Sophie is eating stuff every time she goes to daycare. Sticks, mulch, flower bulbs, junk. Then she throws up at night. She doesn’t do this at home because I’ve taught her leave it and she’s getting pretty good at ignoring very thing in the yard she’s not supposed to touch. Ive read this should stop around 6 months but she’s 1 week away from that. I also read some dogs never grow out of it. If your puppy ate stuff a lot, did it stop on its own and if so at what age? Please share your experiences, Thanks!
My lab is 10 1/2 months old and she still eats everything! In the yard, on walks it doesn't matter where we are. She will swallow acorns whole and they come out whole. She will grab a mouthful of wild mushrooms and I literally have to stick my hand in her mouth. The only way she will actually leave something is if she has a training collar on, I am not a huge fan of them. I don't know if it's because she was having stomach and uti when we first got her and we had to really make sure she didn't get into anything that would cause more issues and she wasn't able to act like a real dog. Or if she really has pica! Good luck with your pup.
I would say the problem is more due to her going to daycare where they won’t have the time to supervise or train her. Can you find an alternative? You have established she will leave when you are with her but that need reenforcing at other times.
I have to send her to daycare unfortunately 2 days a week due to work, but last night I found a facility that has 4 outdoor play areas - 2 are grass only and toys (no rocks, mulch, trees or plants) and 2 areas have fake turf (so no digging!). It’s inconvenient dnd it going to make my commute longer but maybe that will help until she’s older. My normal facility does have an on site dog trainer you can use so I might buy a couple hours and have her work on leave it in the back play area as an option. Thank you!
Sophie did try to get to wild mushrooms cuz they were new to the yard, but I plucked them all. She does get into new stuff that’s foreign to her. But even walks have been much better and leave it is working. Would love the day where I don’t have to say leave it 50 times on a walk though. Lol
I think it’s dependent on the dog - my older dog stopped the random outdoor stuff early (5months) but randomly ate things like stuffed animals and socks here and there until a year. She ate food garbage at a park at almost 3 years old after close to 2 years of eating nothing and as a result had a blockage. My puppy is still putting every single thing in her mouth on walks at almost 10 months. They both have strong leave/drop cues but will eat anything that is actual food if they can get it before I see it.
