This is a natural, yet terrible disgusting habit but rest assure it is not very hard to stop. Dogs of all kinds for years have eaten their own excrement. In a lot of cases dogs don’t just eat their own excrement, if you watch closely dogs will eat cat excrement and other dog excrement along with their own if they are given the chance. Once again try to remember that it is a completely natural and that there is nothing wrong with your dog.
Stop Dog Feces Eating
Sometimes you may see a female dog eating her pups’ excrement. This is completely normal and you should let this happen. You will not have to clean up after puppies because she is cleaning up after them. So let her do what she has to do, it is a nurturing skill that if you interrupt may cause her to ignore her pups. Other reasons that your dog may do this is that they may not have a good digestive tract, some of the food will pass through, and come out the other end. The dog will smell this and will want to eat the excrement because they will see it as food because that is the smell it has. Make sure you take your dog to the vet if you are concerned about his digestive tract.
Dog Excrement
In many cases though there is no true evidence of why dogs eat their own excrement. One way to try to stop this is by spreading some curry on the excrement. This is a bad smelling and nasty tasting substance to the dog. This may break him/her of doing this. Another way to stop a dog from eating his excrement is a drug that they use for killing off flies. Apo morphine will not have pleasant effect on your dog, when the dog eats his/her excrement he/she will throw it back up.
This will happen very quickly after he/she eats the excrement. The dog will also feel bad for a couple of hours after he/she eats his/her excrement. The fact that there was an unpleasant outcome may be just enough reason for your dog to stop. If none of the previously mentioned works, you can try telling your dog no every time you see him/her trying to eat his/her excrement.
Telling him/her no every time they do this will show them that they are getting into trouble. Dogs are like kids they don’t like feeling like they are in trouble. So try telling him/her no or even bad. Even though this is negative reinforcement and is usually discourage in this case it is just what you need. Your dog needs to know that you think what they are doing is dirty and wrong or they will keep doing it.
If after trying all these things you cannot break the habit, remember that this is a natural process for your dog. You may have to take a more active role to get the outcome that you want. Follow behind your dog and when they have a bowl movement pick up the excrement. If your dog doesn’t have anything to temp them than you will not have to worry with this disgusting habit anymore.
You as the owner have to decide what is more important to you. If this natural occurrence bothers you that much, you have to make the commitment to keep the excrement away from your dog. You are a busy person that has put your time in training your dog when they were a puppy. When your dog does this they are not putting their health into jeopardy when they eat their own waste, maybe you could just look the little way on this little problem.