Dog eating its own poop

You are not alone, this undesireable activity is quite common. The act of an animal eating its own stool is called coprophagia. This behavior does not indicate something is missing in the diet, it is just an experiment that can turn into habit if not redirected quickly.

The best solution is to leash walk your dog when you are expecting him to defecate and as soon as he does, clean it up and move on to another area right away. If you let your dog out in a fenced in yard, you can try a distraction of a treat or toy right away while you clean it up. Make regular yard patrols to ensure there isn't any stool around you may have missed.

Some owners have had luck with bad tasting substances such as tabasco sauce, you can put on the stool to make the eating of it unpleasant. This does not work for everyone, some dogs can get by the new taste and continue right on eating. There are a couple of products such as Forbid or Deter that you sprinkle on your dogs food which in turn gives the stool a bad taste. Again, this method may not work for all dogs.