Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
I thought babies were gross, but now I have a puppy. Why does my puppy eat poop?
When a puppy is in the den, the mother eats the puppies’ poop. The puppies learn this
behavior from her.
So this is just a habit. When will it stop?
The mother will stop eating it once they are weaned. However, the puppy may continue to
do so, because there is no reason to stop.
Do I have to stop it?
If you don’t make the puppy stop it now, it will become a habit. Then you’ll have
a grown dog that eats poop.
Gross! That’s worse than my toddler playing with his poop and offering it to me like play
dough.
You can stop it by cleaning up after each poop, before the dog can eat it. Disciplining
the puppy for this behavior could lead to confusion or neurotic behavior.
What type of behavior? He’s already eating poop.
If the dog poops and eats it and you over-react, the dog may start pooping in hidden places
before eating it. Then you’ll have two problems.
One of which is grosser than the other. How can I solve this?
Don’t overreact by screaming or hitting the dog. Just give them a squeaky toy or pull
them away from it to play.
Why else would he do that?
Eating poop can be a sign of boredom. There is literally nothing else to do.
Given two boys and all the toys, I don’t believe that is the cause.
When a puppy has worms, he may be so hungry that he’ll eat the poop. Dogs that eat poop
are more likely to have parasites and more likely to infect or re-infect themselves.
Ugh. This may require a visit to the vet.
Puppies sometimes eat their poop if they aren’t digesting the food well. If the puppy keeps
this up, see a veterinarian.
Aside from cleaning up after the dog immediately and hoping squeaky toys are more interesting,
are there any other options?
Put pineapple in their food so that it tastes worse. Give them better quality food so that
they won’t have the temptation to eat their poop.
Or I’ll just let the kids offer table scraps to the dogs while trying to train them. That
will distract all of the critters in the house.