Health & Nutrition
Why Do Dogs Eat Their Own Poo? Causes and How To Stop It
The short answer
Dogs eat faeces — the clinical term is coprophagia — for a small number of recurring reasons: normal puppy exploration, learned attention-seeking, hunger or meal timing, poor digestion, boredom, stress, or occasionally an underlying medical problem. In most dogs it is not dangerous in itself, but it is worth working out which cause applies to yours, because the fix is different for each.
What actually reduces it: remove access promptly and calmly, stop reacting to it, check the diet and feeding pattern, add a reason to come away, and rule out a medical cause if it started suddenly or comes with other changes.
Scope: owner education from a non-veterinary author. If your dog is losing weight, ravenously hungry, or the behaviour is new and intense, that is a veterinary conversation.
Why dogs do it
It helps to know that this is not aberrant behaviour in dogs. It is a normal part of the behavioural repertoire of the species, which is why so many otherwise well-cared-for dogs do it, and why "my dog is well fed, so why?" is such a common and frustrating question. The useful move is not to ask why dogs in general do it, but which of the following applies to yours.
Puppies: usually a stage, not a problem
Puppies investigate the world by mouth, and a puppy has watched its mother clean the nest for the first weeks of its life. Eating faeces in a young puppy is ordinary, and most dogs grow out of it somewhere between six and twelve months without any intervention at all.
What turns a stage into a habit is almost always the human response. A puppy that finds a stool, is chased across the garden, shouted at, and then has it wrestled out of its mouth has just learned something very interesting: this object makes everyone in the household run towards me. For a puppy short on stimulation, that is a good enough reason to repeat it tomorrow.
The practical version of this is unglamorous. Go out with the puppy, pick up promptly and quietly, and reward the puppy for coming to you before the stool becomes interesting. It is dull, it works, and it takes a few weeks. Our puppy socialisation checklist covers the wider early-months groundwork this sits inside.
Behavioural causes in adult dogs
Where an adult dog is doing this, four patterns cover most cases:
| Pattern | What points to it | What helps |
|---|---|---|
| Attention-seeking | Happens mainly when you are watching; the dog checks your face; stops when ignored | Remove the audience and the reaction; reward the recall away instead |
| Learned habit | Fast, routine, unbothered; often started in puppyhood | Prevent access consistently for several weeks so the habit stops being rehearsed |
| Boredom or under-stimulation | Alone in the garden, long unoccupied stretches, other scavenging too | More sniffing, chewing and foraging outlets; shorter unsupervised periods |
| Stress or confinement | Started with a change — new home, kennelling, isolation, toilet-training pressure | Address the stressor; get behavioural help rather than adding correction |
A dog that has been told off for toileting indoors sometimes starts eating the evidence, which is a genuinely miserable feedback loop and a good reason never to punish toileting accidents.
Feeding and hunger factors
Diet is where most owners look first, usually via the idea that the dog is "missing something". That explanation is popular and weak — the great majority of dogs doing this are on complete, balanced food. The dietary factors that genuinely show up look more like this:
- Not enough food, or too long between meals. A dog on a restricted diet, or fed once daily, may simply be hungry. Splitting the same daily amount into two or three meals often helps.
- Food that is not being digested well. Loose, bulky or notably smelly stools suggest more is passing through undigested, which makes the stool more attractive. Worth a diet review with your vet.
- Sudden diet changes. Transition over about a week rather than overnight.
- Very fast eating. A dog that inhales meals may still feel unsatisfied; slow feeders and scatter feeding help.
If your dog is hungry to the point of scavenging generally, or is eating well but losing condition, check their body condition score and raise it with your vet rather than adjusting food alone.
Medical causes worth ruling out
Most coprophagia is not medical. But a few conditions increase appetite or reduce nutrient absorption, and they matter because no amount of training will fix them. Speak to a vet if the behaviour is new in an adult dog that never did it before, or appears alongside any of these:
- Weight loss despite a normal or increased appetite
- Persistently loose, pale, greasy or unusually large stools
- A sharp increase in hunger, drinking or urination
- Vomiting, or a noticeably poor coat
- A dog on long-term steroids or certain other medication
- An older dog with other changes in behaviour or routine
Conditions a vet may consider include parasite burdens, exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, other malabsorption problems, diabetes and, in older dogs, cognitive change. Naming them is not diagnosing your dog — it is so you know this is a real veterinary question rather than purely a training one.
Dogs eating other dogs' poo
This is common in multi-dog households and on walks, and it is worth separating from a dog eating its own. Two things change:
First, the hygiene stakes are higher. You do not know the worming status of the dog that produced it. Keep your own dog's worming and vaccination current, and ask your vet whether a dog that scavenges regularly should be wormed more often than the standard interval.
Second, management is harder, because you do not control the environment. What works on walks is a reliable "leave it" and a genuinely rewarding recall, practised long before you need them — see our guide to recall training that works in the real world. In the garden, the answer is simply picking up after every dog immediately, every time.
Cat litter trays
Dogs raiding the litter tray is a separate problem with a simpler solution, and it is not fussiness on the dog's part — cat food is higher in protein and fat, and so is what comes out of the cat. Most dogs find it genuinely rewarding, which is why training alone rarely wins.
Manage the environment instead: a covered tray, a tray on a raised surface the cat can reach and the dog cannot, a baby gate with a cat flap, or a cat-only room. Clean the tray more often. Do not restrict the cat's access to its tray to solve the dog's behaviour — a cat that cannot get to a tray comfortably will start toileting elsewhere, and you will have two problems.
Clumping litter is worth a mention: eaten in quantity it can cause a gut obstruction. If your dog has eaten a significant amount of litter, phone your vet.
What actually works
In order of how much difference they make:
- Remove access. Pick up immediately, every time, including in the dark and in the rain. This is the single most effective measure, and the one most often done inconsistently.
- Stop the reaction. No shouting, no chasing, no wrestling it out of the mouth. Calm, boring, immediate.
- Supervise toileting for a few weeks rather than letting the dog into the garden alone.
- Reward coming away. Call the dog to you straight after they toilet and pay well. You are building a habit that competes with the old one.
- Review feeding. Meal frequency, quantity, digestibility, speed of eating.
- Add outlets. Sniffing walks, scatter feeding, chews and foraging reduce the boredom-driven version.
- Teach "leave it" properly, as a trained cue with a reward history, not as a shout.
A four-week plan
| Week | Focus |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Total prevention. Go out with the dog every time, pick up immediately, react to nothing. Note when and where it happens. |
| Week 2 | Keep preventing. Add a paid recall immediately after toileting. Split meals if your dog is fed once a day. |
| Week 3 | Train "leave it" away from faeces first, then near. Add sniffing and foraging outlets. Book a vet check if nothing has shifted. |
| Week 4 | Begin short unsupervised periods in a picked-up garden. Reintroduce freedom gradually, not all at once. |
Expect the habit to reappear if supervision lapses for a week. That is normal for a rehearsed behaviour and is not evidence the plan failed.
When to contact a vet
Phone your vet promptly if your dog has eaten faeces and shows vomiting, diarrhoea, lethargy or appetite loss; if the behaviour is new in an adult dog; if there is weight loss, an appetite change or a change in drinking; if your dog has eaten faeces from an animal that may have been recently wormed or medicated; or if your dog has eaten cat litter as well.
Where the behaviour looks compulsive, or sits alongside anxiety or other changes, ask your vet for a referral to a suitably qualified behaviour professional. The ABTC register is the practical way to check that someone is genuinely accredited, because the words "behaviourist" and "trainer" are not protected titles in the UK.
Sources and legislation
Veterinary and professional bodies
- PDSA: Coprophagia (eating poo) in dogs
- Dogs Trust: Unwanted behaviours and training advice
- ABTC: Find a registered animal behaviour practitioner — use this if the behaviour is compulsive or paired with other changes
- Blue Cross: Why does my dog eat poo?
Primary sources checked on . Rules and clinical guidance change; follow the linked organisation for the current position.
How this guide is sourced
Canine Maverick separates the kinds of knowledge behind a page so you can weigh each claim yourself.
| Evidence type | How it is used here |
|---|---|
| Owner experience | First-hand observation from more than 30 years of owning, breeding, training and rehoming dogs. |
| Professional guidance | Veterinary, accredited behaviour or legal expertise published by a recognised body. |
| Scientific evidence | Peer-reviewed research or established clinical reference material. |
| Editorial judgement | Canine Maverick’s own synthesis, clearly separated from the sourced material above. |
Frequently asked questions
Is it normal for dogs to eat their own poo?
It is common, and in puppies it is a normal exploratory stage that most grow out of. In adult dogs it is still frequently seen and is usually behavioural or dietary rather than a sign of serious illness. It is worth investigating rather than ignoring, particularly if it starts suddenly in a dog that never did it before.
Does eating poo mean my dog is missing something in their diet?
Not usually. It is a popular explanation but a weak one — most dogs that do this are on complete, balanced food. Genuine dietary drivers are more often about hunger, meal timing or poor digestion than a specific missing nutrient. If your dog is also losing weight or ravenously hungry, that is worth a vet visit.
Why do puppies eat their own poo?
Puppies explore with their mouths, they have watched their mother clean the nest, and they have not yet learned that faeces are not food. Most stop between roughly six and twelve months. The main thing that keeps it going is attention — chasing and shouting turns it into a game worth repeating.
Should I punish my dog for eating poo?
No. Telling a dog off reliably makes this worse, not better. Dogs that are punished often learn to eat faster or to do it out of sight, which is harder to manage and can make toilet training worse. Prompt, calm removal and rewarding your dog for coming away are far more effective.
Do the deterrent powders and tablets work?
Evidence for the products sold to make faeces taste unpleasant is weak, and they do nothing about the dogs whose motivation is habit or attention. They also cannot work when your dog is eating another animal’s faeces. Environmental management and training are consistently more effective. Discuss any supplement with your vet first.
Can my dog make me ill?
Faeces can carry parasites and bacteria, so keep worming and vaccination up to date, wash your hands, and be careful about face-licking — particularly with young children, older people or anyone immunosuppressed in the household. Ask your vet about the right worming interval for a dog that does this regularly.
