dog eat excrement

Question
my 8 year old dog is eating excrements from other dogs when i take her for a walk. it goes very quick, especially when I let her walk loose or on a long leash. she does not eat her own excrements.

Answer
Hi Claudia,

The practice of poop eating is called coprophagy (long word for such a quick 'meal,' yes?).

The fact that your dog eats other dogs' excrement but not her own 'may' indicate that there's a nutritional deficiency in your dog's diet.  I would consult with a veterinary nutritionist and see if this idea may have some merit.

Also, I would suggest not letting her walk loose or on a long line in areas where there may be other dogs' or other animals' excrement.  Other animals' excrement may contain parasites or the other animals' excrement may contain harmful bacteria or disease, and your dog could pick these up by eating other animals' excrement.  Particularly if your dog is picking up this excrement in as "quick" a manner as you describe, the best thing to do would be to prevent it from occurring in the first place by giving your dog a little less leash latitude in those areas.  

In general, coprophagy may be disgusting to us humans, but it's not so disgusting for dogs, and dams eat their pups' excrement during their early developmental phases in order to keep the nest clean and to keep other predators away that may be drawn to the scent, so coprophagy in some instances is normal, even beneficial. However,as I mentioned, your dog may have a nutritional defiency and may also be picking up parasites or bacteria in the poop she's eating, so I would suggest having her diet and nutrition status evaluated and try to prevent the coprophagy from occurring, and instead adjust her diet if a specialist indicates that this should be done.

Even with a diet adjustment if one is indicated, the coprophagy may have become an ingrained habit at this point, so you may need to manage that and continue to prevent the coprophagy from occurring, at least for a while.

Best regards,
Madeline, Volunteer at AllExperts
www.ny-njDogTrainer.com