Some dogs eat poop and you may wonder why they do, despite being fed regularly. Poop-eating in dogs is one of the problems that baffle petowners up to this day. This condition is known as coprophagia, a poop-eating condition that could be attributed to a dog’s anxiety and nutritional issues.
Why Dogs Eat Poop
A lot of reasons have been established why dogs eat poop, but the most common are hunger and the dog’s way of trying to clean up his “home.” Insufficient feeding and keeping the dog in a dirty pen will prompt dogs to eat poop.
Another reason why dogs eat poop is the presence of parasites or intestinal worms in his body. These pests simply suck the nutrients out from the dog’s food which prompts it to look for additional food to augment the one that ‘s been dried up of nutrients by parasites.
Some dogs eat poop out of anxiety, and some simply do it to imitate your act of picking them while you’re cleaning its pen. Some dogs eat poop because they have seen other dogs do it.
When a dog eats poop it is quite disgusting, but it is good to know that it is just a simple problem that can be solved pretty easily.
How to Adjust the Behavior
The very first move you should do if you see that your dogs eat poop is to check if it has any health issues, especially if it’s the first time that the dog does it. Dogs that are habitual poop-eaters could be infested with worms and parasites or may not have sufficient food to sustain its nutritional needs. Consult all these manifestations with your vet at once.
When a dogs eats poop despite being declared healthy by the vet, it certainly has other problems that need to be addressed. You need to closely monitor your dog in order to know the cause of its habit.
In order to prevent or stop your dog from eating poop, always keep your surroundings clean and free from poop everyday. Poop-eating which is behavioral in nature can be eliminated by removing its cause. When your dogs eat poop because of health issues, you need to resolve this problem with the help of a vet.
Adjusting the Behavior
Other measures to resolve poop-eating in dogs can also be applied, such as putting bitter apple or cayenne pepper on the poop. Feeding the dog a spoonful of pumpkin puree everyday will help prevent the dog from eating poop. Behavior-altering methods such as spraying the dog with water bottle or giving out a sharp “NO!” order whenever it starts to eat poop will also help.
Coprophagia is actually a problem that can be easily resolved by removing its cause. Make sure that your dog is clean and free from the habit if you want to take it to dog parks or allow it to take a stroll outside off his leash. Constantly enforce rules being the dog’s alpha leader and keep a good eye on your dog all the time. Furthermore, it is not healthy to allow a dog to lick your face. You should not allow it.