For a species that tend to be portrayed as stately , intelligent , and discriminating , some dogs sure do love to rust poop . Their fecal snacking hold out to foreign excrement , bedding boxes , and even their own dissipation . Some have beenknownto contort their body and devour a routine two as it conk , refusing to let the waste go to dissipation .
Why do some dogs become fecal vacuums while other turn their nozzle at it ? There ’s no one definitive answer , but there are a few pretty fair suggestions .
Benjamin Hunt , Ph.D. , a veterinary behaviourist and prof at the University of California , Davis , published a study in 2012 that survey 3000 pet owners . His research key that 16 percentage of the sampled dogs had exercise coprophagy — use up poop — at least five time . Of those , nearly all had devoured another dog ’s deposits . Interestingly , over half of the guilty parties were identified as “ greedy eaters ” who would snatch up food from table . Hunt also acquire multi - dog households were more likely to encounter the behavior , perchance because their backyard doubles as a fecal buffet .
These poop muncher likely all have one matter in common : mommy issues . “ puppy do n’t have the reflexes at birth to initiate micturition or laxation on their own , and they require their female parent to stimulate them , ” says Nick Dodman , a prof at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University . Mom solve their behinds , eats whatever they produce , and also scavenge the “ nest ” of large depository the only elbow room she can . “ Puppies are greeted by their mom eating ordure . To them , that ’s what the macrocosm does . ”
While some outgrow the demeanour , other dogs keep eating , typically preferring fresh potty over stale offerings . ( In Hunt ’s study , most turd tasting was done less than 24 hours after elimination . ) Dodman theorizes diets that are low in residue tend to produce softer , tastier movements , and that switching to a gamey - character menu may incite an aversion to poop . “ The texture is completely unlike . Instead of a tasty toothpaste , it ’s something more like composition board . ”
Of course , that wo n’t stop your ducky from gobble someone else ’s leftovers . “ It ’s sort of like trying to give up cigarettes , ” Dodman says .
If a dietetical modification does n’t work , it ’s best to find fault up waste often so they ’re not tempt — or get a poodle dog . Of all the animals in Hunt ’s sample , the stock had no document substance abuse of scatological snacking .
Additional Sources:“Canine Conspecific Coprophagia ; Who , When and Why Dogs feed Stools [ PDF ] ”
