A friend has noticed in the last little while that at least 2 of her 3 dogs sometimes eat each others you know what...Yuuuuck! Is there anything she can do to stop this from happening??? Thanks for any help. Ann

-- Ann Berg (avdb11@canada.com), December 06, 2000

Answers

You can either get a product from the vet or pet store called "Forbid" or order it from the pet catalogs like R.C. Steele or Omaha, or Foster and Smith. Also, you can put Adolph's meat tenderizer on the dogs' food. Put it in everyone's food. It makes the poop taste awful (you'd think it already did) and the dog will stop the habit. Meat tenderizer is simply papain, and it does the trick. May take awhile, bad habits are hard to break. Also pick up the droppings as often as you can. I had a dog that would wrinkle her nose and do it anyway, but eventually stopped after a couple of weeks of dosing the other dogs. For average size dogs, 1/2 teaspoon on food should do the trick. This can be caused by several different things-being locked in small space (kennel or crate) too much and they try to keep their area clean, by vitamin deficiency, or by incomplete digestion of protein. Some dogs also do it to mask the presence of the other dogs. A misguided mothering instinct to protect from predators. Whatever the reason, it needs to stop. It's hard to tolerate doggie kisses from one doing this!

-- melina b. (goatgalmjb1@hotmail.com), December 06, 2000.

Ann, I had a German Shepherd who did that her entire life, all of 11 years. I would reprimand her, which helped only slightly. I had heard that coprophagy (sp?) was a result of some nutrient deficiency, but she was on a diet of high-quality dog food, occasional table scraps and bones and any squirrels or woodchucks that she caught. She was certainly in excellent health, so if it was a deficiency it wasn't the least bit apparent. I have also heard that wolves do the same thing in the wild.

I suppose it could have been some sort of deficiency early on, after which she had already aquired a taste for the most disgusting stuff on earth. Once I experimented with succulent vegetables composted anaerobically in a black plastic bag left in the sun. The final product looked and smelled like a giant cow pie, and that dog got one whiff of it and made a beeline for it. These were vegetables that she wouldn't have touched in their uncomposted form.

I'm sorry to say that I don't have any answers for you, but your friend certainly has my sympathy. That habit is a real stomach-turner, that's for sure!

-- Leslie A. (lesliea@home.com), December 06, 2000.

I had this most amazing little dog once who could catch frizbies, any kind of ball, swim on top and under water, jump a 7 ft fence but the thing she loved most of all was poop!! Any animal, horse, dog, cat, if it was on the ground she ate it and rolled in it. I did all the things to stop it but nothing worked. I really love dogs but like the last dog thread and this one shows they have the most discusting habits! Worse than teenagers!! NO maybe not! Kitties anyone? Hope you find an answer Ann.......Kirk

-- Kirk Davis (kirkay@yahoo.com), December 07, 2000.

My neighbor had a dog which would scout the pasture for the droppings of calfs still exclusively on milk. To him they probably tasted like a candy bar.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), December 07, 2000.

My dog likes cow patties also.The fresher the better. Horse poop too.I yell at her when she does it, and she drops it, but that doesn't keep her from doing it again later.

What I hate worse is them rolling in it,to cover their scent.pwhew. Just keep yelling at them is all I know to tell you. Your fighting tendencies that are helpful to the wild wolf in them.And keep pooper scooping ,on a regular basis.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), December 07, 2000.

I agree with Melina. That will work.

Quick story. When my son was an infant, I would put his poopie diapers out the window so I could put them in the can outside later. I started noticing ripped diapers and couldn't figure out why until I caught my dog. Yuck!

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), December 07, 2000.

Many times dogs will eat feces of animals for Vitamin B content, which is hard to come by in many diets. Young horses ingest their mother's feces during exploration which has the beneficial effect of establishing friendly bacterial to the gut that is absent at birth. I had one dog who ate feces until I changed his diet to raw food (no canned or bagged junk) diet, and added kelp and probiotics. Then he quit. Some dogs do just like the taste however, but I'd look at their diet first.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), December 07, 2000.

I agree Yuuuccck (Mine does it too)

-- Kenneth in N.C. (wizardsplace13@hotmail.com), December 08, 2000.

When I was raising/breeding dogs this would occaisonally happen. First I would make sure that your friend is using a good quality dog food. If so supplements are usually not needed unless a dog for one reason or another (such as pregnancy, or being pushed away from their food by others) then a simple doggie multi vit may be appropriate. As mentioned before there are a lot of remedies that can be added to their food. Personally I didn't care for those but did try using a cayenne or other real spicy pepper sprinkled right on the poop before the other dogs could get to it! After trying to eat the "spiced up version" a few times they simple started to ignore it. If it started up again I just got out the pepper shaker for a few days again. This worked good for me. I think she may need to try a few things and see what works best for her. Good luck. Barb

-- BARB (WILDETMR@YAHOO.COM), December 10, 2000.