Puppy eats EVERYTHING!

katie1234

Hi everyone,

I'm a little concerned about my 6month old puppy. She's a cavalier and her favourites are cigarette butts, stones, fluff from wool rugs, toy stuffing, fabric, candles, drywall, wood and berries off random plants whilst walking. I honestly do all I can to try to prevent this. Toys get thrown out when worn and when on a walk I try to be vigilant but she manages it everyday. Today we've had2 butts and a pair of pants. I'd assumed this was all part of being young and into everything but now I'm slightly worried it's not. Could she be lacking in something or just hungry and trying to fill her belly?
She's still pretty mental most of the time but is due for being spayed at the end of the month. Will this help settle her a little or are have we just got a handful for the duration?!

All comments greatly appreciated!

wilykit

I'd probably take her to a puppy training class, it's one thing I wish I could have done with mine!

As for the chewing everything, my mum's labrador did the same thing - he even ate a yellow duster once :O

You can be as vigilant as you want but they still manage to sneak past you!

picklepick

You need to be extra careful with them eating things like pants etc. They can quite easily cause an intestinal blockage.

I'm not sure of the best way to deter ir but im sure someone more knowledgable will be along shortly!

Barneysmom

He's a babby and he's teething, there's not much you can do apart from keep expensive things out of his way, and get him plenty of chewable toys till he's bigger.

withabix

Have you wormed her? (Vets ones, not pet shop ones)

Kimitatsu

Barneysmom wrote: »

He's a babby and he's teething, there's not much you can do apart from keep expensive things out of his way, and get him plenty of chewable toys till he's bigger.

Yup this is the crux of it.......I have a working cocker puppy who is 12 weeks and is the same. She will chew anything that she can find so we have a big tub of toys that get replaced regularly as its cheaper than my shoes.

They do tend to grow out of it eventually though

thistledome

OP, try and teach your little one the "leave it" and "drop" commands and always put things away at home, so there's nothing lying around (my house has never been so tidy since we got a dog!). We sometimes have to offer a treat as a last resort to get ours to give up something.

I hope yours does grow out of it.

My springer is nearly 10 yrs old and he still eats anything he can get (bar orange peel). We are now very careful and vigilant, especially since he had an operation a few years ago when he chewed up a plastic milk bottle which damaged his stomach (thank god for pet insurance, it cost nearly £2000 altogether). We've been to the vets quite a few times with diarrhoea and gastric incidents caused by eating rubbish (including half a fruit cake and a wooden skewer, both found on the beach). I also knew a lady whose dog died after stealing a flannel out of the bathroom and eating it.

We don't leave anything lying around at home and watch him closely on walks (he still gets stuff occasionally though).

Tropez

Yeah, puppies will do that. It's amusing and frustrating at the same time.

You can get chew deterrent sprays for stuff at home that contain a non-harmful ingredient that tastes foul to most dogs and they'll quickly learn that is bad but this only works while at home.

Outside the only thing you can do is be vigilant. Puppy training classes may help but dogs are naturally curious and there's only so much you can teach them about not picking up stuff off the floor. Most dogs will eventually grow out of it and be happy enough with the sniffing of objects and it can help to keep puppy attracted to certain toys (perhaps by rubbing some chicken paste into it), especially while teething.

EmptyPockets

I agree with thistledome's comment - my house has never been so tidy since we got Bruce, our Patterdale. He was 7/8 months old when we got him, and he was a big shock to the system - we'd never had a chewer before :eek:

I soon learned to be extra extra vigilant, and put EVERYTHING out of his reach.

I understand you can't do that when it comes to stones and plants, berries etc, when you're out on a walk, so the best thing you can do is, as already mentioned, teach her the LEAVE command - do it over and over and strongly reinforce it with rewards until she 'gets it' and will respond immediately.

I can now tell Bruce to leave anything - including a biscuit or a treat I've just given him - and he will do it instantly.

Missy_Spud

unfortunately im a dog owner who saw the bad side to a dog eating something ti shouldnt, I had a boxer x mastiff called henry and in the beginning of january he ate some of his blanket from his bed (he had never touched it before so no idea why he had) turns out he had a blockage in his intestines and stomach it was connected with a stringy piece of fabric, they operated on him but he died a few hours later, we were devestated, he died 4 days before his first birthday

Needless to say i was so paranoid about my new puppy chewing things etc, she is husky x lab and luckily she hasnt really chewed anything, but i do make sure any toys etc which are a bit worn are thrown out, if a blanket has any tiny rip in it I throw it out, just be vigilant is all you can be and make sure you have pet insurance as it cost us £1000 for henry's op and x-rays as we had no pet insurance (we now have it for poppy my new puppy) and we didnt even get our dog back, well we did but he's in a box on the windowsil.

please be especially careful with fabrics etc and make sure they are all out of your puppy's way

lynnemcf

I'm sorry to be a bearer of bad news, but some dogs like to chew and DON'T grow out of it. They will eat anything and everything and even repeated visits to the vet will not deter them. My friend has to muzzle her dalmation cos he will eat ANYTHING when he is out on a walk ... makes him look like a nasty dog but he has already has two ops to remove stones from his stomach.