By: Lori Verni
Grass, sticks, dirt and even rocks… these are a few of the things many puppies and some adult dogs will pick up and play with or eat when spending time outside.
While simply chasing a stick and bringing it to you is not harmful to your dog, ingesting a stick can be very dangerous, with the potential for splintered pieces to cause blockages, internal bleeding and more. Obviously, swallowing items such as rocks could cause a serious internal blockage, and eating things such as trash, dirt or grass can cause illness including vomiting or worse.
However, as many puppy owners will attest, for some dogs the picking up of things on the ground can be constant! From hunks of grass to a stray candy wrapper, for some dogs it seems as if this is their goal in life.
In order to protect your dog’s health, (not to mention saving your carpet from dog vomit), it’s important to teach your pet what is or isn’t allowed to be eaten. The best way to do this is through diligent supervision and obedience training.
Clearly, if your dog is a “stuff eater,” he can’t be allowed to spend time outdoors unsupervised. There are several reasons for this, the first being that if he eats things and then gets sick you won’t know what the possible culprit would be, and the second reason is that if you’re not there to teach him it’s wrong, he simply won’t know.
The role of obedience training is paramount in addressing this problem. Your dog will learn the meanings of “no” and “good dog,” and therefore will respond better when you use those phrases to correct grabbing things from the ground. Also, some basic commands will help your dog to mature, will give him other things to think about and will increase the amount of respect he has for you.
Then, when you’re outside with your dog and he grabs something inappropriate, you can tell your dog “no,” and put him in a “sit” or “down” position. Follow with praise. If possible, (such as if you’re in your yard), it’s a good idea to replace the item with an appropriate dog toy to chew on, and then follow with praise.
If your dog eats a lot of grass, keep in mind that he may be doing it because he’s thirsty. Be sure to provide plenty of cold, fresh water for your dog so he’s not eating grass for this reason.
There is also an old wive’s tale that dogs eat grass when they’re already sick because they instinctively know that they need to throw up. While this may be true in an extremely small percentage of cases, the majority of the time they’re just doing it because they’re a silly dog. If the dog were already truly sick, he’d likely vomit anyway without the need for eating grass.
Like most things, by putting in a little effort with obedience training and supervision, your dog can soon learn to keep his mouth to himself when playing outside.
