Lola and her poo

[Chad0429]

Is it normal for my boxer to be overly interested in her own poo? I've caught her having a little taste on more than one occasion. It's somewhat disturbing and I've not seen or heard about any other dogs do this before.

I keep the back yard kept up pretty well so it's not like she's out of room or anything. I'll usually pick it up every couple of days at max.

Any ideas? I just don't want her getting sick or getting the kids sick. blech...

 

[Lunasmom]

luna ate her own poo the other day...but it was a one day thing, so im not sure what is up...she always goes to sniff the old ones. and luna eats cat poo from all the strays that the lady next door feeds...thats even grosser!!

i don't really know what they do this...hopefully someone here does!!!

 

[Rhette&Toya]

I can't give you a reason, but while we were on Vacation, my Toya ate others poo too! Just thought we'd let you know you are not alone.

 

[CharlyFarly]

It's not uncommon and it's called Coprophagy. At least in regards to eating it's own stool. Kitty feces I think is a lot like canine cavier. It's gross but many eat it. I have the same problem with Charlie and goose poop. He LOVES it. As you might guess - "leave it" is a frequently used command on our walks!

In regards to the Coprophagy, the training book we've read gave these suggestions:

Make sure the food you provide is high quality and digestable. Signs of poor digestion are large stool content and loose stools. If the pup can smell undigested protein in the stool - he or she might eat it.

Make sure you don't leave stool laying around in the yard. Pick it up timely (daily if you can) A bored puppy often finds the stool and can play with it (especially these cold days when frozen poop becomes a play toy!). Also in the summer it really reduces the flys and bees (yellow jackets love poop!)

Do a forum search on the topic. You'll find lots of others who have experienced this.

Good Luck!