Question: My dog has a nasty habit of eating feces…his own, the cat’s out of the cat box, and even rabbit feces out of the yard. How do I break him of this habit? He seems to prefer moving his bowels in the house and then eating it if I cannot get to it fast enough. Please help.

Answer: As you've realized it's best to deal with this situation right away, before it becomes a habit. Eating feces is a common problem, and some say is actually a natural way that dogs have to keep the “den” clean. But there can be serious health concerns if your dog eats feces, so we have to deal with it right away. Obviously, the best and easiest solution is to keep your yard or other areas clean and free of feces.

Many people have had success by putting Tabasco sauce or cayenne pepper on the feces. Once your dog gets a taste of “heat”, it should discourage him to do it again.

There are also products available that you can add to your dog and cats food, that make the poop taste horrible - thereby intimidating your dog to eat feces.

To keep your dog from sampling the feces in the litter-box, you have to make the box inaccessible to your dog, but accessible to your cat. You can try a litter-box hood with just a small hole for your cat to enter. Another idea is to put the litter-box at a height your dog cannot reach, but that your cat can easily jump up too.