help!! pearl is a chronic poo eater and i need advice to help me stop her doing it. she has always had a fondness for poo since she was a pup - she is now 16 mths old. she's not fussy either - fresh, old, her own, other dogs...I don't know if it is diet because she has only dried food (eukanuba) and the occasional chicken wing. i have tried sternly saying 'no' and chasing her away from dogs when they are assuming the position...i have even tried feeding her pineapple because i heard that can be a deterrent. any help would be appreciated!


mandy and pearl

Amber too does this-ivve tried everything and nothing stops her- so have resigned myself to it. Ive spoken to my vet whos own dog is also a poo eater and she said tablets dont work-I could try a muzzle which will obviously put a barrier between the dog and poo but she said a lot of it is behavioural and the only way to stop them permanantly is with training but she said it can take a long time and a lot of effort with a trainer to stop them which neither my vet nor me has the time.
She said it will do them no harm-dogs digestion is so powerful and bacteria are destroyed and that all you can do is worm preferably on a monthly basis with either Drontal or Mibemax which is what I use as it covers a broad spectrum of worms. Hope this helps-you are not on your own hun and Amber is coming up to 22 months old and no sign of stopping. I have also been told its more common in bitches-the need to clean up and some dogs never grow out of it and do it for life. Looks like we got a couple with lifetime commitment.

Sorry but i too have the dirty poo eater dogs,out of all my dogs theres only 2 that dont do this stomach churning habit,ive tried everything as well and have just started to watch them do their doings and then run out with spade and get it up before they have the chance to gobble it up "YUK" so maybe us owners with dog poo munchers will just have to accept it and turn a blind eye lol.

Yeah...my girl has the habit...sometimes I watch her and pick it up before shes has a chomp on the stuff...dirty little bugger!!...othertimes if I cant get to her in time she will run off with a mouthfull then run back in doors and give my gf a nice smacker on the lips.....lol....mmmm
Wrigleys anyone

Hi all,
My Tia used to do this, I read somewhere it is something like nesting instinct when they eat it, like getting rid of the evidence kinda thing, Tia stopped doing this abt 2months after we had got her...
We got a spray from Pets @ Home something called stay away...when they poo or wee spray it down, it seemed to work for Tia as like i said she doesnt do it anymore!
Hope this helps
Kayleigh, Tia n Diesel

My Kai does this and she is nearly 3 years, only certain poos will do! Yak! Never eats her own though. It is disgusting, but I have resigned to the fact that she sometimes does do this. Funnily most of these replies are bitches, it will be interesting to see if there are any males that do it.

my tia does this but doesnt eat her own,shes gone from horse poo to fox poo,now on geese poo.when i walk her down the canal shes like a little hoover,dirty little sod but just recently shes been a bit partial to dog poo again,not regularly just if it takes her fancy,not seen her do it for ages then yesterday morning there she was starting to tuck in,only got one mouthfull before i,d got to her,just hope she grows out of it shes 15 months today.

Islay loves rabbit poo, she gobbles it up as though it's going out of fashion! also the occasional horse jobby  

Ruby used to be obsessed with eating her own poo. I read somewhere that dousing the stools with chili sauce will put her off because it's really unpleasant and once she goes near that it will supposedly put her off. Ruby grew out of it eventually, she still likes a good sniff around Ronnie's poo and they both love munching on horse poo! To be honest the only method I used with Ruby was telling her no when she went up to sniff it. Hope you get it sorted soon!

thanks all for your comments. so many funny stories about the poo eaters! my latest trick is to give her a chicken wing before we go out so she has a full tummy and may not be so inclined to grab whatever is on offer. wish me luck!

LOL, when we had Leo with us on holidays a couple of months ago, he had never seen cows. First time he saw cow poo he dived into it face first, muching away happily!  LOL YAK! spent alot of my time trying to pull him away from the cow poos that holiday

And loves going out first thing in the morning to eat the possums 'presents'. But he will only occassionly eat other dogs and never his own, im which case i can tell him to leave it and he does