Why Do Dogs Eat Their Poop?

By Morieka Johnson, MNN.com

Q: My older female dog has begun to eat her poop and we cannot figure out the cause. She gets the same amount of dog food that she always has. Why is this happening?

A: There comes a time in every dog owner’s life when poop dominates the conversation. Welcome to not-so-nice aspects of dog ownership. While my dog Lulu does not share your pet’s particular problem, she has taken extreme measures to hide evidence of “accidents” every now and then. With such a strong sense of smell, she still seems to forget that poop leaves an odor.

Since your little poop eater leaves the crime scene squeaky clean, she may have a condition called coprophagia.

“Unfortunately this is a topic that is brought up quite often,” says Dr. Arhonda Johnson, owner of The Ark Animal Hospital in Atlanta. In most cases, this problem is behavioral and stems from curious hounds exploring the environment and all it has to offer. (Dogs don’t exactly have discriminating taste.)

Sites like Amazon.com are flooded with products such as For-Bid or other supplements that make a dog’s poop “unpalatable” — now that’s an oxymoron. Customer reviews tend to vary, and many of the products require continued use to reap the benefits. Also, these supplements fail to address the core problem, which Johnson notes could be an underlying health issue.

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Read more: Dogs, Everyday Pet Care, Pets, coprophagia, dog poop, feces

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Kelly B.

2:40AM PDT on Apr 7, 2013

Our family dog got through phases of eating her own poop. My dog never does it, though sadly, she is a lover of cat poop :( In the winter, when the cats are inside (which also means a litter box), I have to keep a close eye on her to avoid any poopy breath situations and her being too full to eat her own dog food! It's horrible and disgusting!