How can we stop our puppy eating stone chippings in the garden?

Nenen

We have a gorgeous 12 week old puppy who is already doing really well with basic commands, house training etc but every time she goes outside she tries to pick up and chew stones wherever she finds them. This is a particular problem in our garden as we have several areas of slate stone chippings which we are very keen to keep unless all other remedies have failed.

When she goes into our garden she tries to eat the slate stone chippings. If she manages, despite my best efforts not to let her, to get hold of one, she crunches on it and, being brittle slate, they fracture in her mouth. I am very concerned that she will choke, damage her teeth and/or swallow a stone/piece of slate and this will do internal damage if a sharp edge pierces her gut etc.

Obviously, I go out into the garden with her and have tried the following:
1) distract her with toys, games and treats every time she starts to go near the stone chippings. This works for a while but eventually she always seems to find a stone somehow!
2) Say 'No' clearly to her when she tries to pick up a stone - she seems to understand the 'no' command but if I turn my back for an instant she grabs a stone at lightening speed!

Is there anything I can safely sprinkle/spray on the stones that she will find repulsive or is there anything else I can do to try to disuade her from trying to eat stones?

Lieja

My dog did this too when he was a puppy. There was nothing we could do to stop him so we just let him get on with it and he stopped showing interest in stones himself after a few weeks. They never seemed to do him any harm! To be honest, I think my attempts to stop him just made him want to eat them more. I wouldn't like to say that your pup will be fine if she swallows a few stones, but I know they didn't harm my pup at all and it wasn't long before he got bored of them, and discovered the amount of interesting things he could find to eat in the huge holes he digs in my garden!