Good luck with that! Wish I had some wise and wonderful answers for you but this problem has plagued dog owners for ever. Mine do it too and they are fed well and fat! Check out this video on Bad Dog Chronicals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6u8lYhJ56k&list=PLAB4C6A529097087D&index=6&feature=plpp_video

Yuck!! Dogs are just never going to be human.......:)

Ginny

Oh how I wish I knew the solution to this problem. One of my dogs does it too. He is well fed but will eat anything, including poop. It really grosses me out :(

This may be alleviated by training the "Leave It" command. (I use "DON'T.") If he is food motivated use high-value treats (hot dog bits, steak, whatever).

Ellie, you DO realize I'm dealing with a Dachshund, don't you?..lol. They are the most stubborn dogs I ever saw. My other dog would "leave it" in a second. He loves to please and listens very well and is very smart. Wally might be smart, but is more like my cats when it comes to obeying. I used the guttural ehhhh sound to no avail, and I don't carry treats. He's too quick for me to respond with them any way. .

...but if you train 'leave it' at home WITH treats, and then train it on the walks (and reward) it will work. It's the only option you have for this. So you need to start carrying rewards in your pocket. We're talking high value items the size of your small fingernail not big cookies. Work at home with trade up using low value item for higher value and then take it on the road. Does he know 'watch me'? That's usually first thing taught in obedience. Use that on walks in areas where he is likely to start sniffing around for poop treats. Get him to focus on YOU, and reward that attention. It's not about being 'stubborn', it's about getting what he wants. You need to compete with the high value rewards he's finding on the ground and you can not do that without training and treats. Also sign up for an obedience calls (positive only) to start working those basics if needed. The class trains the humans, the humans are then prepared to train the dogs.

That's what I meant.

He's not going to learn if there is no intervention, supervision, trade and reward.

I learned that the words "Leave it" should translate in their heads to "Ohhh! Steak now!"

My correction is "Don't," and when I raised my lab pup Wilbur (now a service dog) he though it was his name.

Here is an excerpt from Wilbur's diary : ) Forgive the title.

Here is a link that might be useful: Goose poop

Now this is something IâÂÂm an absolute expert in dealing with! I have a degree from the school of "hard knocks" and "live and learn". I currently own two English mastiffs a boy and a girl. I had three but my first big boy passed away in March at the ripe old age of twelve! He wouldnâÂÂt have thought to eat poop, not in a million years. Sadie our female (just turned 5) has been challenging in a way that completely changed my thinking and my level of self awarness. She is incredibly smart, and sweet with the energy level of a jack Russell terrier on speed! All 155lbs of sheer muscle wants nothing more than top play anything involving running, leaping ,flinging, smacking(her smacking me with previously stolen ,now muddy and wet dish towel, the stinker.)Also the louder the game the better. She very single minded and not at all motivated by treats. And yes one of her bad habits was to eat poop. DidnâÂÂt mater if it was hers or his as long as it was fairly fresh! The "leave it" command didn't faze her (it does work great with my male dog)The louder I got and the faster I ran banging pooper scooper and rake the whole way towards her: the faster she would gobble it down ( keep in mind my male dog's piles are usually a minimum of 1lb a piece). The times I got to her halfway through eating the pile, I had to physically push her away to stop her. I finally figured out the more excited I got bad or good she felt it and was reacting to it. She can read me like a book. It's taken me the better portions of two years to learn how to calm down and communicate not just command. I also have had to get more reasonable expectations. Such as, "if itâÂÂs there and I know she likes to eat it, how can I possibly expect her not to eat it?âÂÂ
Now my big boy has a completely different personality and reason for eating poop He does it because she does it. But if I tell him "leave it" and then tell him "come" he stops the bad behavior and comes running over happy as a clam for a pat on the head and a little praise, thank goodness! To sum it up.
#1) Check for poop before your dog does
#2) if youâÂÂre out on a walk keeps on a shorter leash until he knows the" leave itâ command 100%
#3) have something or some way to attract his attention towards you after he goes potty or as soon as you notice he s' getting a whiff of something in the wind
#4) the more you actually pay attention to your dog the easier it becomes to prevent
Good luck'
P.S.
just a tip on cleanup after a poop snack, donâÂÂt ever try brushing or rinsing dogs teeth with hydrogen peroxide unless you want said snack to come back up.lol

Thanks for the tips. Wally doesn't eat his own poop or the other dog's, but just random ones on our walks. It only happens on the walks and doggie park, because he is tethered in our yard. It might sound cruel since we have a 1/2 fenced in acre but the wily guy finds a way to escape. It's an old picket fence reenforced with wire, but he'll still find a small opening and he's gone. The doggie park is an acre and I can't walk every square inch and that's one place he's free to run his little stubby legs off and he does. If my other dog had such a disgusting habit, I could break him of it in one walk. He's very smart and eager to please. Wally , not so much. He generally ignores all commands and does what he wants. But he's a sweet dog, never had an accident in the house and is social. I just have to be more aware, but it's hard to do especially when we walk at night like we did today. He's so quick.

Ahh ok .So Wally's issue is more along the lines of wanting to have the 3-D movie experience and not satisfied with 2-D (just sniffing).
Have you tried taking a ball or fetching stick with you to the dog park? Maybe he needs something else to do or focus on. For example, every time Sadie and I would go for a walk she would lunge and bark at the passing cars. One day she found a tennis ball while we were on our walk. And she was so focused on not losing or dropping her precious ball she didn't even glance at the cars. IâÂÂm' not saying she didn't still want too, the tennis ball didnâÂÂt cure her it just gave her a healthier alternative

Wally totally ignores balls and all toys except chewies. He lives for his three mile daily walks. Loves them so much he'd keep on going for more miles. And he's trotting on his stubby little legs the whole way. Ziggy , the other dog, likes walks but ball are his HUGE obsession, and he lives, breathes and dreams balls. I was just outside sweeping the flagstones, and he was dropping tennis balls , soccer balls...at my feet, but Wally could care less.

I have read somewhere that when a dog eats poop it is because he or she is lacking some sort of nutritional content from their food. The article advised to change the dogs diet, to something with more nutrition and that would prevent them from eating poop. BUT, I don't know so much about this. I have changed my dogs food more than once, and no matter how healthy or nutritious the food claims to be, he still eats poop. I have caught him eating poop 'fresh', meaning while my other dog was pooping he was at the other end eating. Its very disgusting. if he knows I can see him, he won't do it, but my little girl, every chance she gets, shes got her nose stuck in the cats litter box.

Dogs are the world's dustbin. They eat allsorts of garbage. My boxer once had a cling-on that was troubling her, she wiped it off on a tree stump then ate it. Ewww! And she regularly trots into the kitchen and sticks her snout into the slops bin and finds something tasty to feast on. Onion skins, or pepper seeds perhaps. I count myself lucky that she hasn't eaten the stools left by other dogs. I used to say 'filthy' and give her lead a good tug whenever she went for them, now I just say 'filthy' and she leaves them alone.

Dogs Eat poop because it smells like Food. To them it smells like it still has food in it. Sounds crazy but this is what the Vet I work for tells his clients when they have this issue with there Dog. Cat poop is well liked also!! YUK!
Anyway he recommends a powder that you sprinkle onto there food that removes this odor that tells the dog it is good food. I have used it on mine and it did awesome. It takes a while for it to get into there system and I had to use it for a month but it did the job. I have had to reuse it a few times but I have found it does work. It is called For-Bid! comes in a little packet that you put on there food If you have more than one dog then they all need to eat it. Hope this helps! It sure helped me and I have 2 poop eaters.

That would work if Wally ate his own poop or my other dog's, but he eats poop he finds on walks and the doggie park.

aquawise, where can you find this for-bid stuff? Does wal-mart carry it or do I need to go to a pet store?

I have not seen it out on the market. Pet smart might have it. Any vet should also have it. Let me see if I can find someplace that has it.

Here is a place that has several kinds.

Here is a link that might be useful: store

Something horrible happened today. I took my hound to the woods for a four hour walk. During this walk I needed a #2 which I did discretely in the bushes. Before I had completed the readjustment of my attire my dog had eaten half of my stools. Ewwwww! Is there anything they won't eat?

I have never gone hiking in the woods with my dogs but Im sure given the opportunity they would do the same .My first mastiff like to eat socks and underware .One of the reasons this is such a difficult problem to fix is that there are a few diffrent reasons they do it .
Not fully digested food in poop .I had to stop giving mine carrot sticks whole because they wouldn't chew them enough and ...well now I grate it
In Wallys case you might have to get supper creative .I have an idea that might work(just brainstorming here)They make a spray called bitter apple and/or bitter yuck used mainly to keep dogs from licking wound and bandages or to keep pups from chewing table legs etc. what if you scouted out some poo dump some on it then take wally for a walk. It might just take 1 time for him to assumme all poo taste like that or not but it might be worth trying. Oh and make sure you have his stool checked frequently for worms.