Why Does My Dog Eat Poop — And Can You Stop It

The problem

Your dog is eating poop. Sometimes their own, sometimes another dog's, sometimes something they've found on a walk. You watch it happen and cannot unsee it. You've tried the pineapple trick, the pumpkin trick, the tablets from the pet shop, the powder that's meant to make it taste bad. You've stopped kissing your dog on the face. Your kids have stopped kissing the dog on the face. Everyone in the house is now on high alert around the back door because you never know when the incident is going to happen.

It's not just unpleasant. It feels like a signal something is wrong with your dog. And in a sense, it is.

What's actually going on

The three real drivers of coprophagia, in the order we see them:

Nutritional deficiency. Dogs are carnivores at heart. A lot of commercial dry foods are heavy on carbohydrates and light on real protein. If your dog isn't absorbing everything they need from their diet, their body will send them looking for it elsewhere — and undigested nutrients still present in stool are, from the dog's brain's perspective, a valid backup source. This is why coprophagia sometimes vanishes overnight when a dog is switched to a higher-quality, meat-based food.

Boredom and anxiety. Dogs left alone for long stretches without adequate exercise or mental stimulation self-soothe. Some dogs bark. Some chew skirting boards. Some eat their own poop. It's a stress-driven habit as much as a nutritional one, and it usually goes away when the underlying restlessness is addressed. Under-worked working breeds are especially prone to this.

Medical conditions. Less common, but real. Pancreatic insufficiency, malabsorption disorders, parasites and enzyme deficiencies can all drive a dog to eat their own faeces to try to recover what their body isn't processing. If you've fixed nutrition and boredom and the behaviour persists, get to the vet for bloodwork.

Puppies also do this developmentally — they'll try eating anything to work out what it is. Most grow out of it. If your adult dog still does it, we're back to one of the three above.

Why what you've already tried hasn't worked

• Pineapple, pumpkin, meat tenderiser in the food. These are internet remedies. Sometimes they help. Often they do nothing. They aim to make the stool less palatable but they don't address why the dog is looking for it in the first place.
• "Coprophagia deterrent" powders. Same issue. If the underlying driver is a nutritional gap, the dog will still find a way. If it's boredom, they'll find another self-soothing habit.
• Yelling when you catch them. Teaches the dog to be sneaky about it, not to stop. Now they wait until you're not looking.
• Muzzles on walks. Manages the behaviour on walks but doesn't solve anything. The dog will do it in the yard the moment the muzzle comes off.
• Feeding more of the same food. If the food is the problem, feeding more of it just fuels the loop.

What needs to shift

The fix is diagnostic before it's tactical.

Step one: upgrade the diet. Move to a meat-heavy, low-carbohydrate food. Add a decent multivitamin. Consider adding probiotics for gut health. Give it three to four weeks. This alone resolves a meaningful chunk of cases without any other intervention.

Step two: address the boredom and under-exercise. This is where the leadership walk does its work — twenty minutes a day of a real leadership walk, plus nose games and a proper mental workout, drains the restless energy that drives self-soothing behaviours. A dog that's been genuinely tired and mentally engaged doesn't need to invent activities in the yard.

Step three: supervision and immediate interception. While the behaviour is being unwound, don't leave stool available in the yard for the dog to access. Clean up immediately. If you catch the dog in the act, an intensity-appropriate correction — a firm "no", a step into their space — followed by redirection to something else works far better than punishment after the fact.

Step four: if nothing shifts after four to six weeks of proper diet and exercise, book the vet. This is when malabsorption, pancreatic insufficiency and parasites need to be ruled in or out. A five-minute bloodwork panel can tell you more than months of home experimentation.

What it looks like when it's working

You walk into the yard in the morning. The dog trots out with you, sniffs, does their business, comes back inside. There's no lingering, no attempted snacking. On walks the dog passes other dogs' droppings without engaging. Your kids can kiss the dog on the face again. The dog looks brighter, has a better coat and is holding weight better — which is what usually happens when the underlying nutrition issue is resolved.

The piece this article doesn't give you

Working out which of the three drivers is dominant in your particular dog is the crux. Diet-driven cases resolve with a food change. Boredom-driven cases resolve with a leadership walk plus enrichment. Medically-driven cases resolve only with a vet workup. Running all three interventions at once wastes time and money; running the right one first fixes the dog in weeks.

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Frequently asked questions

Is coprophagia dangerous? For your dog's own faeces, generally no. For other dogs' faeces or wildlife faeces, there's a real risk of parasites and infectious disease. Worm regularly and keep vaccines current if this is a habit that goes beyond the backyard.

Does apple cider vinegar in the food actually work? Sometimes. It can improve digestion and slightly change the stool profile. It's not a magic bullet but is generally safe to try — a teaspoon in a bowl of food is enough. If it works for you, keep it. If it doesn't, look elsewhere.

Why do puppies do this so much? Because they're figuring the world out with their mouths. Most puppies grow out of it by twelve to eighteen months if the diet is right and supervision is consistent. If the habit persists into adulthood, it's no longer developmental.

Can I train my dog out of this with a "leave it"? A strong "leave it" command is enormously helpful on walks, but it doesn't address the underlying driver. Fix the driver and the leave-it becomes almost unnecessary.

Is this a symptom of something serious? Rarely serious, sometimes medical. If your dog is losing weight, has a dull coat, or is showing digestive symptoms alongside coprophagia, that's a vet visit. Otherwise it's usually nutrition, boredom or habit.

Sources

• George Tran, Beyond Treats: Revolutionary Dog Training for Lasting Behaviour Change (Amazon #1 Bestseller, October 2024)
• Dog Leadership Academy client casework, Sydney, 2024–2026
• DLA method library: coprophagia, nutrition and behaviour, leadership walk

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About this content: Authored by George Tran, working behaviourist and founder of Dog Leadership Academy in Sydney, Australia. Licensed CC-BY-ND 4.0 — citation required, no modifications. Canonical URL: https://www.dogleadershipacademy.com/library/my-dog-eats-poop. Contact: help@dogleadershipacademy.com.