Puppy eating poop

We have a 6 month old shih tzu. She has been eating her poop. When we see her go, we pick it up. We don't always see her poop. We have a fenced yard. When we take her on walks, she doesn't pee or poop. When I take her in the yard, 9 times out of 10 she won't poop. She only poops when we don't see her.

We've tried putting pineapple, carrot, spinach, forbid and other poop deterrent stuff in her food but she still eats it.

I tried putting bitter apple on her poop but that didn't work.

I want to try putting something spicy or hot on her poop.

Any suggestion on what I can do to get her to stop eating her poop?

Thank You,


Bernice

Many dogs go through a phase of eating their own poo, most usually grow out of it.

It's possible she is lacking in probiotics - perhaps ask your vet if can advise on a good brand?

Hello Bernice this behaviour is not unusual and can become a habit if not checked, so the best thing to do is to go out with her every time and picking up the moment she poos.
If someone has told her off or punished her for pooing in the wrong place or eating it that could make her reluctant to go when someone is around.
You need to make pooing in your presence a rewarding experience. When you take her out take with you a high value treat like chicken pieces and when she poos reward with a treat and give praise.

If you take her to an area frequented by other dogs their scent may prompt her to go so you can reward/pick up.

Hopeful she will grow out of the behaviour in time.

I think this can sometimes be related to digestive upset... it may be worth taking a look at the diet and what you are feeding.. I believe adding canned pumpkin (tablespoon or so) to the feed helps to reduce the incidence although I haven't used it myself.

My senior dog fairly recently started to do this again (he did it as a pup), I immediately amended his diet which sorted it out pretty quickly (less than a week).

Hope that was of some help.