What's Up With My Dog's Farting?

It’s impossible not to notice when your dog is farting. Sometimes you hear it before you smell it. Sometimes there’s no warning at all.

Sure, it’s cute how your pup always seems so surprised by his own farts (cue the signature head tilt or the way he sniffs at his own butt to inspect the mysterious noise).

That is, until the stink hits you in the face.

So, what’s the deal with dog farting? And when should you be worried?

The Dodo spoke with Dr. Vanessa Spano, a veterinarian at Behavior Vets in New York City, to find out when your dog’s farts are normal and when they’re not.

If you’ve never noticed a dog farting before, lucky you. And the answer to this question is a resounding “yes,” by the way.

In fact, dogs fart a bunch.

“It is normal for dogs to pass gas daily,” Dr. Spano told The Dodo. “Flatulence itself is normal and evidence that the gastrointestinal tract and its bacterial population is working!”

There are actually a few reasons for those telltale toots.

“The relatively most common reason is eating too quickly, leading to ingestion of so much air,” Dr. Spano said. “If this air is not ‘burped’ out, it needs to come out of the body some other way!”

Dogs tend to eat more quickly than cats, which is why it’s completely normal for pups to fart more frequently.

But no matter how fast or slow your dog eats, farting is also just part of the digestion process.

“Gas is naturally produced in the biochemical process of digestion, such as when produced by ‘good’ bacteria within the gut used to digest fiber,” Dr. Spano explained.

Daily dog farting is super normal.

But if you notice your dog is farting a lot — like, a lot a lot — it probably has to do with what he ate.

Switching up his food out of the blue or chowing down on something nasty could cause him to pass some extra gas.

“An abrupt change in diet or dietary indiscretion can lead to excessive flatulence,” Dr. Spano said.

But scarfing some poop or garbage isn’t the only thing that’ll make him fart a lot.

The same way people associate some foods with breaking wind, there are ingredients that’ll get some excessive cheek squeaking out of him.

“Certain foods, such as soy, peas, lactose, highly fermentable fibers and spicy foods lead to more flatulence than others,” Dr. Spano explained.

Remember the “beans, beans the musical fruit” rhyme? It’s like that.

Again, farting is totally normal. So you shouldn’t be trying to keep your dog from farting altogether.

But if you think your dog is farting a bit too much, there are things you can do to get him back to a more normal fart frequency.

Since eating too fast can make your dog fart, giving him a slow feeder could give his butt — and your nose — a bit of a break.

Try this Outward Hound slow feeder from Amazon for $8.49+

You could also try establishing a schedule for your dog and incorporate smaller meals throughout the day, as well as plenty of time for exercise.

Here’s the thing: They really shouldn’t.

“Most gas should be odorless,” Dr. Spano explained. “It is normal for a dog to experience gas, as they are ingesting air with food, but this should not be particularly smelly.”

Now that isn’t to say that you should be panicking if your dog rips a super nasty fart here and there.

When your friend or partner occasionally slips out a stinky one, you don’t rush them to the ER. You say, “OMG, what did you eat?!”

The same goes for your dog. Maybe you spoiled him with a little ice cream that day, and it messed with his digestion and caused him to have some smelly farts.

It is, however, a problem if most (or even all) of your pup’s toots makes you want to cut off your nose.

“If your dog is passing malodorous gas with almost every meal, a trip to the veterinarian is warranted,” Dr. Spano said.

That’s because you’re going to want to make sure everything’s OK with his GI system, and your vet can help you figure out if there’s an issue, or what to do if there’s not.

“There may be maldigestion occurring within the gastrointestinal tract, which requires diagnostics including bloodwork, analysis of a stool sample [or] imaging,” Dr. Spano explained. “If all diagnostics return without any abnormalities, your veterinarian should be able to help you transition your dog slowly to an appropriate, highly digestible, low residue [and] well-balanced diet.”

You might want to try dog food with a formula specifically for sensitive stomachs (after consulting with your vet, of course).

Try this easy-to-digest Nature’s Recipe dry food from Amazon for $39.44

Or even a digestion supplement from Amazon for $26.97

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