I have a 15 week old gsd, Tessa, and she will and does eat her own fresh poop. GROSS! I have been attempting to pick it up as soon as she goes but she is sometimes faster than me. I have tried sprinkling her poop with red pepper - didn't even hesitate...I have scolded, correcte to no avail. I am open to any and all suggestions.

thanks,
Holly

I really feel for you!

I know the first thing that Ed Frawley would recommend would be to get your pup on a good diet (an all natural raw diet!! not kibbles). It could just be due to a nutritional deficiency.

In the meantime, I guess the only thing would be to have control over her (ie on leash) so that you can jerk her away from the poop before she gets a chance to eat it...

I hope the diet change will help! If it makes you feel any better, I think Ed mentioned on his puppy DVD that some puppies eventually outgrow this behaviour.

Then again I see many dogs at the park who continue to do this throughout their adult life.
Interesting thing is that they're all on some of the worst kibbles around (Pedigree, Science Diet, Hills, Iams, Eukanuba etc. included).

Some of the owners of those poop-eating dogs seem horrified at first when I suggest a switch to an all-raw diet. They think their dogs will immediately die from being punctured by bones and poisoned by E-coli and salmonella.

I just ask them how healthy do they think it is for their dogs to be eating poop? That usually makes them think...

Another interesting thing is that two of those owners actually did make the switch to raw for their dogs (I had to nag them for weeks!!), and after a month or so of being on a raw diet, both dogs were suddenly "cured" of their poop eating habits

According to their vets, that was purely coincidental...

I have, not one, but two poop eaters!! So I can certainly sympathize.

My older girl will occasionally take a snack, but I forgive her because she has EPI and has a hard time digesting food. Now, my pup who is almost a year...well, no excuses for her. She does seem to be slowing down with this bad habit though. BTW, they are both raw fed, so I'm not sure that is a cure...the best thing I do to stop it is stand and wait with my shovel!

Thanks for the advice - I do keep her on a drag leash when in the yard most of the time. I have her off if we are playing with a ball - she is still growing into her feet and tends to get tangled up in the leash. I am nervous about her hips so but then I may be overly paranoid for nothing.

I live in Maryland and will look into the natural diet - she is currently on Purina Pro Plan large breed puppy food.

She has very similiar coloring to your 10 month old... she changes constantly and is really a joy - well most of the time. I currently think she is in the toddler stage and hates to be told no!

Holly

Holly, you might want to try adding canned pumpkin to her diet (not pie filling, just straight pumpkin). Someone suggested it on this forum once for that problem and it seems to have worked with my GSD, who btw, is fed raw. It's hard to determine if it's solely the pumpkin that worked cause I was using other methods such as calling him to me as soon as he was done with his business, and earlier when always on leash I would run him away as soon as he was done. So it could be all factors but when I forget to add pumpkin for 2 or 3 days, he tends to want to do it again.

Digestive enzymes may work as well, added to the food (like yogurt).

Yogurt tends to make her stools really loose and then they are hard to pick up. Pumpkin? that's an unusal one. I have given it to my other dog, prior to her passing on, when she had diarrhea. But it's worth a try!

Keeping her on the leash helps but she wants to go back and check out the area and even licks the grass... strange! My shepherd mix wanted nothing to do with her own, but she did enjoy those moments she could get to the cat box or a rabbit had ventured into the yard...chuckle!

Holly

 Quote: Holly Ellis

I live in Maryland and will look into the natural diet - she is currently on Purina Pro Plan large breed puppy food.

Hi Holly! I would get your dog off of the Purina! Even if you're not ready to go raw, there are much better kibbles out there...such as Innova, Wellness etc. Check out The Honest Kitchen (plenty of info on it on this site) as well. I bet you'll see some nice changes in your dog.

Purina is one of the big-bads in my opinion!

Melissa is right, feeding your pup a good diet will not guarantee a cure for this poop-eating issue.

However, since it does work on a number of dogs, I think it's worth trying out!

Besides, even if the switch to raw doesn't fix her current problem, it'll help prevent so so SO many more health problems that she WILL develop if she continues on kibble (especially Purina, yuck!). Once you make the switch, you'll be happy you did!

Oh and a raw diet doesn't necessarily mean a nutritious diet. Some people feed nothing but chicken and hamburger to their dogs and call it a raw diet... Then they wonder why they're not seeing all the benefits they could be seeing in their animals.

A properly designed raw diet is bound to be much more helpful and healthy for a dog - something to keep in mind when you do your research

Good luck! Sounds like you have a very nice fun puppy (besides the poop eating issue)!

Thanks for all the good advice. I will certainly check into switching her diet and see if that helps with the problem.

Holly

Here's one I haven't heard mentioned: Stuff added to commercial dog food to make it more appetizing may pass through undigested and cause the poop to be more appetizing http://caninehealthnutrition.com/TheDogAndHisOwner/feeding-behavior-and-coprophagy.html

That link also has other some other good pointers (despite it being from a commercial dog food company!). Essentially, it can be behavioral or nutritional.

I found various references pointing out that poop is, after all, undigested food. Commercial dog food with low digestability passes through with a high proportion unscathed, so the dog sees it as going back for seconds. Other references expand on this by suggesting that a dog with nutritional deficiencies may eat poop in an instinctive attempt to fill the gaps, even if the poop doesn't taste all that good. There's a similar behavior found in humans - eating dirt is called "pica". So a good diet will definitely help, if the problem is nutritionally based.