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OJVRTM
Online Journal of Veterinary
Research©
(Including Medical and Laboratory Research)
Established 1994
ISSN 1328-925X
Volume 29 (9): 540-550, 2025.
Effect of age, sex,
breed, weight, diet and housing on coprophagy in dogs.
Hofmeister EH, Cumming MS, Dhein CR.
Faculty of Veterinary Sciences,
Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA.
SUMMARY
Hofmeister
EH, Cumming MS, Dhein CR, Effect of age, sex, breed,
weight, diet and housing on coprophagy in dogs., Onl J Vet Res., 29 (9): 540-550, 2025. We report coprophagic
behaviour in dogs and its association with age, sex, breed, weight, diet,
housing, social standing, habitualness, and age of its onset. Autocoprophagic animals ingest own feces
whereas allocoprophagous, from same species and xenocoprophagous, other species. Data was solicited and
recorded through US Internet data and 802 owners completed surveys for 1157
dogs. Of these 295 were non-coprophagous and
862 coprophagous. More (P < 0.05) allocoprophagous dogs accessed other canine faeces than
non-allocoprophagous dogs. There were
significantly fewer autocoprophagous dogs in the
51-70lbs and 71+lbs groups and significantly more autocoprophagous
dogs in the 11-20lbs and 21-35lbs groups. There were no significant
differences between coprophagous and non-coprophagous dogs for gender, breed, age, diet, housing, or
presence of other dogs in the household. 462 (53%) coprophagous
dogs were habitual in the behavior. Coprophagous dogs (63%) began behaviour before 12 months of
age but decreased in older ones. We found 53% coprophagous
dogs were habitual and most effective deterrence was discarding faeces,
muzzling or distraction.
KEYWORDS: Coprophagy, feces, dog, survey.
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