forwarding with permission

Hi
About the most perplexing behavior of some dogs is their habit of eating their
own stools or stools of other dogs. As disgusting as this behavior is, we, as
the caregivers, must deal with it. At the Companion Animal Behavior Program
in the Veterinary School at the University of California at Davis, we are
conducting a voluntary survey of the primary caregivers of dogs that eat
stools of their own or other dogs, to develop ways to prevent and treat this
behavior. If your dog engages in this behavior, your cooperation in taking
about 10 minutes to fill out this confidential survey will be appreciated by the
thousands of dog caregivers that are frustrated by their dog's stool-eating
behavior. Thank you very much for completing this survey.
You must be 18 years of age to take this survey.
The link is:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/dogstool
Feel free to pass this on to any dog organization, club, or listserv that you are
a member of.
Take care,
Melissa

Funny, they seem to assume the dogs only eat poop if they are bored or something. Guess they don't know that Labs do it because they LOVE it!! YUK!!!

Yuppers, that's what I saw too. At the end there's a place to put in your own thoughts/solutions. Hope they pay attention to that too.

This was my last answer:
My dogs learn to eat feces when they see older ones eat it. Submissive puppies eat more frequently than dominant ones and will continue to do it longer until they are adults and then they stop. My dogs seem to prefer stools from pregnant/lactating bitches. Keeping this pregnant/lactating bitches separated has helped a lot too to stop the behavior.

I'm curios to see what other people think.

Here was my last entry:
Dogs are opportunistic scavengers, and in part developed historically as our companions that way, as ancient or primitive dogs, such as pariah dogs, did. A survival mechanism may lead them to scavenge poop, especially in lean times, such as winter, which would explain why poopsicles are such delicacies among the dogs I have known who will not eat stool at other times of the year. I wonder what the nutritional labeling would be on stool if we labeled it with AAFCO labeling! Some dogs seem to smell the presence of food, or where food has been, the way an arson dog might detect traces of an accelerant. They have good noses. The greediest dogs here are the worst.

BTW, my two most dominant dogs in the pack eat others' stools, along with one mild male, so that blew the old "underdog eating stool of dominant dog" theory right out of the water, provided they all get enough food. Of course, what Lab thinks they get enough!

I do find that they prefer the stool of dogs and cats eating higher protein food. Or the stool of prey species, like deer or rabbits. It is sad how much I know about stool eating, although not how to stop it totally!