How to Stop a Dog From Eating Poop

The fix is management first: pick up every stool in the yard immediately, walk the dog on leash where poop is likely, and stop giving your dog unsupervised access to the buffet. Then teach a leave it and a trade so you have a response when you cannot prevent it. The additives and deterrents you can buy work in maybe a third of cases and are worth trying, but they are not the answer on their own.

Coprophagia is common. Studies have found roughly one in six dogs does it regularly, and the majority of those are healthy dogs doing a normal if disgusting dog thing.

Rule out the medical causes first

Most poop eating is behavioral, but a meaningful minority is not, and it is worth a vet visit if the behavior appeared suddenly in an adult dog.

Parasites. Giardia, hookworm, roundworm. These cause nutrient loss and increase appetite. A fecal test is cheap.

Pancreatic insufficiency and malabsorption. Rarer, and it comes with weight loss, huge appetite, and greasy stools.

Underfeeding or a poor quality diet. A dog who is genuinely hungry looks for calories. Check the feeding amount against the dog's weight and body condition, not against the bag.

Medication side effects. Steroids in particular ramp up appetite dramatically.

Cushing's disease and diabetes. Both increase hunger. Both usually come with increased drinking and urination.

If the dog is a puppy, is otherwise healthy, and has done this since you got them, medical causes are unlikely.

Why dogs do it when nothing is wrong

Puppies explore with their mouths and many grow out of it by about nine months. Mothers clean up after their litters, and it is a normal behavior in that context. Dogs in kennels or from hoarding situations often learned it in an environment where the alternative was a dirty space. Bored dogs do it for something to do. And some dogs just find it good, particularly cat feces and feces from dogs on high protein diets.

Frozen feces in winter is its own category. A lot of dogs who never touch it in July are enthusiastic in January.

What actually works

Immediate pickup, every single time. This is the highest impact change. If there is nothing to eat, the habit extinguishes. Go out with the dog every time for two weeks and pick up while they are still standing there.

Leash in the yard. For a committed poop eater, a long line for two weeks removes the opportunity entirely. Habits weaken when they are not rehearsed.

Leave it, trained properly. Not shouted in the moment for the first time. Build it with boring items in the house first, then food on the floor, then outside. When it is solid, one leave it should stop the dog mid approach.

A trade, not a chase. The moment you run at a dog with something in their mouth, you have taught them to swallow fast next time. Instead, call them to you and pay with something better. Yes, you are paying a dog who just ate poop. Do it anyway, because the alternative is a dog who avoids you with things in their mouth.

Fenced off the cat box. A gate the cat clears and the dog cannot, or a covered box in a closet with a cat door. This one is pure management and it works perfectly.

Deterrent additives. For rain, meat tenderizer, and the commercial products meant to make stool unappealing. They only work on the dog's own stool, they only work if you dose every dog in the house, and results are inconsistent. Cheap enough to try.

More food or more fiber. If the dog is on the lean side or on a low fiber diet, talk to your vet about increasing the volume of the meal. Some dogs stop when they feel fuller.

Enrichment. Snuffle mats, frozen toys, nose work, and chew items. A bored dog in an empty yard will find something to do.

What does not work

Punishing after the fact. The dog cannot connect a scolding to something that happened 20 seconds ago. What they learn is that you are unpredictable near poop, so they get sneakier and faster.

Yelling and running. Adds excitement, teaches swallowing.

Rubbing the dog's nose in it. This teaches nothing and damages trust.

Hot sauce on stool. Plenty of dogs like it. Some get irritated mouths. Skip it.

The realistic outcome

For puppies, this usually resolves with management and age within a few months. For adult dogs with an established habit, expect four to eight weeks of strict management before the behavior fades, and expect it to reappear if you get lazy about pickup.

Some dogs never fully stop and simply have to be managed for life. That is not a training failure. A leashed dog in a clean yard cannot eat poop, and that is a complete solution even if it is not the one you wanted.

One last thing worth mentioning, because it comes up constantly: dogs who eat feces do not usually get seriously ill from their own, but cat feces can carry parasites and other dogs' feces can carry giardia and worms. Keep the parasite prevention current and get a fecal check twice a year if the habit persists.

If your dog grabs something disgusting and then plays keep away, the underlying problem is recall, not the poop. My free recall guide covers the come to me under any circumstance work. Download the Rock Solid Recall blueprint

Ready to train your dog?

Every drill in this article comes from the WorldWide K9 Academy course library. If you want the full step by step system, start with the $5 intro course.