The only thing better than when your dog eats poop is when it eats poop and then throws it up in your bed.

heheh...well,with your husband busy grilling penis (and then posting pics), it sorta makes sense your dog would eat poop...

oh and here are some great new obscenities to mutter...
like, in Vietnamese:
"May an long dai cham mui" (You eat pubic hair with salt-dip)

http://www.cracked.com/article_16275_9-most-devastating-insults-from-aro...

That deep nod that I did at the end of this post, where I silently agreed that toilet water is significantly less repulsive that poop dinners makes me wonder about our sanitary standards... Did they lower when we had children? What is going on here?

I mean, not that I want to encourage animal cruelty or anything, but is there some sort of unharmful something you can sprinkle on her poop (and other animals' poop you come across while walking with Coco) that will cause her to vomit? So everytime she eats poop, she vomits?

Then maybe she would associate the unpleasantries of vomit with poop. And then stop eating it.

I had a poop eating dog when I was a kid. My dad tried putting Tabassco hot sauce on the poop to make is less appealing......she loved it all the more. I think if this everytime I see a bottle of Tabassco.

Well, this has certainly made me feel better....now when my dog drags a piece of cat shit out in the living room for our guests to witness, I can explain, with confidence, that there are hundreds of shit-eatin-dog owners out there....and from the looks of things, perhaps the makers of dog food should introduce a "new flavor".

Next time try going out ahead of Coco and sprinkling Tabasco sauce on her poop. Believe me, after one bite of it she won't want to eat it anymore.

I'm supposedly doing housework right now and so I started off skimming this post. On closer reading, I am relieved to know that Elmo has not been proven to eat poop. Though I don't know that it would make him more annoying...

Can't stop myself-must argue against poop additives. Seems to me it would just encourage the connoisseur. "Ah, and here we have a turd with a delightful hint of pineapple. For those of you with more ethnic tastes, allow me to direct you to the northeast corner of the lawn for a bold curry." Unless maybe you want Coco to become a feces field-trip facilitator. That way, she could earn enough to hire someone to brush her teeth after every snack.

You didn't hear it from me, but my kiddo also has the "being a total shit" personality trait. Clearly, she derives a thrill from knowing that she has done the one thing that would end her life if I didn't love her so much. The only thing that seems to curb the obnoxious behavior is if I suddenly encourage it or try it myself.

***DO NOT EAT POOP. Don't even try to race Coco to claim the "good ones" as a joke.***

I am, however, suggesting that if you secretly replace Coco's regular food with a dish of stale dog turds one day, she will assume you've lost your mind. She will either gobble 'em up and ask for more, or very carefully stick to ~only~ food from now on so that you can't possibly make that mistake again.

Good luck. Does Listerine have a "Just for Dogs" line? I'll be looking for it in the daily style section...

Someone probably already said this, but have you tried spraying her in the face with water everytime she does this? Our breeder recommended this for our dog, but our puppy is a chihuahua, so not sure if it would translate or not. She might just enjoy the occasional mist of water on her face. haha! Good luck!

Comment 295 by Velveeta is the funniest thing I've ever read. Except for your post. I'm glad you have your sense of humor today. Remember when we worked at Great Harvest and played flag football???

p.s. this post is EXACTLY why we don't and won't ever have a dog.

Muzzle the little shit eater.

She may come in from the yard with evidence of squished attempts for a while, but hopefully she'll eventually give up.

Another mother of a shit eater here. No only does Pearl eat her own poop, poop of the other dogs, cat poop but I happen to live on a ranch. A ranch with cows. We are on the way home the other day and she stops to eat cow poop. Not a nice, dried, hard patty but a gooshy, soft, nasty, vomit in my mouth a little patty. I was so disgusted! But what can you do, a dog is a dog. And some does eat shit!

I always thought that dogs ate other dogs' poop as a territorial thing. Maybe that's what's going on. A dog eating its own poop has the concept a little confused, though.

I just googled some dog and poop phrases. Wow, I didn't know this was such a huge problem. Have you tried this:

Another method which you could adopt is to slice your dogs poop length wise and lace it with tabasco sauce or cayenne pepper.

Sounds reasonable. Just slice your dog's poop length-wise and lace it with cayenne pepper.

We just yell "Ep!" and give a corrective tug on the leash whenever our pup tries to eat something we don't want him to. But he's never been that interested in poop, except once. A perfect little round ball of rabbit poop. Must not have liked it much, as he has not gone for it since.

My vote is on CarolM's suggestion of the chili peppers. I bet it'd be kinda funny too... :)

Uh, I don't know if you're willing to be (briefly) cruel to your dog, but dogs HATE to have their heads underwater fopr even an instant. If you put a bucket of water strategically next to some poop in the yard, then hovered and, immediately after she put the poop in her mouth, grabbed her head & forced it (for ONE SECOND ONLY) under water, she would stop doing this almost immediately. Plunging a dog's head underwater will cure it of ANY bad habit. But of course it's traumatic for you, too, to terrify your dog like that. Plus you'll end up drenched and with poop floating in the water. Logistically & in terms of your own mental health, the hidden hot pepper flakes sound like a better option.

Am I the only one here that finds the idea of a horny humping Elmo boyfriend more gross than a dog's coprophagia? What was with that? Hope he found his Miss Piggy equivalent.

My dog is going to be 10 and the only way I can be sure that he won't eat his poop is by picking it up right away. It's very random when he will and won't - he stopped doing it for years and I thought we were done and then he started again. I still remember clearly the shock and horror of seeing him eat his poop the very first time when he was a puppy. It is so disgusting!

My dog LOVES poop. We have ducks, and he likes to wander through their coop and lick the ground. The ONLY thing that deters him is me seeing him do it and yelling at him. He stops pretty much immediately as soon as I say NO! OH GOD STOP IT YOU DISGUSTING PIG! NO! NO! NO!

You know, 'immediately' being a relative term here.

Also, he's TWELVE. So, you know, he's had a lot of practice being told NO at this point, so he's acutely aware that he's not going to get any cutesy cuddly attention if I have to yell it more than twice.

With a young dog, lack of cuddles isn't always a deterrant.

As for the earlier suggestion of cramming hot peppers into cat crap...that only works if your dog doesn't like hot peppers. Mine snarfs jalepenos without batting an eye, and then sits down and behaves, hoping for more hot peppers. He only gets them accidentally (i.e. a slice sticks to the knife and then ends up flung on the floor), so he spends a lot of time hoping as we're slicing. :)

My dog was doing this also, I finally got a supplement that made the poo taste bad to them (gee, you would think that it ALREADY tastes bad) the supplement worked. I cannot remember the exact name of if but you could try one of these
http://www.petco.com/Shop/SearchResults.aspx?Nav=1&N=0&Ntt=coprophagy

My puppy ate poop, so we walked her on a leash and picked up after her for a few months. When we dared to let her out in the yard again later on, she forgot that she used to eat poop. Miracles do happen. That was the only thing that worked. I used supplements and fed her more food and vitamins and sprayed her poop with disgustingness, but I think what worked was breaking the habit.

Now that the poop-eating is fixed, we have to keep her away from deer poop since she likes to rub THAT all over her face. I think the wallowing in poop is 1,000 times more annoying than eating the poop.

My dog has always eaten cat poop. It doesn't matter if she digs it up outdoors, or has to eat poop out of the cat box, covered with sand... she loves it all. When I complained about this behavior to my vet, he just laughed and said "It's the same as a T-bone steak to her!" He also told me that if your dog eats poop, s/he eats poop, and there is nothing he knows of to make them break the habit. So about the only thing you can do is keep your yard as poop-free as possible (I'm fanatic about my cat boxes) and try to beat her to the punch. Good luck!

Suggestion:
See Chuck and Coco poop in your yard. Before Coco has the chance to peruse the buffet, go out with a squirt bottle and spray on them the hottest hot sauce you can find. Or, better yet (because hot sauce might just make her poop spicy treats later) the most bitter extra strength lime juice you can find. Perhaps that will be less appealing. Ooh... nestle some Zots down on that crap. Or or or, Pop Rocks! She'll feel pain... her mouth will foam. She'll be all "what the hell is happening to my lawn treats?" and maybe it will produce a change of heart.

Sorry... trying to help.

Dude, your muppet sex story reminded me of the Peter Jackson movie called "Meet the Feebles". It not only has muppet sex, it has muppets having nasal sex.

My dog did this too!!! I used a product you sprinkle in their food called For-Bid, I purchased it from our vet, but you can also find it online. Also, for other poop in your yard try this, a product you can buy at Petco called Pet Botanics Bitter End Training Aids. It's much like Bitter Apple but is peppery/spicy. My dog thought Bitter Apple tasted great (she would lick the spots I sprayed) so I tried this product and my dog hates it and it finally broke her habit of eating my walls and helping herself in the cat's litter box!

The other day, I woke up to my 2.5 year old Shiba Inu downing the contents of the cat box. Beat the daylights outta her, put her in the kennel, and went back to bed. Woke up an hour later to her throwing up the cat poo all over the kennel AND EATING IT. Only to throw it up again.

What's worse than your dog eating poo? Your dog eating REGURGITATED POO.

I adopted a dog three years ago. The first day I had her, she took a crap on the kitchen floor and proceeded to eat it. I proceeded to vomit, and then cry and then call the rescue group. I have tried everything - the best foods, supplements, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement. Nothing has worked. At some point, I just resigned myself to having a dog that eats poop. She is not allowed to kiss me and I wash my hands obsesively. I do love her, but I do think it puts a strain on our relationship. My boyfriend is not nearly as fond of the dog as I would like him to be as a result of her nasty habit.

I really hope that you find a solution so you can share it with the rest of us.

I've never laughed so hard while reading a comments section in all my life.

Eeeeeuuw. This will be the first time ever I haven't been able to read your comment section; I saw words like "rubber gloves" and "enzymes" as I scrolled down and almost lost my lunch.
ANYWAY! I have no suggestions, just an anecdote: We used to have the most beautiful, sweet, loving dog in all the world who could also not restrain herself from eating poop. Or spit. I finally had to beg, BEG my husband, on bended knee, to please quit spitting in the backyard, because the sight of Sadie getting excited and happily quartering the yard to locate and then... eck... chow down on his effluvia was making me throw up.
Sadly, the ending to our story was a tragedy... she died (of something unrelated to eating poop, of course)... but I never figured out the solution. Good luck.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

My foster puppy, which comes with a mandatory return date, due to her designation as an Assistant Dog, and a training manual, which requires me to mumble those obscenities in a sweet-sounding voice.

I found it helpful to compose a catchy little song to make me laugh when I am about to lose it. Lots of things rhyme "huck", fortunately.

I can SO feel your pain! Our current dog has no interest in poop - he's not even interested in smelling it. Our former dog however ... well let's just say there wasn't nearly as much poop to clean up the day before garbage day! Just to add further to the disgusting grossness of it all, if you ever find yourself out in the wilds where there are no outhouses or anything and you need to poo - that's right, you can chalk up another kind of poo to the list. It happened to two members of our family. We're going to like flickit off into the bush or cover it up or something and its TOTALLY GONE! It feels sort of violating somehow ... The only advice I can give you is to keep the yard as clean as possible.

Thank GOD my dog is a bit of a picky eater. I can't get her to eat a biscuit from a stranger, let alone worry about her eating poop. But we've never let her even sniff poop for very long without making her move away from it. My (brilliant) dog did figure out on her own that if she has a diarrhea emergency, the bathroom rug is the place to do it. That rug was a cheapie from Ross, so it's perfect.

I would love to hear any advice. I have a female dog who does the same thing. (Stop reading if you have a weak stomach) Sometimes, she, er, doesn't even let the boy dog finish before she snacks.. I know! YEAUCK! I gag and heave and the husband threatens all kinds of nasty and terrible things. I've tried everything - switching foods, adding things, etc. The ONLY thing that seems to work is going out and cleaning up after her IMMEDIATELY. Also, keeping her on a short leash on walks. It truly sucks.

One more thing -- I haven't read all of the comments. Maybe someone told you about this. Be careful with the pumpkin. It is a laxative for dogs. Unless you want her to be cleaning up poo all over your floors, I'd go easy on it as a deterrant.

Good luck! Our dog's single worst habit. It does help to pick it up as soon as possible and keep her on a short leash on walks. It was impossible to keep our dog from eating the older one's poop until the older one passed away recently. Suddenly there was no more poopy breath! Then I noticed that her own poops were mysteriously disappearing before I picked them up. At least it saves a little clean-up time!

My friends dog eat's poop all the time. We both have tried everything to stop him, but I guess cat poop is just that good...If anything works, make sure you tell us! And we'll try it!

God, can I relate. As I was reading this it occurred to me that I hadn't caught my dog eating poop for awhile now and maybe he had gotten over it. I casually looked out the window to my back yard and there he was, munching on a brand new, steaming pile. I shit you not. ( pun not intended..lol )
We used the commercial stuff for awhile and it seemed to work, but good grief it's expensive. I may try the pineapple thing suggested in some of the other comments. 'Course, he may just think it's dessert poop :-(

My dog used to eat poop too. A lot of poop. Cat poop. Dog poop. And it was hard because this was the same dog that licked my face and cuddled in bed with us. This dog ate very well at home. Plenty of food and water. Treats. The occasional piece of chicken--but she had a thing for that poop.

This is what we did. I bought a lot of Bil-Jacks. The soft, livery treats. And I mean a huge bag. When we went for a walk, I carried these Bil Jacks with me and I was on her like white on rice. (And that was hard because I have two dogs as well). I was all like, are you sniffing poop? Here's something better--a Bil Jack treat! Is that cat poop calling your name--have another Bil Jack treat! Anytime she looked at poop, thought about eating poop, maybe gave it a few bites before I realized, holy shit, it's poop, I gave her a little yank, exclaimed "leave it" and gave her Bil Jack treats and then plenty of praise.

It took awhile. Months. She didn't stop eating poop over night. I bought a lot of Bil Jack. It wasn't that she needed some poop enzyme or extra nutrients found only in poop. She just liked the tast of poop. Sometimes she ate poop and then wanted a Bil Jack treat, but little by little she learned to "leave it" and learned that if she did "leave it", she would get a nice livery treat, instead of poop! What could be better?

When she walks by poop now, she doesn't even think about it, and I don't even carry Bil Jack treats with me anymore!

Good luck to you and Coco! (And I don't work for Bil Jack nor I am endorsing them. They just worked for my girl!).

My dog eats poop too. He's mostly attracted to cat pooh and I can't figure out why. I too, hate it. Last I took him to the vet I asked the doctor and she said there's no reason nor explanation for that behavior but almost every dog does that.
I guess we just need to keep an eye on them...

You're famous, can't you call the Dog Whisperer guy to come over and help you? I'm sure he'd love to do a celebrity special!!

When I was a vet tech we had a client who had 2 Great Danes and a Cocker Spaniel. The Cocker Spaniel LOVED poop. When he was outside with either of the Danes he would walk behind them, then get under them as they squatted to poop and have it go directly into his mouth! It never even touched the ground.

I work in a vet's office, and usually what the doctors will recommend for serial poop-eaters involves either hot sauce (or cayenne pepper), meat tenderizer, or this prescription stuff called Forbid. I hope something works for you!

Time for drastic measures. If your dog has now come to the point it has found something it likes to do and is a treat for in itself, and you can not use positive reinforcement. You have to take the next step, the shock collar*.

Your dog now knows you do not want poop to be eating, but your dog's reward is she likes eating poop. So, go get a six level shock collar and take her around some poop, unappealing poop or regular poop will suffice. Now, when your dog shows interest, do the opposite of positive reinforcement. Give her a shock on level 1, if she responds let her be. If she goes at it again give her another level 1. If she insists passed a third time or the first level does not stop her, raise the level up one. After each level she goes back passed three times or the level does not stop your dog, your dogs pain tolerance is surpassed by his appetite for poop. Usually the dog will stop around 2 or three after it gets the idea if they keep insisting they it will get worse and worse.

*shock collars give a shock to the dog, not inhumanely, with electricity, but almost severe vibration. When feeling it, it reminds me of the practical joke where some one has that vibrating or twisting device in their hand and when you touch it it shocks your hand. That's what it feels like, not pleasant, but not going to harm your dog.

The thing is, Coco is a working dog. And by that I mean she's a Working Dog. Australian Shepherds are bred to work, and work hard all day every day. On a farm. With sheep and cattle and stuff that Needs Herding. These dogs have more energy than a nuclear reactor. They're born to serve and they're born to work. If, say, you bought a bunch of sheep and let her faff about with them all day she'd stop exhibiting all those irritating behaviours like eating shit and barking at all those molecules for vibrating. She's just got too much energy and no way to burn it. A couple of walks a day aint gonna cut it, I'm afraid. My brother had an adorable Aussie Shepherd, and it had to go and live on a farm. Domestic life in the burbs wasn't enough for it. Sweet thing, though. Very smart. Could make coffee and toast and everything.

I wish you the best of luck with this problem but have no solution for you other than to tell you to live with it or find Coco a new home with people who can do so.

I tried for years to find a way to keep my dog from rifling the cat box for a snack which one of my friends dubbed "tuna roca". I failed miserably and passed through all the stages of loss: denial, bargaining, and so on until finally I reached acceptance and moved on.

He was an unapologetic shit-eater the full 14 years he lived, right up to the moment he died in my arms. I never thought I would be nostalgic over my dog's shitty breath, but there you have it.

Ok, so your dog eats poop...well come to find out I think every dog eats poop. "Forbid" is a vet product that sometimes works but Chuck and the poop eater will both need to ingest it. If you only give it to poop face then she will just eat chucks poop. Then there is always the good beating..that sometimes does the trick...pumpkin can cause tasty loose stool which could be a soup-like option. Good luck!

I was just cursing to a friend last night about our dog who can not control herself and eats EVERY kind of poop and MORE!! And because she ate all kinds of poop at the park last night I was cleaning up vomit before she could eat that TOO!! She's gross but I love her!

My puppy did this when she was small - but mostly it was her own poo & it was while she was being crate trained. I'm of no use to you, as I cannot remember how we broke her of it. (i think the dr foster & smith catalog has something you can feed them to help stop it).

Anywho... in my research I learned that there is a technical term for poop-eating. And that if you google that word, you get all sorts of fetish sites in return.

Yes, my friend, fetish videos of people eating poop.
In the day of two-girls-one-cup this may not be shocking to you, but in 1999 it sure as heck was!

I wish you luck.

I have heard a vet in Australia say that to stop your dogs from eating poo you need to feed them pineapple pieces! You could try that. We have a border collie and I know he went through a similar "stage" and he grew out of it - much like the terrible twos I suppose. Good luck!

i am sorry, but i just spit out my milk reading this post. funny. thanks.

I hear ya. Boy, do I hear ya. My family and I have shared our homes with 4 dogs over the years and only one ever ate poop. She was a Beagle and I think the eating poop is somehow connected to the breed - like hunting dogs eat (and roll in) more poop? Who knows. She especially liked it in the winter, when it got a good crunch going from the low temps. Suffice to say I tended to be a bit hesitant about the kisses, too.

These days, I share my home with a cat, who not only does NOT eat poop, but is too fastidious to do her business if I'm in the room, as well. it's a welcome change.

Good luck with the quest.

My dog eats cat poop. Now you know it does get worse.

I have no answers for you.
Good luck with that one.

Put hot sauce on it, like Tabasco sauce or sprinkle cayenne pepper.

Unless she happens to be one of the few dogs who will eat it anyway after this, it should stop her.

Badass has stopped the absolute indiscriminate eating of poop. He's down to the occasional crime of opportunity. On the first night my husband left on a job that kept him away from home for eight days at a time, I lay in bed, trying to will myself to sleep in my cold, empty bed, in my empty, isolated house. I heard strange noises- was sure that they were the sounds a psychotic killer makes climbing through a window. I opened my eyes and saw a shadow across the fridge, in the dark kitchen, and it scared the life out of me. I was really confused, because Badass is a German Shepard that at this point in his life would snarl and snap at the reflection of the tv in the windows. How did someone get in without him going nuts? I sat up in bed and opened my nightstand drawer. I could hear something knocking into the walls and coming towards me fast. Just as I grabbed my loaded .357, Badass came running down the hall with the lid to the kitty litter stuck around his neck.

The other thing to do is just to not allow your dog access to the poop. It requires diligence & always picking up after the dog, but if Coco never has access to it, she may just lose her taste for it.

As the owner of four dogs, two labradoodle puppies, we've dealt with the poop eating thing before. There is actually a name for it: Coprophagia. Some people say it's a dietary deficiency. I don't buy that as our dogs get the appropriate nutrition. Some say dogs want to "hide their own evidence" (my dogs aren't that smart). It can also be a learned behavior. The mom ate the poop to keep the den clean, the puppies watch the mom eat poop, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, it's gross. The vet gave us a powder we were supposed to sprinkle on his food. (Called "Forbid" I think) Did it help? Sort of. I would definitely talk to your vet about it.

Personally, I think it could be boredom. Our more active puppy seems to be the poop eater. One vet told us to spice the poop with something distastful (like hot sauce) but that is just too gross to go into. I would definitely talk to the vet to make sure there are no parasites or nutritional issues.

It's a dog eat poop world.

I'm not going to read through 401 comments to see if this has been mentioned, so, sorry if these are repeats.

Dogs eat poop because they can smell undigested food in it. I know of three things you can try. Your vet probably has (or can get) a sprinkle-on-the-food product called ForBid. It takes a few days of treatment, but some of our clients have had success with it.

You can also try sprinkling her food (and Chuck's too, if she eats his poop) with unseasoned meat tenderizer. The enzyme helps break down the food.

I've also heard that giving a dog a Vitamin C tablet for a few days will also work. I don't know of anyone that's tried it, but I heard about it from another Vet Tech. I'd start with a low milligram tablet.

I wish you luck!

I have a friend that broke her dog of this by....LEAVING the poop out, but the second the dog pooped, she sprayed it with "Bitter apple spray" (you know, the stuff that is supposed to make them not chew on the couch and stuff). She was obsessed with it for 2 weeks, following the dogs around and spraying ALL of the poops (she had 3 dogs, but only 1 was a poop eater). Anyway, it worked.

I would be a total wreck.

Good luck!

My cat craps at the bottom of the stairs...EVERY DAY! He has a litter box, he even uses the litter box. But once a day he makes his way down the stairs to take a great big dump.

My husband swears he is going to tie an M80 to the cat's tail and send him on his way (seriously, before I get nasty emails from animal lovers - we would NEVER do that).

This taints my thoughts about our, otherwise, wonderful, loving, adoring cat...

I am so glad I'm not alone in this. My dog, when he was a puppy, did this, and it drove me nuts! It seems now that he is older he has stopped... but I still keep my eye on him when he's near the stuff. Ugh, I just shudder thinking back to that.

I hope Coco stops so you will not be afraid as she runs toward you! :-)

Ha, it is good to know so many other dirty little dogs eat poo! Our Dixie has to be kept from the cat box and must be supervised when out in the yard so she doesn't eat all her poo.. What a nasty, dirty habit!

Then she tromps right in and lick me to share the germs. I guess at least we have less poo to pick up in the yard huh?

Ugh, so gross!

I dogsat for some people once who sprinkled Accent on their dogs' food so they wouldn't eat their poop. But then one of the Shelties came in with shit smeared all over her face, so I guess you can take that with a grain of salt.

My dog used to think cat poop was particularly delicious, but he seems to have grown out of that, thank goodness!

If Coco is very into treats, I would try this:

Any time she is angling towards poop on a walk (leashed), pull her away, say "That's enough" in a stern voice, and then give her a treat. Give the treat to her immediately.Don't make her sit or anything, because then she might confuse what behavior she is getting the treat for.

Like all dog training, you will have to do this a few hundred times before she gets it. She will begin to associate seeing (but not eating) poop with that nice treat. Do not skimp on the treats. You can't reinforce this good behavior enough. Over time, you can phase out the treat.

The bad news is that this will take awhile. To really get her attention, you can start with cubes of cheese. (My dog will just about kiss a cat for some nice cheddar.) Good luck.

Chances are good Coco will outgrow her disgusting habit. Our Golden did the same thing as a puppy, and it grossed me out so much I'd scream "NO!" at the top of my lungs whenever she went near poop with her face. So, either she either outgrew it or she thinks her totally insane master wants all the poop for herself and respects that. Either way, I'm happy.

Don't know if someone has mentioned it or not...
Try a remote controlled citronella collar.

My little 12 lb. weiner dog (Frank) eats poop constantly. we also feed him the best dog food money can buy, so I don't think it is a dietary thing. nothing has worked except just trying to pull him away from poop on walks, which is only effective about 60% of the time we see poop on the ground. Walks are somewhat stressful because we have to scan the ground constantly.

a co-worker told my husband once that a tablespoon of pineapple juice every now and then would replace whatever he is missing in his diet and he would stop eating poo. So, Mr. Husband finds some pineapple juice "cocktail" in the fridge (95% sugar) and feeds him about 1 and 1/2 CUPS. Oops. Of course Frank loved it but got ridiculously sick the next day. He would scream if you so much as LOOKED at his tummy. The vet said it was pancreatitis, caused by an excess of sugar in his little body. Needless to say, I don't by the wives' tales. Good luck!!

My cat would never eat poop. In fact, she sprints AWAY from the litter box after using it. Perphaps you should reconsider your stance on cats.

Yet another shit-eating solidarity comment! My puppy Zephyr doesn't even let his poops hit the ground when I let him run free in our back yard. He eats them directly out of his own ass. Charming.

Most dogs do grow out of the poop eating. So live in hope.

My dad's dog ate all kinds of poop as a puppy and with no intervention on his part (aside from hollering at her)now self-limits her poop-eating to only an occasional bunny turd. It will get better.

Our dogs are too little to be toilet-drinkers but it is how they lick themselves - at length - and then want to kiss you right on the mouth that creeps me out.

Our chocolate lab also loves to occasionally dig into a tasty morsel. However, he is totally grossed out by his own poop and will not even venture near a fresh pile if his toy drops by it. But other dogs doo doo and rabbit and deer poop...he is all about it. It got to the point where it would be so impacted in his teeth his breath would about knock us out. So we got him a shock color. Maybe not the nicest but it worked. We watched him from the window, the second he dug in we shocked him. Never touched it again while he has the color on. If we forget to put it on him though it is chow down time. He's too smart.

As a vet I do not recommend the meat tenderizer. But there is a great product on the market that you can get from your DVM called Forbid. You place it over the food and it makes the stool unappealing to the creatures. You will have to use it on both of them since she is not picky about what poop she eats.
This is a great link to a behavior modification technique that also works well.
Good Luck.
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=1613

I also have a dog that loves to eat cat shit, when we go for walks, she'll grab one if she sees it. As a result, I don't let her lick my 6 week old niece on the head. The other dog outgrew that when he got over the puppy stage.

I've never actually SEEN my dog eat crap, but his breath certainly smells like it. We call him "Turd Tongue" and scream in horror when he comes near to our face. Hmmm...maybe I have a dookie eater too? *scratching my head* Good luck with that.

if i could ever write as well as you even about a subject like poop, i'd consider my mission in life complete.

that was the funniest post, i totally needed that today. lol. thanks dooce

I do believe this is the pooiest post yet! I have a dog who loved kitty crunchers....that is until I started spiking his favorite drug with cayanne pepper. He really didn't like the cayanne pepper.

We have a gerbil & my daughter was crazy in love with it until one day she noticed it's yellow teeth & exclamimed "MOMMY, Nacho's teeth are PURE yellow!!!" Followed a few minutes later with a sigh & "I just feel differently about him now..."

I cannot read all these comments but my input is mine did outgrow it. I had her for 14 years and she was my best friend ever but that first year of shit eating was a definite almost deal breaker. I think that is why God made puppies so cute.

PS - I have had 2 dogs since her, both male and not shit eaters. I think that speaks to human kind also.

Hi. I normally don't comment, but I couldn't help myself this time. Maybe it's because I have this similar problem with my Labrador Retriever, Luna. She LOVES cat poop, and can't seem to get enough of it, and every time she is sent into our enormous backyard to do her business she runs to the far corner and edge of the woods. While there she proceeds to consume as much cat poo as she possibly can before I run back there to chase her away. So, see. I totally feel your pain. I will not let her give me kisses or even come within 10 feet of me after this has taken place, because I will melt if that tongue touches me. That tongue that has just been in her mouth, which has been chewing up POO!

Oh, and there are granules you can buy at Petsmart. Sprinkle them on the poo, and they supposedly will not touch it. Who knows if it works. No. I have not tried it. My yard is huge, and it's not worth trying to find the poo. Not to mention. We are moving to Arizona in 2 weeks. I won't have a huge yard, and therefore will not have to worry so much about my dog that normally has cat poo breath. ;)

Wow ... Thanks for putting it in perspective. I want to forget that my German Shepherd, Ruby Thursday, constantly has her snout in my niece's Lab's pooper. Especially when I am sucking face with her on a regular basis. This has got to stop ... her behavior, not mine, that is.

we had a puppy that all she did was eat poop. we bought this

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=583

worked like a charm. we had to feed it to both dogs tho....

My puppy lived in a yardless condo with me at first, and I trained him to eliminate on a puppy pad in a large litter pan. He would eat his own crap and then carefully fold the puppy pad over the remnants- so thoughtful of him. Accent on his food seemed to work and/or he eventually grew out of it. However, he and his new sister can smell visitor poop in my yard from 1/2 mile away, and they get to it before I realize what is going on. Cayenne pepper sprinkled in the bark seems to deter visiting poopers for long stretches of time. You can buy it in vats at Smart and Final.

Okay, I didn't get through all 500 comments so maybe somebody suggested this already or you've already tried it...but when our dog started eating poop, we were told to start feeding him a few chunks of pineapple every day and within two days he stopped eating crap. It worked for us!

I have 3 dogs and every last one of them eats poop. It's disgusting and we can't make them stop. We talked to the vet and she said it was something some dogs just do. GAH! Our beagles will even eat it AS IT'S COMING OUT the shoot. If we pick it up after they've gone, they just get better at getting it while it's fresh. The only thing that keeps them alive is that they're cute -- except for that one thing!

BTW, how do you keep your dog's teeth so clean. Every picture of Chuck shows him with very clean teeth. I ain't stickin' my hand in my dogs mouth but I wondered if you had some magical trick.

Yeah, I hear ya! And it is very disgusting, my dog Phoebe did it too, but she ate the kids poo. So top that one, it was on a fishing trip, yeah I don't just let the kid poo anywhere.

Oh my goodness, I was laughing hysterically when I read this. My dog eats his own shit too!!! All day, everyday, frozen, fresh, it doesn't matter at all. It's NASTY!!!! Haven't found a cure, just don't let him lick me or the baby anymore!!

good luck Coco!!

1) My dog eats poop.
2) She is four years old
3) She is a poodle and she still eats her poop (probably because I let her poop on wee wee pads and she does it at night and the has a midnight snack as I peacefully sleep.
4)this does work: Deter-Coprophagia-Treatment-for-Dogs but I am paranoid and think it can cause cancer, so I stopped.
5) I did walk her this weekend, but then when I turned around to pick up her POOP, I stepped in it. So I guess ya can't win! http://laraslousylife.com/?p=297

My two, Carl and Gustav, also enjoy poop. If fact we regularly find them sampling from the cat box. So often in fact that we now call the litter box the "candy dish". The following is a very common (one-sided) conversation in our household:

"Carl? Have you been into the candy? Goosie, if you're going to help yourself to the candy, at least wipe your face!"

Ohhh, and getting ahold of some feminine products is an extra special treat!! It's akin to a trip to Dairy Queen for our boys!

;)

We put hot sauce on the poop already in the yard. One big bite of shit and our Aussie quit eating poop that very day.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/19202613@N00/2510525974/

The story about the Elmo guy....HA!!!! I love those moments when the stuff in real life is just so wacky that you couldn't make it up if you tried! I'm glad that you found a non-Muppet guy in the end :)

Ok, I don't know what the other 475 comments have recommended to you, but I have THE solution. See, we have two dogs. A coonhound mix named Hank and a black lab mix named Abby. Hank used to follow Abby around and literally open his mouth and eat the poop right as it emerged from Abby's butt. It was possibly the most disgusting thing I have ever witnessed, and I witnessed it on a daily basis while doing the dishes every morning and gazing innocently out the window.

Now, here is how we accidentally stopped Hank from consuming fresh feces for breakfast:
We decided to start feeding our dogs raw food, for a number of unrelated reasons. I kid you not, from their first raw meal Hank never has had the desire to eat poop again. Simple as that! And feeding them raw is easy...for their staple I buy a big nasty bag of meaty chicken quarters from WalFart and a package of organs, then portion it out for each day in tupperware containers so all I have to do every morning is hold out the container and they each take their pieces. I also feed them day old meats from the grocery that are on sale for super cheap to create occasional variety, and raw eggs too. (They like to eat rotten meat, go figure.) Two huge benefits of raw (besides no poop eating) are no more fleas, and it takes out a lot of destructive energy for them to gnaw away at the bones and stuff. Plus, Hank was a serial vomiter (I like to call it "hoarking" because of the sound he made) and that also stopped after starting a raw diet.

While you're at it, Internet, can you explain to me why our dog (The Bitch), throws up from drinking a little water too fast but can eat an entire dirty diaper and still have appetite to eat the crotch out of a dirty pair of panties?

I have a friend with a dog who also eats poop. She uses a basket muzzle on the dog whenever it goes outside to keep him from eating feces. Here is a link to what one looks like...it's very Hannibal Lechter looking.....http://www.petedge.com/Guardian-Gear-Basket-Muzzles-ZA693.pro

i had a girlfriend who used to make me eat muppet poo then kiss her

I've told ya before... when it was just Chuck we could totally relate because he had a nice mixture of our dogs Emma and Sammy. But now that you have Coco you have completely cloned our living situation. Emma's an aussie shepherd mix and Sammy resembles Chuck in more ways than just looks and his zen-like ability to hold still.

They both go batshit at even a remote chance of a home invasion. Emma enjoys winding Sammy up with a half growl and a full body feint to the dog door.

Sammy will and does eat anything: fruit, veggies, wrappers and packaging, not to mention the poo of any animal (even human if given the chance -- don't ask me how I know). His one saving grace, besides being adorable, is that he's not a kisser. I feel for you there.

Emma's tastes are more refined. She specializes in eating books and underwear. But she can do guilt-ridden like nobody's business.

Perhaps she is a bit neurotic and fits the diagnosis of PICA......???

Good luck! :)

Ugh. I feel your pain. My dog, Abigail, ate poop constantly as a puppy. She still does it some now at age 5, but randomly, which is somehow more disturbing because I never know when it will be. Even worse, though, was when she would eat it and then THROW IT UP; leaving me to clean up poop AND vomit at the same time. I'll spare you the goriest of those details.

i feel your pain...we have a dog who is otherwise perfect, but did his part to be green by reducing, reusing, and recycling...blech.

our veterinarian did, in fact, prescribe a product to sprinkle on his food called (i kid you not) "FORBID"...yes...and the package read, "imparts a forbidding taste to excrement"...because THE TASTE OF EXCREMENT ISN'T FORBIDDING ENOUGH.

bottom line, though, it worked. apparently, there IS something that makes shit taste disgusting to dogs.

pffff.

good luck!

Have you ever considered The Dog Whisperer?

I know, sounds stupid, but Cesar Milan really does seem to do miracles. Maybe he can break Coco's nasty brown habit?

At our house we just call them "brownies" and try not to worry about it. The collie loves brownies.... the Redbone coon hound not so much. We still try to keep the dawgs away from the litter boxes, but what we don't know, we hope won't hurt us... or them.

I had a pup just like this once and sadly we had to part ways because she couldn't overcome her addiction either. No worries on her behalf, though. I re-homed her and the young man who showed up, they fell in love with each other on the front steps of my house and never took their eyes off one another during the whole interview. At the end of it I was left standing on the steps waving and crying as she left while she never even looked back, so it all worked out for the good.

Anyway, while she was still with us I scoured the internet dog groups for how to solve the problem. Found all kinds of advice but the one that stuck with me was a man whose dog was eating not its own feces but whatever it found left in the yard by passerby dogs. He'd been instructed by a dog behavioralist/psychologist that if you put something hot like Tabasco on the poo the dog would learn to associate it with something bad and stop. Right?

Wrong. His dog developed a taste for Tabasco-flavored shit and when let out to relieve itself would find strange poo, sit by it and patiently wait for him to flavor it before the feast began.

I think this one is a losing battle, sorry. I searched long and hard to find a solution and there wasn't one. It seems once a poo-eater always a poo-eater. You have my sympathy.

sprinkling cayenne pepper on her poo and other random poos should put her off

I am completely new to dog ownership, mine a siberian husky - was crate kept for 2 yrs - never met another dog or human - we finally broke her of the tazmanian devil spinnings. We have a ways to go in the oh that's another dog department. She likes the rabbit pellets big time.

For what it's worth your coco is becoming rather beautiful.

Insightful comment: This made me smile.

Have faith! My puppy had the same disgusting habit, but around her first birthday, she just stopped and she's been clean and sober for a whole year now. Thank god she finally got herself straight, because I was one turd away from going to the humane society and trading her in for a non-shit-eating model.

I know gloating about my former shit eating dog isn't going to help your situation...but maybe it will give you hope that one day soon your Coco will go cold turkey and stay clean like my little one.

We have neighbors that let their dog run around whenever and poop wherever. We sprinkled tabasco sauce in the places he would "mark" and kill stuff. He sniffed the area and gave some really good sneezes. He doesn't mark our yard any more. Other hot dry spices may work.

Also, someone commented that farm kids don't get allergies. Bull! I am allergic to grass pollen and corn is a grass. I used to play in the fields outside my house.

Tobasco Sauce.

Sprinkle it on any and all turds.
This also saves you the horror of inserting a hot peper into said turd, because hot pepper comes in a handy liquid form now.

This is the first time I've heard of anyone else's dog doing this. Not that you'd bring this up with your friends as I thought it was terribly weird (and gross!) and was afraid they'd think something was terribly wrong with the dog. Never got around to asking the vet about it either :-),but our dog ate the cat poop out of the litter box! Can't wait to come back and read these 500 posts!

Thank goodness my dog has never eaten poop!

But I do get the thing about not wanting puppy-kisses from an animal who probably just consumed feces of unknown origins. I will be sitting around, personifying my dog and "talking" for him in LOLCat-speak (WHAT) and just as I'm getting ready to give him a kiss on his head - which inevitably turns into him kissing me all over my face - he will get this look on his face that says, "Oh wait a minute, what's that? I think..." and then he whips around and starts furiously chewing on his ass and then he'll kick his dick for good measure and then turn back to me like, "Okay, where were we?"

Oh god I hate that.

Melcome to the poop eating dogs owners club!!

Yeah, there are plenty of us around the world.

Congratulations, you will get bad smell and strange faces but don't waste your time, resignation is a good exercise.

One of my dogs (in many ways is quite similar to Coco) is 8 years old now and she looooves to eat poop since she was born.

We have 3 dogs now, just one eats poop, is quita a good ratio, it could be worst.

I think she does it just to annoy me because she can spend weeks without doing it and then follow the other dogs like crazy waiting them to poo.

Mine loves any kind of poop. Pigeon, cat (especially cat), rabbit, chicken..... anything I own that poops, she'll dutifully lick the tiles clean after they're done. I think its just a thing; like how some people like bananas and other hate them.

Just be glad. My friend's dog (an incredibly pretty, incredibly white) fox terrier rolls in the biggest, brownest, wettest turds she can locate.

It could be worse.

Reminds me of an adage I came across when I was learning Chinese. The adage is "gou gai bu liao chi shi" and it translates (roughly) as "You can't change a dog from its shit eating ways".

We had a German Shepherd and we called the litter box, the Snack Bar. I've heard about the meat tenderizer thing, but how do you get a cat to eat that? Or if you're on a walk, you can be sure someone else's dog didn't have it in their food.
Ugh, I remember lying in bed listening to Tsunami chomping on the leftovers from the snack bar stuck in her teeth, cat litter makes for a crunchy snack, muck like Doritos for us I guess.
I've been wanting to get another Shepherd, it's been 3 years since Tsunami died, but posts like this remind me that...maybe not.
Oh and by the way, the Furminator? Awesome!

Have you every seen "It's Me or The Dog" on Animal Planet? It's a British show with a trainer works with problem pets. She's obnoxiously thin with her hair in a tight bun, looks like a potential dominatrix? Anywho, her solution for poop-eating was this: 1) Higher nutrition food, which you've already tried. 2) Chunks of pineapple mixed in with the dogfood. No, seriously. Makes their poop taste even less appealing. 3) And making the dog eat more slowly by only putting a couple kibbles (and pineapple chunks) at a time into her bowl. When she eats those, then give her a few more. Eating more slowly is supposed to aid digestion. But I wonder how the trainer taste-tested the poop to discover that pineapple thing? Now that's dedication to one's job.

Put a muzzle on her when she's outside.

Best I can offer is maybe she'll grow out of it. My boston terrier loved poop as a puppy, but just turned 2 and only eats poop occasionally...I'm hoping it'll stop completely soon. Good luck!

Ok I haven't read the comments and I don't (yet) have a dog so this comment falls in the random and untested theory but... vinegar? Vinegar seems to work for every problem - cleaning, disinfecting, making your hair shiny, keeping flies away, training your dog/cat not to chew on things, etc. How about spraying white vinegar on the poop (post-poop remedy not pre-poop food treatment) and seeing if that deters her? Perhaps if she associates the foul taste of vinegar with the poop she'll eventually leave it alone.

As an aside, typing "poop" repeatedly really early in the morning is almost as good as a cup of hot coffee. Woo!

I'm no help with this. I've never had a poop eating dog. Last dog I had dug tiny holes in the yard which she would poop into and then cover it up cat style. That was awesome. I am afraid of getting another dog because there is no way I could find that level of awesome again.
My cats use the toilet. mostly. One pees in the sink and will only poop in the toilet if I am there to help. He holds it while I'm at work.

I'm sure someone has already mentioned this, seeing that I didn't read all of your 500 and some odd comments; but, I heard a dog expert on NPR say that they sell some sort of spray that is extrememly bitter. He suggested carrying it with you while on walks with your dog and spraying any and all poop you see. He also said you'll have to go through your backyard and try to spray any and all there as well. Apparently this bitter spray is really really nasty (ya, nastier than poop itself!), and it has a high success rate of breaking dogs of the habit.

good luck!

This is, without a doubt, the greatest embodiment of what a Dooce Post should be. Good job, hilarious.

My dog likes poop so much she can't wait for it to hit the ground (apparently it's really icky if it has dirt on it). She eats it as it comes out of my other dog's butthole. mmmmmm. Does wonders for her breath. The more I yell at her the faster she chews.

Let's not even talk about the cat poop. Like Tootsie Rolls soaked in gravy.

yes toilet water is much much better at least it gets refreshed every so often....

Here's what you do: Duct tape the dogs mouth shut whenever she isn't eating. There's no way she can eat poop then. I suppose she could resort to more drastic measures though, like snorting it, or mainlining it...

Maybe she'll grow out of it. My 6-year old Rottie loves to smell poop, but she doesn't eat it, and when she comes across other doggie's poops on her walks, she will sniff, then waddle over it and pee a little bit, JUST to let the other poop-loving dogs out there that SHE WAS HERE. And she really does waddle when she pees or poops for that matter.

But it does bother me that there is dog poop on the ground out there - we're supposed to pick it up when it's on public property. But picking up a trail of poop from one's waddling dog is kind of challenging and really annoying.

More worthless suggestions: Simply beat Coco to the poop and spray Dave's Insanity Sauce on it. Pavlov would approve.

How old is Coco? My puppy ate poop all the time until one day last month he just stopped. He's now 10 months old. I had been told that "he'll grow out of it" by the vet and what do you know...he did!

Now, if I could just get him completely potty trained! I swear he goes outside and saves a little bit for the kitchen floor! How do I get him to stop that?

Both my dogs are turd burglars. It's so gross when they come in for snuggling and they burp...
sigh
if you find a magical cure do share!

My grandparents have a dog that does this too, except she seemed to like one of their other dog's poop in particular. They tried giving this dog pills that would make her poop taste bad but that didn't do anything.

Try talking to your vet. They may have some suggestions. In the meantime, buy a doggie toothbrush and toothpaste and brush Coco's teeth every night. That way you won't have to worry too much about her poopy mouth.

And don't feel bad. Whenever my grandparent's dog ate poop, I wouldn't even go near her the rest of the day. It is pretty natural to be disgusted when you see your dog inhale turds from who knows what like its a big pile of biscuits. But if Cesar Milan get fix dogs that are aggressive and want to kill other dogs, I am sure there is a way to fix the poop eating.

It will get better - having a puppy always brings something like this. And she is such a good dog in other ways, as soon as she gets a bit older, she'll probably calm down just enough to really start to listen to you. Just think, at least she's just eating it and not prone to rolling around in it, that would be much worse!

We used to have a beagle that would play with his poop before eating it. He would throw it up in the air and paw at it and then eat it. It was hysterical to watch but disgusting all at the same time. Now we have an australian sheperd and she doesn't do that, thank God.

You couldn't just say, "Dude, stop talking like a muppet"? I can see how it would be an uncomfortable conversation, but it's not as uncomfortable as some of the conversations I've had to have."

One of our two dogs loves to eat the cats poop right from the litter boxes. We call these litter-covered turds "Crunchy Snax"!

I've been wondering if I should collect them, box them and sell them as doggie treats.

Keep a can of cayenne pepper with you always, walks, backyard, anywhere you take her, sprinkle it on anything you don't want her to eat...she will learn...and it won't be a pretty sight at first, and may turn out to be a picture momment!

Hi Heather. I've never posted on your blog before but I just wanted to drop in today and say thank you. Yes, thank you for being so "you" and so transparent. After watching your follow up story on TV the other night, I must say that you helped me tremendously. You mentioned dealing with angry posters or ones that have tried to hurt you with their words in some way. I loved how you said what you did and I think it confirms who you are as a person inside and out. I have a simple "Mommy blog" for the back side of my business as well as for the behind the scenes items in my life. Well, yesterday - for the first time ever - I had two nasty and very hurtful posts come through on my blog from the same gal regarding an issue I'm having with our school system and our special needs daughter. As a Christian, it's very hard to handle. Heck, I'm sure its difficult to handle - Christian or not. At first I wanted to go into protective mode and lash out at this individual. However, in the end, I chose to bite my tongue and stay mum for the most part. In doing so, I only have half a tongue today but I did it. For some reason this morning though, I feel as though the wind has been sucked out of my sails. This individual was very draining and very brutal in comparison to the posts I'm used to. In the end, I just keep reminding myself about what you said regarding your nasty posts and how you've delt with them.

I just wanted to take the time to say I commend you for who you are and who you "aren't." Keep doing what you do and keep being you. YOU are what makes your blog so great! Don't ever change you!

Blessings always,
Angie Seaman (Indiana)
www.angelicagracedesigns.com/blog/
www.angelicagracedesigns.com

I was told dogs can smell the undigested food in the poop. That's why they eat it.
The only way to fix it is mind-numbing, repetitive training.
We all complain about our dogs, but 99.9% of us don't consistently train our dogs. It's one thing to teach them to sit. It's another to repeat it over and over again until it overrides their behavioral instinct and programs them to always sit when we tell them to.
That's why my dog still pulls on the leash during walks and barks at the neighbors - I'm lazy.

Maybe it's an Australian Shepherd thing? Mine does the same thing. So GROSS!!

The poop-eating has to be the worst thing about dogs (we haven't yet had one that DIDN'T indulge). We've arranged to keep our cat litter in a place where it's not available for snacking, but the dog still finds deer poop out in the woods, rabbit poop in the yard, you name it.

I haven't ever caught him eating HIS OWN poop, though--and I'd almost appreciate that as it would make our yard a much nicer place to recklessly run about in.

Haven't read all the comments, but I would like to point out that this is VERY common. We've even refer to this as our dog eating "nature's little chocolates." Sounds so much better that way.

We had this dog once.

She treated the cat's litter box as though it was her own personal little snack buffet. Couldn't get enough poop.

We read that you should sprinkle cayenne pepper directly onto the poop so as to deter the dog from eating it time after time, presumably because the cayenne pepper was unpleasant tasting or maybe would burn her mouth (in a spicy sort of way, not BURN her, calm down internet).

We tried cayenne pepper. We tried tabasco. We tried sliced habanero peppers directly on the poop (use your imagination trying to picture us strategically placing pepper slices on the cat's poop).

The damn litter box looked as though we were making jambalaya.

Dog ate it, loved it. LOVED THE HELL OUT OF THE SPICY POOP.

I have no advice. Our dog went to live with my sister (for non-poop-related reasons).

I know many people are against them - but if my dog were doing this, I would be using the shock collar to break him of it.

If Coco licks Leta at all she could be spreading some pretty nasty germs on her. And it just can't be good for her either (the dog I mean).

The shock collar works really fast too - we had a bark collar for our dog - he barked once, got zapped and now when we put the collar on him (don't even turn it on) he is quiet. Just the one time is all it took.

Maybe sprinkle cayenne pepper on all the piles in the yard?

I've heard that Forbid works (http://www.entirelypets.com/forbid.html?gclid=CKrovIn7t5MCFQ3_sgod9VjHCw) and sprinkling cayenne on it works too.

One of our dogs had the same disgusting habit and we tried everything we could think of and nothing seemed to help, except, FINALLY, time. She outgrew it and BOY were we happy! Regular dog breath is bad enough, but poop kisses? URK.

Now, that is some funny shit, no pun intended! I know exactly how you feel about the shit-eating dog and the Elmo sex, but I'll skip the sex because it brings back too many bad memories.

I, too, had a shit eater a few years back. He was a German Shepherd, and he did it from the start. He was the only dog I've ever had that did this, and it made it very hard for me to really love that dog. We tried all the bullshit you can find on the internet, none of which worked, and then I just decided it was up to me to train him not to do it.

I would take a spray bottle with bitter apple in it, which you can buy at the pet store, and spray it in his face when he went in for the grab, yell "NO" and pull him away from it. Now, this took a while with him because he was not the smartest bastard out there, but it worked. If you are totally consistent, CoCo should pick it up pretty quickly.

Aussies are extremely intelligent, at least the full-sized ones are. I have two Aussie males, and they are so easy to train if you do it the right way. The thing about herding dogs is that they need incredible amounts of exercise and need to use their intelligence in productive ways or you will get some serious behavior issues. I do agility with mine, which is a blast, and I even take them to herd sheep once in a while, and they are the best dogs I've ever had. If you teach her a crapload of tricks, that will help, too. THERE IS NOTHING WORSE THAN A BORED AUSSIE!

Oh, and DO NOT under any circumstances use a shock collar on her like someone posted. You will have the most F'd up, nervous mess on your hands. Aussies and breeds like them will go absolutely crazy if you use those collars. They need you to be showing them physically what they are doing wrong, not having something turn them into twitching schizos. The citronella collars work for barking with some dogs, but you showing your displeasure by spraying her and pulling her away will work the best, that is unless you have a retarded Aussie. Now, go be the dog trainer I know you can be and conquer this nastiness so you can totally love your girl!

it could be worse: 1) Leta could be at the copy-cat stage in her development and be eating poop along side Coco and/or 2) Jon could be suggesting that you make the most of it by finding recipes that call for poop(i.e. Pooppie, poopCicles, Poopcorn, etc)for the whole family to enjoy. Imagine the cooking aroma that would make.

First of all, I was eating lunch when I read this, so thank you for helping me stick to my diet by losing interest in food for the time being.

As for Coco, I'd haul her little doggy butt back to the Vet.

Dogs who eat poop often may have intestinal parasites and/or nutritional imbalances, and Leta might secretly be feeding her black crayons, which could be inducing this desire for disgusting black turds. I wouldn't put it past ol' Leta. She has that impish grin that makes me think she might be behind it all....
;)

good luck!!

p.s. how the hell do you read 500+ comments???

Hey, if she eats other dog's poop, then at least you don't have to scoop. Coco is like one of those algae eating fish that clean their own tank. I think all dogs should be genetically engineered to eat their own waste. Just think how clean the streets of Paris, France would be.

Shake a little cayenne pepper on the doggie-doo - in time she will learn her lesson.

Hey there.. I have a Mini Aussie too... he has been raw fed from birth. We tried the kibble (good, vet-quality stuff) for a while, and his behaviour changed drastically, he started eating poop, and started pooping a LOT more. Needless to say, went back to raw. It's worth looking into - Chuck would enjoy it too!
The raw diet didn't help the underwear-eating tendencies though. Dammit

Two tips -- one, sprinkle cayanne pepper over all the poop in your back yard. PRetty heavily. You can usually get giant sized containers at a dollar store, if there is one near you. This is how I stopped my dog from digging... and she's a 3 year old, 70 lb lab who had basically destroyed my back yard.

Also, to combat some other behavior problems, I actually hired a private dog trainer. Expensive, but totally worth it. Graice (my lab) is learning really quickly, and the one-on-one attention WITHOUT the distraction of other dogs and owners is extremely helpful...

Good luck!

reading this makes me feel so lucky! when my dog comes across a stray poop, he gets a look of disgust on his face like "ewwww! look! can you believe this? somebody didn't pick it up?!?!?"

he actually seems to be offended by it and walks around to avoid it.

She's just recycling -- probably watching too many "green" shows on HGTV.

Bread? Oy vey I need to learn to spell. BREED.