Hi everyone my name is Gustavo Woltmann and I am an assistant working in a publishers office. I have a 4 month old female Shih Tzu who eats her poop. How can I prevent her from doing that?
Change her food as it sounds like she not getting any nutrients from the food she's eating at moment.
This can a very common habit amongst puppies which have been reared in kennels where their poos have been left lying around, and not cleared away as soon as they have been passed. It can also be because there there is some undigested food remaining in the poop, or because there have been artificial appetising scents added to the food, producing poop which has a characteristic meaty odour. A change of diet may work in these cases. Some dogs do this because, as a species, they lack the human response of revulsion to their own, and sometimes other animals, waste matter. To these dogs, poop is just a resource - or even a perfume. Very rarely, it can indicate a digestive problem, but his is not likely in such a young puppy. Initially, I would try to break the habit by picking all poop up as soon as she has done it. Praise and treat her when she goes, hopefully this will switch her attention onto the promise of the reward, and away from what she has passed.
I agree with both responses above. Sometimes a change of food can do the trick, but more often than not, vigilance is the key. Many pups see nothing wrong with cleaning up after themselves - maybe they learned it from their moms . It's like any other habit, to break it, you have to make sure that it can't be practised - distract the pup and clean up immediately. With luck, a few weeks vigilance will do the trick
