Dogs that eat cat poo

I have a 9 year old Wheaton Terrier cross that we rescued 4 years ago. We also have 3 cats that she tolerates. However, she will eat their poo. The cats were house cats until 18 months ago and now toilet outside or in the litter tray at nite which we have moved upstairs. Kara does not attempt to go upstairs, luckily. The problem is when she goes in the garden she finds cat poo in the flower beds and eats it. She also will eat any cat poo when off lead on walks. Any ideas as to how to stop her as her breath is disgusting, as you can imagine. We try and keep the garden poo free but their is occasionaly poo hiding.

Hi Terri,

I did a lot of research on this when Tucker began to eat his own poo (fortunately he's stopped now). It's a very common problem and even has its own name - coprophagia. My first foster dog also helped herself out of the cat litter tray. I used to think my cat suddenly decided to do his number 2s outside, not for one minute thinking the dog was helping herself. It wasn't until we took her to a home check and she brought this nicely encrusted cat poo out of the cat litter tray into the lounge and started eating it, that the penny dropped. That was two prospective adopters and myself nearly throwing up in unison!!

This is one website that gives some good information:

http://www.dogstrust.org.uk/az/c/coprophagia/default.aspx

You can buy liquid that you put on the food that makes the poo taste really horrible, but of course that isn't going to help with neighbourhood cat poo.