ugh! i don't know if there is ANY way to discourage this habit unless you take sadie out on leash and she knows the "drop it!" command like the back of her paw.

i know that wild rabbits carry coccidia but i don't really know if it's in the poop or if the problem is when the dog actually eats the rabbit. bleh!

Bunny poop is not a problem in my experience. My first two dogs, who lived to 14 & 15 1/2, ate it all their lives. It was their favorite snack whenever they could find it :) One of my current dogs also eats it.

Maybe it has a "gross factor" for some people, but really it isn't anything that ever concerned me or caused a problem for my dogs. I'd much rather have them eating rabbit poop, which is just digested vegetables, than other dogs' poop or cat poop, which IS gross!!! :)

Grazing the litter box, however is a problem to me because I have to fondle and kiss the face of the dog that just ate that stuff! How do you make that place unpleasant for the dog but still OK for the cat?

Rabbits carry a lot of parasites and other diseases that are transmissible to dogs.

Here is a link that might be useful: Diseases from rabbits and birds

She knows "drop it" pretty well so we may have to see if that works. UGH indeed! I checked out the link you posted deb18, thanks. Did some more hunting around on the subject online and seems to be a mixed bag of people with or without issues. Still want to try and break the habit for sure, but thankfully she is otherwise healthy and is checked for worms every 6 months. Obviously, if there is any other indications of issues, we will be going sooner. Here's hoping I can find a way to get her to stop! Thanks. :)

OK I watched that video on rabbit feces and dogs... not too many facts and certainly none that apply to rabbits and dogs. The speaker mentions histo and crypto, two fungus never found in rabbit feces (at least not pet rabbit feces), and not really contagious by ingestion anyway. Coccidia is a parasite of rabbits, but rabbit coccidia cannot infect a dog. Same for giardia, which is an extremely rare parasite in rabbits anyway... so pretty much there are NO diseases (contagious ones) that a dog can get from rabbit feces... though an upset stomach is certainly a possibility. Basically the same is true for pet birds, too, though some wild birds do tend to spread crypto (a fungus) in their feces (mostly pigeons), but it has to be breathed up, not eaten, to infect a cat (rarely a dog).

I'd take bunny poop over cat poop any day!

That didn't come out right. :/

My former lab mix (who lived to be a ripe and healthy dog for 16 years) ate goose poo almost daily. We lived in a suburb of Chicago and the geese were everywhere year' round in the retention ponds. I had my water spray bottle and it seemed that the more I complained about it, the more she would 'sneak a taste'. She was a very healthy dog - took her in every three years for her rabies vac. and that was it.

Once we moved to the farm, she was free to run the acreage and although the goose poo was gone, I am sure she found acceptable treats on a daily basis.

Today we have two labs, one of which likes the litter box. I am keeping him out of it simply because it makes his breath smell bad.

Yep, our German Shepherd prefers the poop of one of our three Min-Pins... & only that one... go figure! She has her nose right by the poor little one while she is doing her 'business' & gives her no privacy ar all!! Yuck... the favorite menues of some pets, huh?!