Everybody Poops, But Not Everybody Eats It.

Its called Coprophagia. Its common in most dogs at some time or another. It's disgusting. It's eating poop! Why would they do that?! Believe it or not, it's not a bad thing.

To lessen the disgust factor, lets look at what poop is. It's what gets left over after a body digests food and takes out what it needs. A body doesn't take everything out though! This is why our dogs eat it. What's better then food? Food that's already halfway digested! In survival mode, this makes sense. Someone else's body does all the work of digesting, and all you have to do is eat. It's practically free energy, and it's instinctual for your dog. As domesticated, and sometimes "human" as your dog may seem, its ancestors were still wild animals that had to fight every day for survival. This was just another trick of the trade.

Puppies in particular can actually be healthier from it. Puppies will eat their mother's feces to gain much of the beneficial bacteria they need in their stomachs. Without this crucial step in their development, many puppies would fall ill or even starve at a very young age.

I know what you're saying, "This is great and all but it's still gross! How can I get my dog to stop?!" Its actually very easy. There are a few great products out there that make the feces taste bad, or at least taste worse. One of these is called Deter by 8in1. I've used it myself and it works after only a few days. As a bonus, it's also the cheapest one on Amazon. But it can only be used on dogs.















If other animal's feces are the problem then a little creativity is needed to make it stop. Cat tootsie rolls are also a very common treat. Covered litter boxes hidden where the dog can't get to them usually stop it. Another trick is to face the covered litter box toward a wall, the cat is usually small and agile enough to still get in, but the dogs are usually stumped.

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