WHAT A COMMON QUESTION

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By no means is this a "scientific study", but just an informal observation of a breeder with a feces eating problem in her herd.

So you just noticed that your puppy or dog is eating his / her feces.  How disgusting, this is something that most owners feel there MUST be a way to stop the problem.

Unfortunately this is an ALL TOO COMMON problem, especially when the puppy or dog comes from a herd environment.  Most bitches start by licking their puppies to stimulate the urination and defecation process, this is just the start of mom keeping their kennel clean of urine and feces.  As the weeks progress, most mothers will continue to clean the kennel by licking up the urine that has formed in puddles and actually eating the feces.  She is just following her normal behavior, and while she is being a good mother, the puppies are noticing what she is doing.  I have some moms that will clean the nesting area until the puppies start on "gruel", and then they leave the cleaning to me; then I have mothers that will continue to clean up after the puppies as long as you let them.  I find that the puppies from these litters seem to have a higher probability of feces eating later in life.  

You can also think back on dogs in the wild.  It is usually common for the herd to clean up the feces of the puppies so other animals will not smell the den.  It is kept clean by the mother for the safety of her puppies.

There are a multitude of things you can try, but unfortunately I didn't have a high success rate with any of the issue. These are some recommended treatments:

1.   Add either a little bit of meat tenderizer OR crushed pineapple to the food.  It is supposed to make the feces unpalatable. This NEVER worked on any dog I know.

2.   You can find products labeled DETER or FORBID.  These are found in many of the doggie catalogues, and even in some pet stores.  It is said that if you add this to the food, or pop the pill down their little throats, this will stop the eating of feces.  I spent tons of money purchasing items guaranteed to stop the consumption of feces.  The results guaranteed me loss of money, nothing else.  The dogs still have the problem.

My current (and this has worked the best for years), is that I clean up on a regular basis.  I figure out when they will defecate, then I clean it up.  If it isn't there to eat, then they won't.  Next time you have your little darling *breath stinking* puppy to your vet, ask him / her what they know, maybe something new has surfaced.

Unfortunately I also find that when the little tidbits are frozen that they are "extra special".  I also hear a lot about dogs snacking on the "tootsie rolls" in the cat's box, and this too is disgusting.  

Think of it this way, it probably won't hurt them, although it is VERY DISGUSTING to you; and you are expecting class from a dog that favors the "toilet bowl" as his water source.  Dogs just seem to have different priorities and I personally would rather they eat feces than roll in it and come into the house.  When we ranched it was always a good roll in the cow patties, or they loved to bring horse apples for a "later" snack.

And to quote my vet "If you EVER find something that will stop dogs from eating their feces, than you will be a millionaire".  So keep me posted, I too would love something to stop my dogs from eating feces --  YUCK !!