Hello All, My puppy LOVES and I mean LOVES chewing on branches or breaking branches off trees and bushes. He loves plants and leaves as well. He basically chews and spits out the branches most of the time. However, he does eat leaves, grass and some plants. Is this a normal lab thing? Should I stop it? It too much grass bad for his tummy? Thanks
Well Coco is an avid grass eater (it makes itself known in his poos) - I don't think it is especially bad, but I worry that he picks up something poisonous, but he just seems to munch on normal long grass. He also likes to chew on huge sticks (the sort you can't carry!), which I do try and stop - don't want anything to get stuck anywhere. I would triple check you have nothing poisonous he can reach.
My puppy is the same...she eats everything outside, including dirt. Her current favourite is the big chunks of freshly cut grass that she gobbles up as she walks. We use 'leave it' and make her drop most things but she still eats a fair bit and I don't think it has affected her tummy as she's been this way since the snow melted a few months ago.
My 14 week old pup is also the same - mud, grass, leaves, rabbit pooh, snails and stones are all a nightmare. He loves to crunch and eat dried mud. Stones and snails we swap for treats and we stop as much mud and pooh eating as possible, but as to grass, leaves and any flowers he happens to pass by get ripped up/off and spat out - this is proving to be harder to get him to stop...I now have no flowers in my garden, just a few half ripped leaves! We've not had any tummy problems so far, apart from the first walk where he must have hoovered up his own body weight in rabbit pooh then he was sick! That is why we stop him with the magic word now whenever he heads towards rabbit infested areas!
Gypsy did this and never grew out of it! Tatze and Twiglet did it up to about 5 months old then stopped, I think they are all different. I used the same method for all three ~ distraction using toys, treats etc. ...
Jet grew out of it, except for the grass but she had a special grass she liked and only got it on some walks. She still liked to gnaw on branches but didn't swallow. Oban likes the same grass and to gnaw on branches but he swallows. If I'm not watching we'll get a little pile of stick filled puke on the floor, on the rug, always on the rug.
I noticed that Rory is really keen on certain plants which a lot of the food foraging people recommend like sticky buds(local name) and wild strawberry. He definately likes the taste of different ones and only certain types of grass too.
Yes, it's normal but you need to deter your pup (how old?) from eating undigestible material. It may at some point become a very expensive trip to the vet.
I have heard from most puppy owners (especially piglet lab puppy owners ) that it is normal, but Duncan tries to eat everything constantly or at least put it in his mouth on our walks or time outside! He is now 19 weeks (a little under 5 months) and he won't try and completely eat as much anymore but he at least puts most things into his mouth... he used to try and swallow everything he put into his mouth including the bark off every branch he could carry and destruct, rocks, plants, etc. and I was constantly following after him pulling stuff out of his mouth and nervous if he was in a fenced in backyard by himself free to roam for fear of what he might eat so I never let him alone even in fenced in yards before, but now I have noticed he does spit out plants or any leaves he breaks off before I even have the chance to get them out of his mouth, always spits out the pieces of the pinecones he picks off, the bark that he has taken off sticks, & most other things... and doesn't really try and pick up rocks or stones anymore, which he used to put in his mouth and try and crunch on constantly! But I am glad he is either learning he doesn't need to ingest everything or he is learning that I will pry whatever he has put in his mouth out of there and he better spit it out before I even have the chance! Even with prying his mouth open and trying to take every single thing he somehow picks up on walks out of his mouth and not let him eat it, it somehow finally caught up to him and I don't know what he managed to eat since I am constantly watching & he is constantly on a lead since we live in the city, but he had really bad diarrhea and mucus in his diarrhea and we took him to the vet and he had 2 types of bacteria in his stool samples that the vet believes is either from him coming into contact (sniffing) another infected dog's poop on the ground OR something he put in his mouth/tried to eat So... he is on 2 antibiotics, special GI food & probiotics now! it was very worrisome when he was sick and cost another trip to the vet yet again and more medicine and special food and probiotics which cost a fortune again, so I have been even more strict about him not licking/sniffing/putting random things he finds on walks in his mouth thankfully it was not parvo or giardia - the vet tested for both of those and said we should be glad it was neither of those, but I truly believe the 2 abnormal bacterias he had in his stool samples causing him to get sick probably had to do with how many things he puts in his mouth so as much as you can deter your puppy from picking up/eating these things the better since it may save you a trip to the vet and if it is something large enough to cause obstruction that is even worse and may need to be removed, so I would just try deterring the puppy as much as possible from now on so that maybe the pup stops trying to put everything in its mouth/eat everything
It is not advised to pry a puppies mouth open to retrieve bits of bark, pogo, plants etc unless it is something inherently dangerous. Forcing puppies mouth open js more likely to encourage him to swallow/gulp something to prevent you taking it away and potentially encourage resource guarding. Teaching a puppy to swap or drop for a treat has a much safer outcome and no risk.
Well we have tried to teach him to swap it or drop for a treat for as long as we have had him now and we work with a professional puppy trainer once to twice a week every week and he will not drop something he picks up in his mouth to eat - he has been easily trained and good about just about everything else and all other commands, but when it comes to food or something he puts in his mouth that he wants to eat it is near impossible to get him to drop it- and the things he is putting in his mouth are inherently dangerous to him now as made evident by the fact that he got terrible terrible diarrhea and had to be taken to the vet and something that he put in his mouth or ate gave him a terrible bacterial infection that he is now on special food, 2 antibiotics and probiotics for 10-15 days... so every dog is different and I work from home and work with him constantly/have trained him since the day we got him and we also work with a professional trainer and at this point the things he puts in his mouth in the dirty city streets and grass areas are inherently dangerous to his health and need to be taken out of his mouth - he is actually really good about it and has learned to spit out things before I even have the chance or he allows me to open his mouth, which the vet said has actually been great training for things like dental cleanings and dental exams/vet appointments since he will let anyone look in his ears, mouth, etc. and is perfectly fine with it and he does not try and gulp or swallow it down in an attempt for me to not take it from him Every dog is different, putting things into his mouth/trying to eat them is harming him and we tried for a long long time (up until vet visit last week with terrible infection) to get him to drop things in exchange for a treat and he would just swallow what he had in his mouth and then look at us expectantly for the treat afterwards or as soon as he started hearing the drop command and us trying to exchange him for a treat he would gulp/swallow it down so this is really our only option and he is good about it and is learning to spit things out before I even have the chance Thanks
@Bridget3789 My pup also picked up every thing possible in her mouth but was trained to Leave, drop or swap - the preferred option being Leave to prevent the pick up to begin with. I have yet to meet a positive, force free, humane trainer who recommends forcing a puppy's mouth open to remove things picked up - perhaps there is a difference in training methods between the UK and the US.
I never said the trainer taught that and I 100% have my puppy in humane positive reinforcement training, thanks. I feel like every time I write on here all responses are very positive and comforting and helpful and you are always the only one writing accusatory messages back that feel like attacks, which I really don't need. Duncan is given the best care, vets & trainers. He is my first puppy and spoiled rotten. The trainer never "taught me to force his mouth open". He has been taught by trainer to leave it and to drop it which he is great at 90% of the time, but he is under 5 months old and recently with him popping things in his mouth that have caused a terrible infection and he's been on antibiotics for UTI and bacteria infections the vet says the things he's putting in his mouth are obviously a danger to his health and they don't want him constantly on antibiotics so recently on walks a FEW times not all the time when he wont drop or leave something I've had to get whatever it is out of his mouth that way, which I'm personally glad I have done because the other day he tried to pick up and eat rat poop from a city alley and the vet said that would've been really bad. Every trainer vet and method I have used is humane and positive reinforcement I have never yelled at Duncan or treated him in any sort of inhumane way - I work from home and I am with him nonstop and took over 5 weeks off to begin with to get him all settled. I really take offense to you responding to messages condescendingly / basically saying what I've done is inhumane. Please do not respond to my messages in the future. Everyone else on here is supportive and so helpful. Thanks
I had a really freaky thing with sticks and my first Lab, more than once. We were finishing a walk when she began to look miserable, sat down, then started gagging. I was dumbfounded, just stood and looked at her. Then she pawed at her own mouth and I clued in that something was stuck. I know you aren't supposed to pull things out of either end, you don't know how long the stuck thing is or what it might be attached to or how far back it's stuck. But anyway, I reached in her mouth and she had a stick wedged crosswise between her back upper molars. I pulled it out and all was fine but it happened twice more on different occasions. Only dog I've ever had that happen with and Jet was not normally a swallower of such things, usually all she did was chew and spit. Very strange and extremely scary for both of us the first time.
I've had to hook a few things out of Bailey's mouth when it was obviously more appetizing than the treats I had with me at the time, and also before he was trained to swap things for treats. Worst I've had to do was fresh fox pooh which had me heaving for the rest of the walk! Even though in my pocket I always carry tissues and hand sanitiser (and I used most of that then) it was just the memory of it
We think Cooper is part Woodchuck! She is always picking up sticks or scrap wood from my shop, and chewing them up. We no longer keep a basket of kindling near the fireplace. Fortunately she has not progressed to furniture. All of our dogs eat (have eaten) grass. They seem to prefer some particular long grass varieties.
Yuck!! I know how that is! Haha I definitely started to carry around sanitizer on walks and trips to the park! Especially when Duncan gets covered in slobber from a bigger pup and I have to wipe it off his head! It is a good thing they are so darn cute
I know...when I think back to Life Before Bailey (or as we now say LBB!) the nearest I ever came to pooh was a nice safe distance and now it's up close and personal! Many years ago our family dog used to love cow pats - both for rolling in and eating - I had forgotten all about that until recently! But life is now so much more fun with my boy, despite the pooh encounters, the crocopup and the squash that our settee now is I wouldn't swap him for all the money in the world!
Alfie is nearly 12 weeks old and has been with us for four, I am amazed at what ends up in his mouth..stones,bark.twigs,grass and he goes mad for slugs and snails.So of course I am now spending loads of time picking up snails,slugs and stones to hide away.Ive got quite a collection already. I do try to get him to swap things for a treat and hes usually happy to do it!
