My puppy is a poo eater, any ideas how to stop her Questions

My 7 month old pup eats her poop in the yard.. I love her but this is a disgusting habit. I’ve read that sometimes they outgrow it, or people feed pineapple, or pills from vet (expensive). She has done this since I got her at 4 months old.. she doesn’t eat all of it, and I think she just eats hers and not my older dogs, there is still plenty of poo to clean up. The breeder kept her until she’d had all her parvovirus boosters, as my other dog had parvo, and survived, but my yard could still be contaminated with parvovirus. Maybe she started doing it because her kennel wasn’t cleaned enough, or she saw her mom do it.. Have any of you had this issue? Did it resolve? Did you feed your dog something that helped? I have heard maybe raw food diet could help, that some dogs eat the poo because they don’t digest all the protein in kibble. I clean up the yard multiple times a day. My older dog thinks it’s gross too. Any suggestions would be welcomed and just to know I’m not the only one who has a puppy that does this...

You need to break the habit and the only way to do this is to go out with her and clean up before she gets the chance to eat it

My ex-kennel bitch came with a 'poo eater' warning, and it was not just her own! At six years of age, I thought I wouldn't be able to change her, but I am pleased to say that she is now about 90% free of the habit - though three years on, I still haven't cured her from grabbing a little of the horse or rabbit stuff.
As Chris says, the best way is to stay with them while they perform, and pick it up straight away. I always carry food rewards in my pocket, so I make a really big fuss of her when she does do her poo, and I never fail to reward her. This has led to her being so keen for me to see it, that she will now leave it untouched to earn the reward. If she shows any undue interest in other animal's poo, I deter her with a low, disgusted, 'Ugh, Dirty', and this has proved fairly successful, - apart from rabbit poo, which is everywhere, and so small that she can spot it before I do.
My older male has not had this habit since his puppy days, but just lately, at ten years old, he has become secretive about going, and will try to grab a small piece of his own, before I can pick it up. I'm afraid that this has put me in a quandary - do I carry on rewarding him for his poo, or say, 'Nothing for that', for grabbing a piece?

I agree with above comments.
The best thing to do is to clean up after her as quickly as you can.
I would train her the leave command, might help to keep her on a line when outside, let her poo if she turns around to eat it give the command ‘leave and gently but quickly pull her away repeat until she gets the message, also keep your eye on her during a walk for other dogs poo. Hopefully she will eventually grow out of it.

Back to the training, Carole . Do the same as you did with Merry and he will quickly catch on

Thanks Chris, you are right, and I have been using, 'Nothing for That' lately. He makes it difficult by being so secretive about going on his own property. I have to pretend to look elsewhere, or he will pace about for ages looking shifty. Of course, he does have a fairly major bowel complaint, but on a walk he behaves perfectly naturally, and would never attempt to grab any. Fortunately, most of his poos do take place on a walk.

My dog used to eat poos, but he grew out of it. It's a horrible habit!

Pereg was a poo eater - she used to stand behind Lexi waiting for it to drop so she could have it "straight from the oven" as it were, but never her own. After Lexi died she still ignored her own poo until I changed her onto raw, but being raw fed she only did small poos and waited until the sun had turned them nice and crispy, when she would sometimes crunch one.

Tikva has never shown any signs of wanting to eat hers, minute as they are!

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. It is a real challenge to stay on her about this. I use to let them out early in the morning and go back to sleep, but now I don’t do this. I can’t watch her all the time, and I sometimes leave them in the fenced yard when I’m not home. If it’s only a few hours I’ll leave them in the house where they won’t poop. And now it’s not just her poop.. which I try and clean up immediately. I caught her about to get some directly from the tap, as bandit was about to poop...(this would be funny if it wasn’t so gross, Malka). I do tell her to leave it, and she listens, but I can’t always be there. I think I’m going to try feeding both dogs some green tripe, as I’ve read that helps with enzymes and that it could help. I also may try spraying the poop in the yard with either bitter apple or a spicy homemade spray. It seems counterintuitive to leave the poop instead of cleaning it up, but maybe she will grow to think it is all bitter or spicy.. Seems like a multi pronged approach might help, and certainly can’t hurt. My dogs breeder has been no help, and although she seemed to disappear online for over a month, I see she has more pups listed now, but has not responded to my last text from a month ago. I will not give out her name anymore if I’m asked because she’s more then happy to take ones $ but her support afterwards is very weak, unlike you all, whom I don’t know, but are supportive if I ask a question. Thanks again!!

What are you feeding her ?

I feed her Taste of the Wild high prairie puppy formula. I feed Bandit Taste of the Wild pine forest.

Are there different ingredients in each one?

I wonder if it could be something to do with the food that attracts them, then it becomes a habit.

It is possible. Sometimes a change in food does work.

All sorts of theories around it. The favourites seems to be that they aren't getting enough nutritional value from the food or that the food passes with many nutrients still left in it so it goes in for a second go. They are just that though, theories.

Similarly, the addition of pineapple juice/tripe etc. I doubt it's the juice itself, more that it changes the taste of what comes out

Katie Mae and Bandits’s food have some common ingredients but overall seem different. They are both 28% protein minimum. His food is 15% fat minimum and hers is 17%. She will be 8 months on July 6, I wonder if it would be ok to change her over to adult food.. I know my vet would say to keep her on puppy food, but I think many/most vets aren’t to knowledgeable on diet, different brands etc. He thought the eukenuba large breed puppy food was ok, which is what their breeder recommended, but I read the ingredients and didn’t like it, I forget why. Vet also wasn’t knowledgeable about Acana all life stages food.
Tripe is supposed to have beneficial bacteria I think, so that could aid in digestion. Maybe same with pineapple.. I believe papaya is supposed to aid in digestion.
I read a bunch about this, and definitely many theories on why they do this. Nothing definitive. I bought some pills that the pet store said people had some success with, I read some reviews and seemed like it worked about 25% of the time, which is better than the success rate of forbid, which is what the vet has. Says it takes 2-4 weeks to start working. I’m giving to both dogs. It also is supposed to help with her breath... it’s from NaturVet, stool eating deterrent Plus breath aid. Yucca, parsley, enzyme blend etc.

Bandit doesn’t feel the need to double digest his food and he got same food as Katie Mae when he was a young pup.
Another thing I’ve read is 16% of puppies/dogs do this. She is my 5th dog, so maybe it’s just my turn.. sigh

If Katie Mae is coming up to 8 months old she is old enough to have adult food. and the same as Bandit has.

But please do not take my word for it as I am a raw feeder and what I feed is - ahem - what suits my furkids.

Well I just called my vet and they recommend leaving her on puppy food until she’s a year old, they say because she’s a large breed.. This contradicts what I often read online, that it’s better to switch a large breed to adult food earlier so that they don’t grow to fast... I’m pretty sure breeder would say keep her on puppy food until about a year old, as that is what she said to do with bandit.. I think I’ll ask the guy who runs the feed store, as he has seemed more knowledgeable about diet than my vet. Anyone else here with an opinion, I’d like to hear it. Thanks

Vets are not nutritionists’ they don’t not spend years digging through ingredient lists, and experimenting with feeding specific types of dogs, they listen to the food company’s representatives, that sponsor events .

Vets do not know anything about nutrition - they recommend what their suppliers suggest because they are paid to do so.

Once Pereg had a minor kidney result, I do not remember if it was the BUN or Creatitine result and because my Vet, who I really did trust, sold me some tins of Hill's food for kidney problems. He did not know and he did not normally sell dog food, but Hill's paid him to sell their products.

So I brought home some tins, read the contents, and took them back.