Hi, Our 12 week old puppy will almost constantly eat twigs, rocks, snails, flowers when out in the garden. He stops when you say "no", but seconds later will just pick something else up and eat it. I understand this is somewhat normal? If so, do they grow out of it, or is there something other than telling him off that I need to be actively doing? Thank you Susan
Puppies, like babies, investigate the world with their mouth. Telling a puppy, or a dog for that matter, 'No' is pretty pointless as they simply don't understand what it means and F course it'sounds used not so many situations and every day conversations. The best way to go is to introduce a swap by offering a treat for the twig or whatever puppy has picked up. After some repetitions of this you will be able to introduce a cue word of 'swap' or whatever. Be wary of your puppy picking up and eating snails, slugs and frogs as they can carry the larvae of lungworm. Regular worming treatment should protect but it's safest not to allow puppies or dogs to eat snails/slugs/frogs to begin with.
Yes my puppy does this. She is now 6 months and isn't quite so bad as she was. The first few weeks were a nightmare as she picked everything up. It is very hard to relax when so much is going in their mouths. I started by getting her to swap what was in her mouth for a piece of kibble.
Hi Susan, it seems pretty normal to me as my puppy (also 12 weeks old) does it constantly. I have got to the point where I let him pull grass and moss out of the spaces between the paving stones (it's actually improving the look of the garden path!), but I keep an eye on him and remove stones, sticks, worms, snails etc from him. I also do a constant slug and snail watch in the garden and get rid of them fast, to try and pre-empt him picking them up. I am teaching him to give me what he has in his mouth with the cue 'give', and I swap a treat for whatever gross thing it is he is holding.
