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Why Dogs Eat Poo
To start with, you should understand why your furry friend is doing this in the first place.
It’s a good idea to take your dog to the vet if this is a common, persistent behaviour as it is
often a sign of a deficiency in their diet.
There are actually quite a few deficiencies a dog might have that can lead to eating poo – a
quick blood test or stool test can often identify if it is anything significant. Many times,
supplementing whatever they’re missing from their diet can help with this problem.
Getting Your Dog to Stop
Now that you’ve identified if there is a physical
problem, you can work toward fixing it. If your dog has a deficiency, that should be your first
target. However, if it is simply a behaviour they have learned somehow, you can use behaviour
modification to remove the desire to eat
poo at all.
* Reduce the Opportunity – Start by cutting out how many opportunities a dog actually has to eat
the poop. You do this by collecting any poop and getting rid of it immediately. Especially if you
let your dog out into the yard to poop, clean it up daily.
When you walk your dog, make sure you personally take him to wherever he normally defecates and
keep him away from any other poop that may be on the walk.
* Supervise Outings – You should personally oversee any walks by your dog. This
includes going to the dog park, where the dog can often get away and get into messes. The more time
you spend watching and correcting behaviour, the quicker he will learn.
* Negative Stimuli – To effectively reduce the
behaviour, you’ll need to connect unpleasantness with it. You can use a spray bottle or a
noisemaker that will upset the dog when he tries to eat the poop.
The important thing here is to remember that immediate action is needed, not delayed or verbal
actions. Dogs will only get confused in those cases.
* Deterrents – Specific deterrents include spraying various things like bitter
apple or cayenne pepper on the poop. You can also feed your dog pumpkin with their food. The
pumpkin makes the poop unpleasant to reingest, effectively deterring your dog.
There are some commercial deterrents as well, but beware of any chemicals or things with unknown
ingredients. There are enough natural ways to deter your dog from eating poop that you don’t need
to use these types of products.
* Vitamin Supplements – If there is a vitamin
deficiency, supplement it with a good multivitamin. Your vet can recommend a good one that contains
all of the necessary missing nutrients. You can also feed your dog more fresh foods and less dry
food as this helps a lot.
A dog that eats their poop can be easily trained to stop doing so. The important thing is to
make sure your dog understands exactly what behaviour is being challenged. This requires
consistency on your part, and that of your family if more than one person walks your dog.
If you can maintain control over how your dog is
walked, what they do on that walk and what they eat, the poop eating behaviour should be eradicated
in a few short days.
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