FAQs-Dog Eating Feces

How to stop my dog from eating feces?

Dog eating feces or coprophagia is a vices developed in an untrained adult dog. Feces eating are a natural behavior of the dog. This habit is more common in puppies than the adults.

The dogs that come from dog shops and rescue kennels are most likely to have this habit. The dog can also pick this habit from poorly cleaned pet houses. The feces that remain in the kennel, if not cleared immediately, may tempt the dog by its smell, there by resulting in dog eating their own feces.

In some animals boredom may be a cause for coprophagia. When the dogs are kept alone in the dog house for longer time, they may try to consume feces as they have nothing else to do.

The dogs have 3000 taste buds as against 10000 taste buds of human being. The dogs have two hundred million cells in the nose as against five million cells in case oh human beings. Hence for dogs smell is more important than the taste of the food.

In order to stop dog-eating feces, we need to clean the feces as soon as possible. We can also add pepper in the feces, the taste of which the dogs will never like. We should feed the animal at proper time. The dog should never be allowed to be hungry. The hunger may prompt the dog to eat the feces.

It is better to feed the dog 3 to 4 times a day, in small quantities instead of feeding heavy food for 2 times. This will reduce the output of the dog. Some dogs may have excessive hunger which is due to insufficiency of exocrine pancreas. Those dogs will eat anything and everything including its own feces.

Some people, if they see their dog eating feces, they will rub the nose of the dog in its excreta. This is a bad practice. The dog may get used to the smell and can continue to do the same thing [feces eating].

Some owners have the habit of shouting at the animal, if they happen to see their dog eating their own feces. This also needs to be avoided as this can make the dog to eat the feces hurriedly.

The sight of dog eating the feces will be certainly disgusting to human being, but the smell and consistency of the feces is attractive to the dogs. Last but not least, putting muzzle to the mouth of dogs may stop the dog eating faces behavior at some extent.

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