Chewing rocks

[Jarena]

About once a day Lettie picks up a rock (usually quarter size-ish) and chews on it. Why?? She usually spits it out after a couple minutes. She just lightly chews on it. The “drop it” command doesn’t work for this yet. If we try to take it from her, about 20% of the time she will swallow it.

Is there a reason a dog would want to chew on rocks? How bad is this for her, should we be more cautious about her picking rocks up? My little weirdo....

 

[Steven C]

Be careful with rocks, a friend of mine with a DDB had to have the dog in emergency surgery in Miami for eating a rock in the back yard. Also watch out for frogs too as I am right now moreso with my poodle. Some dogs like to swallow strange things is all, hopefully she grows out of it.

 

[Jarena]

Be careful with rocks, a friend of mine with a DDB had to have the dog in emergency surgery in Miami for eating a rock in the back yard. Also watch out for frogs too as I am right now moreso with my poodle. Some dogs like to swallow strange things is all, hopefully she grows out of it.

That’s what I’m worried about. That’s why I stopped trying to take them from her. I figure it’s better to just let her chew for a minute than to scare her into swallowing it. Thanks.

 

[TylerDurden]

About once a day Lettie picks up a rock (usually quarter size-ish) and chews on it. Why?? She usually spits it out after a couple minutes. She just lightly chews on it. The “drop it” command doesn’t work for this yet. If we try to take it from her, about 20% of the time she will swallow it.

Is there a reason a dog would want to chew on rocks? How bad is this for her, should we be more cautious about her picking rocks up? My little weirdo....

I have no idea why they like them so much, but we have been dealing with this too. Usually he spits them out before get back into the house. However, I‘m always worried about him messing up his teeth them. He also picks up little wood pieces, which can be very hard and shouldn‘t be swallowed.

 

[Jarena]

I have no idea why they like them so much, but we have been dealing with this too. Usually he spits them out before get back into the house. However, I‘m always worried about him messing up his teeth them. He also picks up little wood pieces, which can be very hard and shouldn‘t be swallowed.

Yeah, I’m worried about her teeth too. She seems to *lightly* chew them, so hopefully it’s not too bad. She used to chew and eat wood ALL the time while she was teething. Twice she threw up sticks. She grew out of that, luckily. Now she will still chew sticks but she spits them out instead of swallowing them lol.

 

[Steven C]

Mine grabs the wood chips and every flying leaf in our way, drives me crazy while training just imagine a flying leaf screwing things up. I don't worry about the wood chips for them as they destroy them, I even think they may dissolve if swallowed. Rocks however would freak me out as I know those require a big surgery.

 

[TylerDurden]

Yeah, I’m worried about her teeth too. She seems to *lightly* chew them, so hopefully it’s not too bad. She used to chew and eat wood ALL the time while she was teething. Twice she threw up sticks. She grew out of that, luckily. Now she will still chew sticks but she spits them out instead of swallowing them lol.

Have you actually seen her swallow the little rocks? In many cases, I thought he did swallow some, but he likes to hide them somewhere in his mouth to spit them out later. I‘ve found them in all kinds of places. Regardless, I agree with Steven. It can be both annoying and dangerous and often times they seem to spot things we don‘t even notoce.

 

[Jarena]

Leaves! Yes, my girl chases most every leaf she sees.
TylerDurden- I supposed I’m not 100% sure that she swallows them. She does sometimes loose things in her flippy-flaps lol.

 

[Michele]

It could be Pica. Or some kind of deficiency. A vet would know if it's Pica.

 

[CeeCee]

I can't find/remember where I read this, but I thought I read somewhere that some dogs do this as a result of a vitamin deficiency. There are other possible causes as well but maybe it's time for a discussion with your vet - at least to rule out any possible medical issues.

My boy does this as well from time to time, but he doesn't swallow them. I'm still tracking when he does this with his diet to see if there might be a nutritional component.

 

[Jarena]

I have a vet appointment at the beginning of May, I will bring it up to my vet. Thanks!

 

[Jarena]

I got a video today of her chewing rocks.

 

[Sheila Braund]

About once a day Lettie picks up a rock (usually quarter size-ish) and chews on it. Why?? She usually spits it out after a couple minutes. She just lightly chews on it. The “drop it” command doesn’t work for this yet. If we try to take it from her, about 20% of the time she will swallow it.

Is there a reason a dog would want to chew on rocks? How bad is this for her, should we be more cautious about her picking rocks up? My little weirdo....

I would try to distract Lettie from that. When every Bella as a pup picked up stuff I didn’t want her to have I would distract her with a toy or treat... She would soon forgot about picking up rocks and what ever else she seem to find

 

[Jarena]

I would try to distract Lettie from that. When every Bella as a pup picked up stuff I didn’t want her to have I would distract her with a toy or treat... She would soon forgot about picking up rocks and what ever else she seem to find

So far, I haven’t found a treat that’s a higher value than rocks I’ve even tried to trade her for a stick or leaf or even another rock. If she has a rock in her mouth, there isn’t anything better than *that* rock. She will even pretend her mouth is empty. I’ve seen her come to the door and act like “no, I don’t want that treat, I’m just not too hungry right now”. That’s hilarious because this girl NEVER refuses food.

But, that is a great suggestion and I actually don’t think I’ve tried to distract her with a toy. She’s so food motivated that I didn’t even think about trying a toy. She does love her ball! Thank you!

 

[Zeela]

what I do for Zeela is I got an empty soda can and I had put coins in it and shake it and say Leave it. It makes a loud noise and she knows what it means, even when she tries to dig holes, picks up sticks, etc.

 

[Boxergirl]

And here I was going to suggest trading up. Of course you've already tried that. There has to be something that's higher value than a rock. Please let us know when you find it.

 

[DennasMom]

We had to really work on the "spit it out" and "leave it " commands with Denna and rocks... and our yard had a border filled with 3/4- rock that was just perfect for chewing, apparently.
She eventually stopped picking them up.

Not sure if it was just because, if she was bored, curious, they taste good, or just trying to see if we were paying attention....

We also redirected her to different games to keep her occupied outside without looking at rocks. It all finally added up and she doesn't care about rocks anymore.
I think for Denna, a game of tug is MUCH better than rocks... that might have been what did it for us.

 

[Jarena]

I’m going to find something better than rocks! I bet her ball will do it. When we bought our house, it was a hoarder home. So even on the outside there was (and still is) a lot of work to be done. There was a big dirty above ground pool and like 30 overgrown bushes that we tore out. So that left big holes and rocks from the pool. We leveled the ground, which spread out the remaining rocks. There are now rocks everywhere!!!! We are planting grass in a few months so hopefully that helps hide the rocks.

 

[April Nicole]

I got a video today of her chewing rocks.

She's going to town on those rocks! And then she just spits them out. I wonder if it is what Michele said, Pica. I know with every pregnancy I had they asked me if I had cravings to eat chalk or paper, or dirt. I would tell the Dr. "No, not recently"...A lady told me that dogs eat other dogs poop because of a vit. deficiency. So maybe extra minerals w the rocks

 

[April Nicole]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAQegQIABAB&usg=AOvVaw39YwCJ_tpgf2v8nxFiH_NU


Found this article about it.