7 Alarming Reasons Whippets Eat Poop + Tips To Stop It

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One of the more stomach-turning things you can witness your whippet do, is eat poop. Whether it’s another dog’s/animals or their own, it doesn’t matter, it’s flat out gross. Which likely makes you wonder, why on earth do whippets eat poop?

Why Do Whippets Eat Poop:

Many whippets will eat poop for no better reason other than they want attention. If they’re bored they may eat poop to get a rise out of you and bring you over to them. Other reasons whippets eat poop are because they’re cleaning up, feeling anxious, or not feeling well.

In this post you’ll discover:

7 real reasons why whippets eat poop
When your whippet’s poop eating is something to worry about
5 tips to help reduce or completely stop your whippet from eating poop (Tip #1 is the best way to break the habit!)
And much, much more

Let’s jump right in.

Table of Contents

7 Real Reasons Why Whippets Eat Poop

1) Survival?

Not for their own survival, but for the survival of their family.

Let me explain.

Eating poop for survival purposes is instinctual behavior for some dogs.

Your whippet’s wolf ancestors would eat the poop of a sick member in their pack to stop the spread of the sickness.

Somehow they learned that if they ingested the parasite filled poop within the first couple days it wasn’t harmful but after those few days it could make the rest of the pack sick.

And if your whippet is eating poop it might be them instinctually attempting to protect you and your family.

[Nothing brings peace of mind quite like speaking with a vet – click here to chat with a vet online now]

2) Their Body Isn’t Getting Enough Nutrients

If your pup isn’t getting enough nutrients from their food they may eat poop in an attempt to get the nutrients their body is missing.

This can happen because their food is grain-based and low in nutrients.

Or, it can be because their body is having troubles absorbing the nutrients from their food.

And considering whippets are known for having sensitive stomachs it’s not unusual for them to have a food sensitivity or allergy.

Which would cause them to be nutrient deficient and try to get those missing nutrients by eating poop.

3) Feeling Anxious

A clear sign that your whippet might be feeling anxious is if they only eat poop when you aren’t around.

Typically a dog that’s having high levels of anxiety, or even separation anxiety, will eat poop as one of their ways to deal with how they’re feeling.

What some people may not know is that separation anxiety can present itself at any time in a pup’s life.

Outside of experiencing something traumatic as a young puppy, big life changes can also cause your whippet to develop high levels of anxiety.

A few of examples of those life changes are:

A change in schedule – if your work schedule recently changed that means your pup’s schedule changes as well.
A change in family membership – this could be a new person/dog living with you full time or a loved one passing away.
A change in where they live – this could be adopting your whippet from a shelter or moving to a new home in another location.

Big changes to your whippet’s environment can make them feel overly anxious which makes them eat poop as a way of coping.

4) They Want Attention

Unfortunately your pup may do just about anything to get your attention.

What’s worse is they’re not too concerned about whether it’s positive attention or negative.

So long as they’re getting your attention, they’re happy.

And if every time in the past when they’ve eaten poop you’ve reacted in a big way, it only makes them want to do it more.

Whether that was chasing after them or shouting out their name and starting to talk to them.

You likely weren’t paying attention to them before, but now you are.

Which is exactly what they want.

If they’re eating poop for attention and not a medical reason, the best thing to do is not react.

Calmly walk over as if what they’re doing is no big deal and remove them from the situation.

Then, when they’re sitting or lying down being a good boy/girl give them praise, love and attention.

This helps teach them that eating poop doesn’t get them what they want and being a good pup does.

5) Cleaning Up Their Space

Sometimes when a whippet eats poop it’s simply for the reason that they’re cleaning up their mess.

They’ll likely do this if they accidentally poop in an area they feel is ‘their’ space.

Most commonly this will be in their crate.

Eating poop for the purposes of cleaning up is instinctual and potentially learned behavior.

When dog’s lived in dens they’d like to keep their living area clean from all messes to keep it safe (in terms of health) to live in.

And your whippet may have watched their mother eat the poop of one of her puppies if they had an accident in their living space.

So tidying up is certainly a reason why some whippets eat poop.

6) Not Feeling Well

Sometimes if a whippet has an underlying health condition it can make them so hungry that they’ll eat anything.

Including poop.

Certain conditions like diabetes, hyperthyroidism, or cushing disease are all known to make a dog more hungry than usual.

If your pup is starting to get into their senior years and is eating poop a lot lately it’s a good idea to have a vet look at them.

7) Imitating Other Dogs

Unfortunately, poop eating might be a learned behavior your whippet picked up from one of their furry friends.

If their poop eating is new and quite unexplainable, they may have seen another dog do it and decide to give it a try.

They then found out that it’s pretty enjoyable/fun to do and want to continue doing it.

It’s not uncommon for dogs to pick up certain instinctual behavior from one another.

Things like digging, excessive barking, and even poop eating.

If your pup sees another dog doing something and they find out they enjoy doing it too, they’re likely to continue to imitate it.

Bonus: They Enjoy How It Tastes ?

Possibly the simplest and most gross reason whippets eat poop is…

They enjoy how it tastes.

I know, it’s hard to believe.

But some pups develop the habit of poop eating for no other reason besides they like the taste of it.

Thankfully tip #3 below can help dogs in this situation.

Tip Tops To Help Whippets Stop Eating Poop

1) Don’t Give Them The Chance

One surefire way of making sure your whippet doesn’t eat poop is to not give them the chance.

Whether they’re eating it because it’s become a bad habit or because there’s something else going on.

If there’s no poop to be eaten then the desire to eat poop should soon be gone.

I’m sure when you’re out for a walk with your whippet you’re cleaning up their poop right away.

But when it comes to other dogs/animals poop or their own poop in your backyard, there’s always a possibility of them eating it if it’s lying around.

This is where not giving them the chance comes into play.

Whenever they poop in your backyard, clean it up right away like you would on a walk.

And when out for a walk, keep an eye out for other dogs or animals poop and move to the other side of the road or simply make sure your dog doesn’t notice the poop.

If they have no chance to eat poop, soon the bad habit will be broken and their interest in eating it should fade.

2) Change Up Their Diet

While many whippets eat poop for harmless reasons like for attention or wanting to clean up, sometimes it’s because their body is lacking nutrients.

Which means they’re either being fed low quality dog food, or they’re having an allergic reaction to one of the ingredients in their food.

In either situation it’s a good idea to change up their food.

If they’re currently being fed grain-based dog food, it would be a good idea to switch them to a higher quality, meat-based dog food.

One that has a main ingredient being an animal based protein, has no preservatives and says ‘highly digestible’ on the bag.

This type of dog food will give them all the vital nutrients their body needs for their overall health and wellbeing.

If their body isn’t allergic to an ingredient in that food of course.

Which is why it’s a good idea to take your pup to the vet if they’re being fed good quality dog food and still choosing to eat poop frequently.

3) Make Their Poop Less Appealing

Sounds odd that you’d have to make poop even less appealing than it already is, but…

If your whippet is otherwise perfectly healthy, they’ve unfortunately found out that they enjoy the taste of poop.

So in order to get them to stop enjoying it, you’ll have to make it less appealing.

Which can be done in a couple ways.

One is sprinkling some spices on their poop after they’ve gone number 2 in your backyard.

Which will definitely look a little odd to anyone who sees you doing this without knowing why you’re doing it…

Or, you can add some stool repellent to their food.

This will help make their poop taste even worse which should make them uninterested in eating it anymore.

Vetrinex Labs Poop Eating Deterrent is one of the best stool repellents you can find on amazon. You can check it out by clicking here.

4) Control Their Poop Schedule

You can control a dog’s poop schedule?

For the most part, yes.

While there will always be times where they have irregularities in their poop schedule, if you feed them at the same time everyday their poops should happen at roughly the same time everyday.

Which means they’ll have less accidents they feel the need to clean up or you’ll always be around to clean it up as soon as they go.

The closer you get to feeding them at the same time everyday the more consistent their poop schedule should be.

Which means less opportunity for you whippet to eat poop no matter the reason.