Puppy likes to play with her own poop? Help!
 

So my little 11 week old girl is pee pad trained and she is doing pretty well! Except that she likes to play with her poop and she makes such a big mess. I have to give her baths almost everyday because she gets it on her and smells so bad. She has plenty of toys, but she prefers that. :/ How can I stop this? Thank you all :)

At that age she shouldn't be out of your sight. As soon as she poops pick it up and throw it away. Then maybe give her a toy. She will grow out of this over time.

I'd rather know she's playing with it then what my two have been doing by eating it. So disgusting lol. I do have to say I failed them by not picking it up fast enough. I'd run to the bathroom to get the wipes and within those 2 seconds they ate it already. Since I figured out that's what they were doing I've become prepared to scoop it out immediately now and haven't had anymore poo eating.

My Jewel used to play in her poop & she outgrew it. I had to constantly wash her too. Just be patient because your baby will move on soon!

Some other threads similar to yours:

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/yor...poop-help.html (In this thread, someone mentioned using pineapple, but make sure it is safe for dogs before attempting)

Why Do Puppies Eat Poop? | petMD

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/yor...-eat-poop.html

Poochie Heaven- Luxury on a Leash: Stop Dogs from Eating their Poop

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/yor...pineapple.html (one of YT's long-time members said this on this thread: I've heard that it's very effective, just add a little piece to his food, and start with 1/4 of a chunk so that there will be no bad reaction, gradually increase the amount. Some people say with a full-grown dog they've had to use 2 chunks with each meal. I also suggest you free feed with a puppy that age, so that they won't be tempted to eat their poop. You don't have to worry about them eating too much until they are around 8 months, and if you use kibble most dogs will never over eat. Reasons for eating poop are undigested protein in the poop, and the dog smell the protein, and this smells good to him. The pineapple helps to digest the protein, so the poop will no longer smell nutritious to the dog.

Someone else mentioned: I saw an episode of Dog Whisperer with that Cesar guy and he was trying to break a Lhso Apso from eating poop. He said dogs eat poop for 2 reasons - boredom and missing nutrients from their diet.

He started giving the dog bananas as treats and it worked! He said she needed potassium and that eating the bananas curbed her urge to eat the poop.

He had some of her poop on the floor and every time she tried to eat it, he stopped her and gave her a little chunk of banana. Eventually, she stopped eating the poop and got bananas as treats all the time.

So, maybe some sort of vitamin deficiency?

----- That can be found on this thread here: http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/yor...ting-poop.html

You can simply do a Google search for "yorkie eats poop yorkietalk". It will pop up 4 results or so at the top, but to see more, click on "More Results from YorkieTalk.com" and you'll practically have a whole library of old threads, info to look through! :)

Throw some hot sauce on the poop. She'll learn quickly that playing with it will put her in a world of hurt while at the same time a bit of hot sauce won't cause any lasting damage to her.

I HIGHLY DOUBT that that is an effective method. "World of hurt", really? Do you want to teach your pup that "if you don't do what I say, I'll hurt you"? Bitter apple spray is much more effective because it only gives a bad taste, and doesn't hurt the puppy.

It's actually pretty normal, and I think it might help if you can just pick up the poop more often and make sure you free feed her and give her toys to play with. Is she alone for a large part of the day, or does she poop when you aren't around?

I can totally relate OP. My Ruby doesn't poop on a normal schedule like other dogs I've had or even my older Yorkie. She can eat and play for HOURS before going to poop.


She's 15 weeks old and does very well with pooping on the pad. But if I don't catch her or if she's locked in her puppy apartment, she won't go back to the "bedroom" side of the crate, she goes runs around and in the poop. Baths at our house are once sometimes twice a day.