as where to poop. Let it know you care for it and it will reciprocate the good gesture.

The act of stool eating might be gross but your dog has his reasons. It could be enzyme deficiency or just cleaning the room for the puppies. Find out the reason and find the best way to address the issue.