Hi. I have a 10 week old pup who is doing really well. However struggling to solve his fascination with shingle/small stones in the garden. I put him on the grass to do his business and supervise his play but then he goes to the shingle and picks up stones and won't let go. Bit worried about him swallowing them. Have resorted to putting him on the lead on the grass and avoiding the stoned area at present. Any advice? Thanks
They all do this. If you ignore them they spit it out and soon lose their fascination. Try to get it off them and it becomes valuable to them - then they may swallow it to ‘keep’ it. Hard to do, but just completely ignore it and make yourself the most interesting thing in the garden. And welcome to you from Mags, Tatze and Keir from Manchester UK Tatze is my pet dog, a black Lab and she's four years old. Tatze means 'paw' in German. Keir is my fifth Guide Dog puppy, a yellow Golden Retriever/Flatcoat cross and he's five months old. .
Yes pups like stones and sticks but don't ignore it. Do so and you may end up with a $3K surgical bill.
Hmmmm - you’ve got two completely different ideas as to what to do here, not very helpful to you! I’ll try to describe what I have done with my six pups. When a pup picks up a stone or piece of gravel for the first time I watch what they do, usually they ‘try out’ the gravel the very first time they go in the garden. They invariably mouth it for a while then spit it out. If this happens then it’s more than likely they will keep doing it until they lose their fascination. With mine this didn’t take long. Keir was leaving them completely alone at 13 weeks. Mollie was a bit older. Teach a really good ‘drop it’ too, in case they pick something truly dangerous up. Tatze once picked up a poisoned rat - a good ‘drop it’ was very invaluable then! I would never take things out of their mouth - this can quickly become a game, and not one you want to play! Keir already has a half-reliable ‘drop it’ at 20 weeks. But I never teach this with things they may swallow to ‘keep’. I teach with toys etc. I never let them chew sticks, as splinters can be very damaging. Hope that helps.
I always advise encouraging a swap/give for anything picked up especially stones and the like. Swallowed stones, or splinters from sticks can leave you with an expensive bill for surgery. Stones not only picked up but also chewed can cause broken teeth, again leaving an expensive vet bill. To help train a strong 'leave', which means leave anything I say wherever it happens to be
Hi and welcome from me and my boy Bailey. Bailey used to do this - I did as @Boogie did - watched to see what he did - he seemed to roll it around in his mouth and then just carried it around for a bit. If he didn't drop it after a short while I would call him in and ask for a sit, which involved giving a treat - he had to drop the stone to eat the treat - so I would then scoop the stone up and put it in my pocket (I sometimes rattled when I walked!). When he wasn't looking I would dispose of the stone. He grew out of doing this on every single walk/outside trip to the garden after a couple of month - now he likes a nice thick piece of wood to carry around on his walk - I don't allow him to chew them and we do not throw sticks for him to chase - we throw various sized rugby balls which he loves, particularly the kick and chase!
Thanks for the replies. Have seen him do it a few times and spit them out. But on Sunday he had one in his mouth and tried to give him a toy but that wasn't working so left him but didn't see him drop it. Think he will grow out of it/be easier when he can go on short walks in a few weeks. Will try as you've advised and see if we get anywhere.
Yes, I agree completely. But this needs to be trained and takes time. When a pup arrives at eight weeks the best advice, in the early days, IMO, is to ignore - so long as the pup isn’t swallowing the stones.
And there's no reason why training can't start from day 1. Prevention is better than cure, and how many people have worried that their puppy may have swallowed a stone because they took their eyes off them for a second, or just don't know if the puppy spat it out or not.
My point is that making a stone valuable to a young pup by ‘wanting’ it yourself can become a serious problem as they then begin to swallow it to ‘keep’ it. So all our advice from Guide Dogs is to ignore them and train a good ‘drop it’ and ‘leave it’. Which we do, from day 1, starting with toys. The prevention is also in the ignoring. Our spending areas are usually half gravel (ours is).
Have to say that isn't a problem I have encountered, picking up stones for the swap - yes, does occur but soon fades when the treats are reduced. I train 'give/drop' and 'leave' from day 1 as well but only ever use high value food for the 'leave' . At the end of the day we make our own choices on how we train our puppies. There is never just one way.
Absolutely- and all pups are different. Some don’t even bother with stones, Twiglet didn’t. My Keir is very keen on leaves - and there are plenty about to distract this autumn puppy!
I'm having a similar problem with mine. He runs around with the stones and then drops them. But there is a flower bed thing at the bottom of the garden that has all pieces of bark covering it which he loves to grab and chew and eat. Bits have come out in his poops we have been doing recall in the garden so he's getting better at coming away but when he knows I have treats. Otherwise it's whatever bits of bush or fallen leaves there are. The garden is great fun for him, stress inducing for me! He gets so distracted he doesn't always toilet
A spending pen is a good idea for toiletting - fewer distractions, ‘tho Keir still manages to find leaves to eat! Ours, in the photo, extends to gravel round the side of the house, but I only open that bit when I’m with him to supervise. He uses the part shown in the photo when I’m in the kitchen and it’s warm enough to leave the door open if that makes sense.
It’s an Ellie Bo, bought on Amazon, made for indoors but has been outside for four years. A bit of rust, but not much.
Oh I have spent many a cold rainy evening in my dressing gown repeating 'wee wee' while Maisy runs about with a stone as happy as can be, I swap the stone for a treat then repeat. She starts to bob down but then what's that? OMG it's another stone, and she has GOT to have it. I know your pain Beezette.
My dog was obsessed with large smooth pebbles I had in the garden at one time. He would collect them and sleep with them. I never rushed him with them but waied till he was distracted and retrieve them. It's true that they may swallow them as a game as you approach. My boy now waits at the clothesline for me to drop a sock or undies. He's quick and will stand a few feet away smiling, tail wagging and my undies hanging out if his mouth. I've tried looking the other way and inching towards him but he will move to the next stage of ' now you see it now you dont' now I just walk away into the house for a piece of cheese. When he sees the cheese it's quite funny how he literally spits the undies out a few feet from him. Unfortunately he knows the Trade Game now so have to be careful not to drop a thing
