A dog owner may gag or lose a bit of their pride after finding their dog scrounging for their own, or another animal’s, feces. And to add insult to injury, you find your dog rolling in it!
Breaking this habit becomes difficult the moment your dog develops an interest for this distasteful impulsion. If you’ve found yourself in this predicament as a dog owner, you will want to rectify it as early as possible.
Why Your Dog Participates in this Act
Eating stool, scientifically referred to as coprophagia, is probably mirrored in your dog by several particular known canine behaviors. Mother wolves consume the waste of their pups’ droppings up until they detach from the den after they’ve reached a certain age. He may find it adds nutritional benefits not offered in his usual dog food. Moreover, wild wolves and dogs often eat undigested nutrients found in the manure of herbivorous animals.
Also, he may be mimicking another dog’s tendency of ingesting dung.
And for their habit of rolling in it, can be attributed to a generational recycling passed down from their ancestors- to ward off potential predators from their trail. Rolling in droppings served to equalize their own scent when successfully covering themselves in dung. On top of this (no pun intended), smearing themselves in feces can be related to a satisfying back massage- its 롤대리 texture is fascinatingly molded to the shape of the dogs back.
Stopping the Behavior
Your first course of action should be taking your dog to the vet. More so than anything your dog is eating feces because of a nutritional deficiency. Discussing your dog’s diet with your vet will help get closer to the root of your dog’s stool-eating behavior problem.
- Vitamins or mineral supplements can complement your dog’s diet, but only with the recommendations of your vet.
- While on a walk or other outdoor partaking, instruct your pooch with the command of “Leave it” if and when your dog comes in contact with droppings.
- Tidy up your backyard of any feces to stunt the behavior from ever occurring.
If you have a puppy newly introduced to your family, be sure of cleaning it’s waste following potty time. Their fascination with their environment is still fresh and discovering their stool may be considered a treat amongst other things.
Other Coping Strategies
- If your dog continues with his dirty behavior, try adding some pet repellent on his dung. As an alternative, flavor your dog’s food with some Meat Tenderizer, Accent, or Forbid before serving it to him. These will taint the taste of his dung to a degree for him to lose interest.
- To keep your dog’s coat clean from any ‘poopy’ mess, simply keep your front and backyard clean.
- Practice leash-walking when venturing the neighborhood.
- If messy patches of ground are remotely observed (when exercising your dog), quickly get his attention by calling him to “Come” followed by practicing an obedience drill you both are familiar with.
- Supply plenty of chew toys for acceptable substitutes.
mike