Poop eater!

I don't know if Duke's done this before, but I just caught him eating Murphy's poop off the pee pad. I'm so grossed out! I immediately brushed his teeth.

I know this may mean there is a decifiency in his diet and there are remedies. Can anyone offer some advice?

theres a WHOLE conversation about poop eaters in the topic of, "A day in the life" by me, i think its in the middle some where on the first page

I think dogs eat poop because it tastes good. (To them.) I'm surprised at the sheer number of dogs who eat poop, when I was doing all the dog training classes one person would always ask what to do about it, then a few more people would chime in too, so I think it's a dog thang.

I have a house full of rescues and the old-timers teach any new dogs that come about the joys of between meal snacks. And the only one of my dogs who won't eat poop is Eli Wayne Gacy, take what you will from that!

The best thing is to clean up after the dogs. I've had to race across the yard with pooper-scoopers flailing, but it's better than Forbid or any of the other additives that are supposed to make poop taste bad, seriously, it's poop, can it be made to taste worse?

And a few of mine are hard-core poop eaters, my dogs eat well, so I doubt that they're missing anything from their diet.

I think dogs eat poop because it "used" to be food, dogs descend from scavengers and most pariah dogs eat poop any chance they get. And pugs seem to be more adamant than other breeds about eating poop too, I think because they are so greedy.

Wish I had better advice to offer. But I think it's part and parcel of being a dog. I'm not keen on dead birds or dirty underwear, but show me a dog who's not!

I would have to agree. Anytime you have more than one this is GOING to happen. We have to remember that as much as we think of our pugs as children, they are DOGS. Dogs have natural instincts that many of us will never accept. Just remember to scoop when they poop and you wont have to get grossed out! LOL

We've got a master trainer we work with and I remember at one of our training weekends someone asked him about poop eating and he said "have you ever walked through the woods and found poop?" and I remember sitting there thinking no I never really have...and he said it's because it's either eaten by the animal who pooped to cover their scent or another animal. It's only gross to us humans it's a totally natural thing for animals.

I'm always outside poop scooping as soon they go and giving praise, etc I've had many rescue fosters who ate poop over the years I've just stopped freaking out about it anymore.

I've fostered pugs who have eaten poop, but I have some how gotten lucky in that all of mine act as if it is a bomb waiting to go off when they see it. (I hope they continue to think that way)

I will have to say though that Taz who was the pickiest eater in the world loved it when he found deer, rabbit or goose poop.

Although the poop eating turns my stomach, I have finally come to accept it a the ONE thing I do not like about my Ty and my three grand pugs. They will all eat poop it given the chance. With the female, Pepper being by far the worst.
She actually hunts for poop! It is her favorite summertime activity. We try to keep the poop scooped up but my grand pugs live on seven acres...............and we do not always see them leaving the deposits.

My older pug, Louie, was a maniacal poop eater. He was defiant and willful and aggressive about getting in as much poop as he could on our walks around the neighborhood. No only was I disgusted but I was worried about all the horrible viruses and bacteria and bugs he could pick up, and he did. He became violently ill several times with gastroenteritis (garbage gut). It was the dark side of Pugs I did not know about. It caused a lot of conflict between us. When he was indoors he was the sweetest angel, but the minute we walked out that door, he became demonic in his pursuit of poop. The worst part was that often he would come home after having scarfed as much poop as he could get his paws on, and then he would walk right into the living room and up chuck it right onto my clean white berber rug. You would think that I could prevent him from consuming all that stuff, but it was all out war, and he always won. Sorry for all the yukky details but I need to vent about my frustration on this point. But even so, I am a pug person and cannot live without them.

I have to admit Lola is a poop eater also..I know I about puked the first time...I have tried the poop pills,pumkin,ect nothing works but cleaning it up...I dont gag as much now as I did.

Coprophagia. Really common. Not much you can do about it except watch them like a hawk. I don't let poop accumulate in my yard (not that I'd want to with 6 in the house right now). I don't have any dedicated poop eaters, but I still keep an eye on them all and pick up immediately.

I'm so thankful that Penny has never gone in for poop.

Well, none of my three are dedicated poop eaters, although, occasionally Skeeter's goes in for a winter time poopsicle! LOL I was a little worried when we swtiched to raw that the poop would become more enticing, but fortunately, for my three it didn't. However, I did have one rescue that would exclusively eat poop from when the pugs ate Honest Kitchen. He would not eat the morning poop from the kibble....but, he did like that evening snack.

We just got good about watching him to stop before he could get to it.

Unfortunately, the only sure fire remedy I've ever heard is scoop the poop right away. Not so good for those lazy people that don't want to be out scooping poo when it is 10 degrees in the dead of winter.

northernwitch wrote:Coprophagia. Really common. Not much you can do about it except watch them like a hawk. I don't let poop accumulate in my yard (not that I'd want to with 6 in the house right now). I don't have any dedicated poop eaters, but I still keep an eye on them all and pick up immediately.

Hooli is a sometimes poop eater. But even then, he's a snob-he only eats his own poop.

Ruby is a card-carrying poop eater. She prefers them warm, directly from the "oven."

Nothing has worked except for watching her like a hawk and picking it up immediately after she goes. We tried praise when she left it. We tried scolding her. We tried those pills that make it taste bad. Those made her scale back on the munching, but she still ate some.

So now we are like crazy people chasing a pooping dog. I'm sure my neighbors get a good laugh.

Javalita wrote:Ruby is a card-carrying poop eater. She prefers them warm, directly from the "oven."

Nothing has worked except for watching her like a hawk and picking it up immediately after she goes. We tried praise when she left it. We tried scolding her. We tried those pills that make it taste bad. Those made her scale back on the munching, but she still ate some.

So now we are like crazy people chasing a pooping dog. I'm sure my neighbors get a good laugh.

Lacey got "skid marks" on her forehead from eating turds warm from the oven. She only got skid marks at night, so I had to take a flashlight and find out how she managed to get them. I was sorry I was so curious.

She had to be sanitized when she came back in, luckily she quit getting the skid marks after a few months.

Thurston likes cat poop. Nothing's better that old, crunchy cat poop that probably has been collecting bugs for hours. If that can't be found, his own poop will do. I know the pattern, though and I have gotten pretty good about knowing when his poop signal goes off.

Imi came to me as a dedicated poop-eater (and founder of the "I.T.T.A" - International Turd Tasters Association) but I am VERY happy to report that her turd tasting has diminished to almost never now. Note I said ALMOST never. Every few months on a walk I'll find her homing in on some and it's being munched before I get a chance to stop her.

Pearl was a rushee for the turd-tasting sorority but didn't get past the pledging process.