How Do I Stop My Dog From Eating Poop Naturally? 7 Easy Ways

Last Updated on June, 2023

It’s so much fun to have a puppy running around and playing with you, until one fine day you see it eating poop! It is what happened to me. The first time I saw my pup eat poop shocked me. I thought there was something wrong with my furry friend.

Then I started searching about it to see if it was normal or indicated something seriously wrong with my pet. Finally, I learned how to stop my dog from eating poop naturally.

I learned it’s normal for a dog to eat poop and that there are ways to stop it. Read on to find out how to prevent your dog from doing this.

Here are the 3 key points from this article:

1. Dogs may eat poop due to nutritional deficiencies or other health problems.
2. Sometimes, it may be a behavioral issue, such as boredom or attention-seeking.
3. The best way to stop a dog from eating poop is through training.

How Do I Stop My Dog From Eating Poop?

There could be various reasons for your dog to eat feces. Coprophagia is what it’s called. It’s essential to identify the cause to provide the solution – more on the reasons dogs eat feces later.

Now let’s see how you can stop your dog from doing it in the first place.

1. Feed Your Dog High-Quality Food

One of the main reasons dogs go for unhygienic food sources is when it’s not getting enough nutrition from their diet. So make sure your dog has a nutritious, high-quality diet to ensure that it doesn’t search for food sources in unsanitary places.

Ensure to give your pet a balanced diet to avoid any health problems and ensure your pet’s well-being.

2. Test Your Dog For Worms

Parasitic infestations in dogs lead to malnutrition which can make your dog hungrier. When this happens, your dog tries to eat everything it finds because of the increased appetite.

If your dog feels full of nutritious food, it won’t search for ‘unhygienic’ food sources.

3. Clean Up Poop Immediately

Remember to clean up immediately if you see your dog doing the job. Leaving it unattended to direct your dog’s attention to it. 

Also, canines eat more of others’ feces than their own. So if you have more than one dog or other animals, you must clean their mess too. 

Eating other animal feces is riskier as they could contain intestinal parasites that could lead to infections and other problems in your dog.

4. Give Your Dog Digestive Enzymes

Sometimes, your dog eating animal feces could be due to a digestion issue. The modern canine diet is low in proteins and high in carbohydrates. 

A good solution for this is to give your dog an enzyme supplement. It will help break the undigested nutrients in your dog’s food, making it easy on its digestive system. Examples of enzyme supplements you could give your dog are Prozyme and papain.

5. Give Your Dog Vitamin Supplements

More often, poop-eaters could be lacking some essential vitamins in their diet, which leads them to eat things other than their food. For example, vitamin B deficiency has been linked with this kind of behavior in dogs.

Nutritional deficiencies can easily make your dog search for dirty things to eat or steal food. A dog multivitamin is helpful in this regard, and you can include it in your dog’s food so that it will not go looking for unwanted things to savor.

6. Use Taste-Aversion Products

One great way to prevent your dogs from eating defecation is to include taste-aversion products in dog food. These products make excretion taste bitter and bad, so your dog will eventually stop indulging them.

These products make stools less appealing for your dog and even come as bitter-tasting sprays.

7. Home Remedies

There are also a few home remedies that can help with stopping your dog from eating defecation.

Here’s what you can do.

• Add meat tenderizer to dog food as it will make the food taste awful.
• Add canned pumpkin or raw zucchini to dog food. These make poop taste bad, so your dog won’t want to indulge in it.
• Coat stools with lemon juice or hot sauce. It also makes excretion taste bad.

Is Eating Poop Normal for Dogs?

Poop-eating is typical for many animals, including canines. Animals like rabbits need to eat poop to get the required nutrients. However, dogs don’t gain anything nutritious from eating stool. 

Puppies might get the instinct to eat defecation when mother dogs or an adult dog does the same. However, many other reasons lead to dogs eating feces.

Sometimes you might notice that your dog suddenly starts eating animal excretion.

It could cause concern regarding your dog’s health, and you might want to show your dog to a vet.

Why Do Dogs Eat Poop?

Following are several factors that contribute to your dog becoming a poop-eater.

• Your dog may have a nutritional deficiency.
• It could be due to parasites.
• Your dog could be suffering from thyroid disease or diabetes.
• Your dog may feel isolated, especially if left alone in its kennel for too long.
• It may be due to confinement, especially in a small space.
• Dog eats poop when it sees its mother doing the same.
• When there is a sick or elderly dog, the other dog eats the poop of the weak as an instinct to protect their breed from predators.
• Canines eat animal excretion due to anxiety and avoid punishment from the dog owner.
• It could be due to attention-seeking traits in your dog.

Facts About Dogs Who Eat Poop

Here are some facts on stool-eating dogs so that you know how normal and common this issue is.

• Stool-eaters are more common in multi-dog houses, with 33% of multi-dog households having this problem compared to 20% in single-dog homes.
• Female canines tend to eat defecation more than intact males.
• Most dogs who eat dog poop are not more difficult to house-train than those without this habit.
• Canines want fresh poop, not poorly-formed stools older than two days.
• 85% of dogs are inclined towards eating other animals’ poop, such as cat poop, and not their own poop.

Worth reading: How to Prevent Dog Pee From Killing Grass?

Risks of Dogs Eating Poop

The consequences of dogs eating animal excretion can befall dog owners. Humans and various animals in contact with the animal may contract infections and diseases from parasites. Ensure you wash your hands thoroughly after coming into contact with your dog.

Dogs don’t have any risks eating their waste. However, they could contract various infections due to harmful bacteria and parasites in the feces of other animals.

Another thing is the foul odor that comes from the mouth when dogs eat poop.

Conclusion

Coprophagia is normal in dogs, and stopping your dog from eating poop is easy if you follow the above steps. Make sure to clean away poop in the litter box as soon as you see it so that your dog won’t go for it.

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