Do all pugs have bad farts?

All pugs (well, all dogs!) pass gas or have flatulence or fart – however you prefer to word it. Not all pugs fart excessively or have super stinky farts. 

Do pugs have audible farts?

Pugs do have audible farts! I was quite shocked by this the first time I heard our pugs fart. They are often quite loud, much like when a human passes gas. 

This can be rather surprising if your pug passes gas when a guest is visiting. We’ve shared laughs with our friends ad family members when they first heard our pugs fart. For many, they’ve never heard a dog fart out loud so they aren’t sure if they should believe you when you tell them it was the dog.

Thankfully, my friends and family members have all just laughed along. We aren’t very serious people in general. However, if you were to host a business event or something that needs to stay very professional and classy, it may be worth considering if you should keep your pug away in case they pass gas that others can hear.

What Causes Flatulence In Pugs?

Like with people, flatulence in dogs is caused by swallowed air getting into our digestive tract that needs to get out, or by air being produced by certain gasses that digest our food. 

Some of the reasons why dogs get gas include:

Eating too quickly. Air can be gulped down with the food, which then has to be released. Pugs have wide mouths due to their flat faces, so they can eat super quickly! Using a slow feeder bowl or a kibble dispensing toy may help.

Eating large portions. If you’re used to giving your pug just 1 meal a day, doing two meals a day that are half the size may help so they have less to digest at once.

Human Food. Table scraps (aka human food) can cause gas in dogs. Pugs are prone to obesity so it’s often best to avoid giving them human food anyway.

Their dog food. If they only eat dog food but still have bad gas, it may still be the specific food that they are on. Dog foods that are high in corn may cause worse gas in pugs. In many cases, cheap dog foods will have more corn so buying a higher-end dog food will often help. I’ll share my personal experience with this further down in this post.

Meats or other dog-specific sensitivities. Some dogs have their own sensitivities to different meats or other ingredients. You may have to experiment with different dog foods to find out what is the culprit for your dog. For example, if your dog has a lot of gas on chicken-based dog food, you may try switching to a lamb-based food instead.

Liver treats. My pugs absolutely loved liver treats! However, many people say that they cause bad gas in dogs.

Broccoli is one of the ‘human foods’ that are healthy for dogs. However, they often cause gas for dogs.

An imbalance in their belly. Like us, the cultures in your pug’s digestive system has to be kept at the right balance or it can wreak havoc. Your pug may benefit from probiotics if this is the issue. They make probiotic supplements specifically for dogs.

Tips To Reduce Gas In Your Pug

Exercise. Taking them for a walk after their meal can help stimulate their digestion to keep things moving which can reduce trapped gas. Sometimes gas worsens if a dog eats and then lays down after their meal, as the food doesn’t get a chance to move around. If your dog moves around after eating, it’ll aid their digestive process which may reduce gas.

Healthy diet. Try to make sure they have a well-balanced diet and don’t eat too quickly.

Fiber. A spoonful of 100% pumpkin per day can add fiber to your dog’s diet and may reduce their gas. It can also help with their stools!

If you aren’t able to get your dog’s flatulence under control through these basic measures, or if your pug’s gas seems to be causing them pain or discomfort, it’s time to see the vet.

How I Helped My Pugs With Stinky Farts

When I got my pugs, their former owner told me they were on Ol’ Roy dog food which is Walmart’s store brand. For the sake of consistency, I kept them on this food when I brought them to my house. Their farts were extremely stinky.

Before getting my pugs, I had read that cheap dog foods are usually lower quality, so I knew that I didn’t want to keep them o Ol’ Roy Dog food for health reasons. So we switched to a higher quality dog food after a couple of months when I felt like they had settled into our family and could tolerate some change. I had hoped that this would just be healthier for them, was all.

The biggest improvement we saw was in their gas! Those “peel the walls, make you gag” smelling farts completely stopped. They did still fart (we could hear it) but most of the time we couldn’t smell it a all. If we did, it was a more mild smell, not a “toxic poison” one! While this wasn’t my intention when changing their food, it did reassure me that the food we had switched to was healthier for them because their body wasn’t reacting to it as poorly.

Since then, I have noticed that when I’ve been visiting others and their dogs have one of those ‘toxic dog farts’, that it has always been someone who feeds their dog really cheap dog food. So, I’ve really come to feel like the extremely stinky farts that dogs sometimes have are usually caused by cheap dog foods in most cases.

Sources: https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/health/how-to-stop-dog-farts/