Clearly eating poop is not the definition of eating healthy.  I just caught Crystal eating her own poop!  In the past 3 months, I have caught her doing this 3 times, this being the third, but she's never done this before as a puppy or at any other point during her life.  What is going on?  How do I get her to stop?

I know it's gross.  There's actually a term for it — coprophagia.  My American Eskimo Matti eats hers all the time.  She doesn't like fresh poo, it has to "season" a little while before she'll eat it.  I've tried the pills to get her to stop but nothing works.  I try to pick up after her as soon as she does her business.

Some people say they do it because they are missing something in their diet.  Like Gerry, I have her on a diet since she is kind of a tub and think sometimes she's just "supplementing".

Maybe you should ask your vet next time you visit.

Marla and Daisy

Thanks for the info everyone.  Crystal's not a diet and she has food around if she wants to eat it so I don't think that's the cause.  I will ask the vet about this when I take her for her CBC though.  I guess I should be grateful that she isn't doing this every time she goes…

Hi Corndog here,

My sister Lizzy does this all the time and it drives our mom crazy. Savanna our greyt aunt also does this when she doesn't like what mom has made for dinner. Our vet told our mom that it's normal behavior but I really think Lizzy has behavioral issues. Lizzy loves poopsicles the best (winter ones) but I've noticed her doing this all year round.

 Mom read in the "K9 Kitchen" book to sprinkle " Accent" on Liz's food for a few days and it works. But then mom stops, or doesn't want to keep giving her the accent too much and she usually goes right back at it.

 So mom' s best solution to this problem is to pick it up right away. Lizzy hates this and to get back at mom she bugs her for more cookies all day long.

 Don't try the Accent (its' that meat tenderizer that people use) if you have seizues or epilepsy as it's not good.

Both of my dogs have eaten poop their whole life. The only thing that I can do to help the problem is pick up the poop everyday and I follow them around the yard until they go and pick it up immediately. I really hate this problem. It's so gross!

Haha.  This is terrible but after reading all of your stories, I don't feel as bad.  Actually I kind of feel thankful that Crystal has only recently begun doing this.

I don't think our dogs have eaten thier own poop – well I haven't caught them doing it  but they just have to eat everyone elses, we have a couple of cows, 3 cats and heaps of chooks and it seems to be a buffet for the dogs, the chooks are in a huge pen so that one is usually easy and the cats go in the garden then bury it, but cows ummmm hard to control that one, i'm forever telling them off for having a feast when were out doing stuff- Yuck!!

jezz what a lovely conversation this is

Okay, I had to look up "chook" and you either have a huge pen of chickens or a huge pen of women.  Given the cows, I'm goin' with the chickens.