Said It Here

How to stop my dog from eating his own poo

Dogs often eat their own feces specifically when left alone while their owners are at work. Common remedies like adding pineapple or pumpkin to their food, or treating the feces with chew deterrents and cayenne pepper, typically fail to stop the behavior.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Adding pineapple and pumpkin to food
  2. 2
    Spraying feces with chew deterrent
  3. 3
    Sprinkling feces with cayenne pepper
  4. 4
    Swapping the dog's food
  5. 5
    Taking the acorns away from the puppy manually.
  6. 6
    Ignoring the behavior and trusting the dog will spit out the shells.
  7. 7
    Monitoring the dog's stool and giving up on policing the habit if digestion is normal.

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/puppy1013 people · September 2026 – October 2026

“Hoping for some tried and tested methods to help him stop eating his own poo.”source ↗

“However, once he’s alone when we’re at work, he absolutely is eating his own poo.”source ↗

“I’ve tried quite a few things so far like adding pineapple and pumpkin to food, spraying poo with chew deterrent and even sprinkling with cayenne pepper. Nothing seems to work.”source ↗

AdAfter1480 · r/puppy101 · 5 upvotes

“Our 6 month old Jack Russell loves to chomp on acorns.”source ↗

“We want to start letting her out on her own in a small gated area of our yard but I’m sure she will just binge acorns.”source ↗

Old-Acanthisitta4517 · r/puppy101 · 1 upvotes

“My dogs been eating them like it’s his job but his poops have been normal and he isn’t throwing them up so I gave up policing this”source ↗

mmedd · r/puppy101 · 1 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised