Coprophagia: Understanding Why Your Dog Eats His Own Poop
Coprophagia is a technical word referring to a condition where an animal eats its own feces. If you are not ready to hire a professional dog trainer yet, you can start training your dog to overcome this kind of behavior.
For dogs, poop eating can start from as early as when they are four months old and may continue for several years. There are different theories to how this starts, but some veterinarians say that this is a habit that young dogs resort to when they are bored or simply wanting some attention. Some say that a dog can get into this habit if he was not properly toilet trained and/or has suffered maltreatment from a caretaker in the past. A dog may then decide to “hide the evidence” if he poops at a place where he’s not supposed to and this starts to become a habit as he grows older. Still another theory says that dogs eat their poop because the food being given to them are not nutritious enough that they end up eating what may seem like undigested food in their feces.
As they age, some dogs are able to overcome this habit, while others just continue eating their feces until they grow older. If the condition is not addressed soon enough it may affect your dog’s health negatively. You should do what you can to discourage this behavior with your dog.
What can you do about Coprophagia?
Training your dog to stop eating his poop is actually easier than you think. Here are some suggestions on how to deal with a poop eating dog:
1. Clean up your dog’s poop as soon as possible. Do not scream at your dog the first time you see him eat his poop, but you can tell him firmly, “No!” and keep repeating it while taking him away from his feces. It is only common sense that it is not there, he will not eat it.
2. You can try to use natural deterrents – these are substances that you can put on the dog food to make it unpalatable to dogs. Some of these natural deterrents are pumpkin, pineapple and zucchini.
3. House train your dog by leading him outdoors when he’s showing signs that he is about to poop. Dogs who are showing early signs of Coprophagia should not be left outside unattended after they defecate.
There are some health risks to a dog who consumes his own poop, like viral and bacterial infections, as well as the proliferation of parasites such as hookworms. So if you see your dog eating his poop, start training your dog to stop this behavior by following the three steps above.
