# Puppy keeps eating bark/rocks!!!



## RebeccaSierra24

My 8 week old boy keeps eating bark and rocks (among other things, as well) whenever *WE *go outside together for poo's and wee's. He is always tethered to me wherever he or I go, especially outside! 

When I'm walking him around the yard to find him a spot, he will pull on the lead because he wants to eat a piece of bark or a rock. Once he's finally done his business he'll then reach down for a piece of bark or a rock all the way back to the door (sometimes squealing and yelping because he doesn't want to go inside, so I'll stay out and all he does is try eat bark and rocks). I've taken toys out for him to chew on when we go out, but he's not interested.

Now, it's difficult to avoid the bark or rocks because it's _EVERYWHERE _in the yard! 

I'll reach into his mouth and pull it out *every time* but, i'd like to be able to go outside with him and not have to worry that he'll eat something he shouldn't.

I'm maybe thinking it's because he's not getting enough food. He gets 5/8 cup morning, lunch and dinner with treats in between, but sometimes I catch him sitting or scratching at the door to the room where I keep his food.

I've searched for other threads about this but I'm still unsure. 
They say to exercise them to ware them out, but I always thought it was bad at his age.

*Any ideas on what this may be or why he's doing it and how to stop it?
*
Thank you heaps in advance! You're all legends!


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## Grimsin

My pup did same thing, i just kept yanking it out of his mouth and say "bad" its repetitive and it took a week or 2 but now he will look down at something(@ 18 weeks) then look at me to see if its ok, or he just ignore it all together.
persistence is key!
as for exercise at a young age get him to chase you around, or throw a toy ad get him to fetch, him may not bring it back but at this age its fine its mostly to get him to run alil cause 5-10 of playtime shoud tucker him out for a bit.


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## sparra

Hello fellow Victorian How warm has it been!!! T-shirt weather in winter.....won't be long till the snakes are out
My Luther is 5 months old and he was a terrible rock eater!!! I don't know how many he ate but he managed to get a few down b4 I could stop him.
Basically I just had to watch him like a hawk and when he did go for one I would tell him NO and either pull him away or get it out of his mouth if he had one. He grew out of it by about 12 or 14 weeks i think but it is common and you just have to supervise all the time.....It felt like having a toddler all over again when you first take them outside
Good luck


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## JakodaCD OA

Masi was a big time rock eater as well, I was definately a paranoid momma because ingesting rocks can end up with a hefty surgical bill or could kill them if undetected

I was constantly supervising, AND carried around treats/a toy and would trade her up,,drop whats in your mouth, you get food/toy.. She finally grew out of it thank goodness.

However, I do have a friend with an almost 2 year old golden who STILL eats rocks whenever she gets the chance..I have no idea 'why'


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## Wolfiesmom

Wolfie did the same thing. I had to fish things out of his mouth for a while. Your pup will grow out of it. Just keep fishing until he does.


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## s14roller

Eating rocks, dirt, etc drove me crazy also...

but it went away after like 2-3 weeks...


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## JeanKBBMMMAAN

JakodaCD OA said:


> Masi was a big time rock eater as well, I was definately a paranoid momma because ingesting rocks can end up with a hefty surgical bill or could kill them if undetected
> 
> I was constantly supervising, AND carried around treats/a toy and would trade her up,,drop whats in your mouth, you get food/toy.. She finally grew out of it thank goodness.
> 
> However, I do have a friend with an almost 2 year old golden who STILL eats rocks whenever she gets the chance..I have no idea 'why'


Training opportunity like Jakoda said! Bring out some kibble and trade. Give kibble when not doing it so a random reward and saying something like good no rock or something....

Just fishing in there will teach the puppy...not much!  Teaching them something will be good just in general!


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## Grimsin

JeanKBBMMMAAN said:


> Training opportunity like Jakoda said! Bring out some kibble and trade. Give kibble when not doing it so a random reward and saying something like good no rock or something....
> 
> Just fishing in there will teach the puppy...not much!  Teaching them something will be good just in general!


actually fishing worked will for me as he hates me opening his mouth and sticking my fingers halfway down his throat, so he learned quickly that if he dont want me to stick my hand down his throat then dont eat things laying on the ground lol, i find if you give him a treat for not doing it, how does he know thats the reason he is getting the treat, for all we know he could be thinking something totally different, im not much for "treat training" cause i hate dogs that do some good behaviour automatilcally go to your hands thinking they get a reward,listen to me cause i ask, not cause i have food...... i would rather just give them lots of praise/petting for doing something good.
my 2 brothers trained their dogs with treats, when we have a bbq their dogs WONT LEAVE US ALONE, mean while my dog is off chewing his toy cause he does not know what he is missing OR he is trying to play with the dogs cause he doesnt know why their so excited lols.


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## stealthq

Grimsin said:


> ...
> my 2 brothers trained their dogs with treats, when we have a bbq their dogs WONT LEAVE US ALONE, mean while my dog is off chewing his toy cause he does not know what he is missing OR he is trying to play with the dogs cause he doesnt know why their so excited lols.


Just wanted to mention - this behaviour has nothing to do with being trained with treats. It has to do with allowing the dogs to beg or otherwise be a nuisance when there's food on the table. If your brothers trained their dogs to go lie down or some such while people were eating, there would not be this problem.


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## GSDinMD

Echo had a visit to the e-vet exactly 1 week after we brought him home (he was 9 weeks) - he had swallowed some small gravel that eventually passed, but not fun. We cranked up the "watchfulness" big time after that. He's 5 months now and will still grab a rock or a piece of mulch if it's in our path, but we taught him "leave it" pretty early so that is still used with a good bit of success. For awhile, we were saying leave it so much when walking, I was worried he'd associate it with heel. Only have to stick my hand in his mouth about once a week now .


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## Branko

This just reminded me of show called, Strange Addiction. There was a lady on the show that ate rocks


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## Management

agree with below. lots of fishing and replacing. look out for the snails!


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## Pattycakes

My dog went through that phase when she was a puppy too. She learned her "leave it" command and as she got older she did outgrow it. Thank goodness. Just be patient and work on her leave it.


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## MaggieRoseLee

Pattycakes said:


> My dog went through that phase when she was a puppy too. She learned her "leave it" command and as she got older she did outgrow it. Thank goodness. Just be patient and work on her leave it.


I'm with others this is just a TRAINING OPPORTUNITY! That can save her life if you bother to teach it. Nice if she leaves the rattlesnake alone when you give the 'leave it' command!

Just get out the clicker and start working!


http://www.germanshepherds.com/foru...0-intro-clicker-training-perfect-puppies.html

Just click on that link!


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## RebeccaSierra24

sparra said:


> Hello fellow Victorian How warm has it been!!! T-shirt weather in winter.....won't be long till the snakes are out
> My Luther is 5 months old and he was a terrible rock eater!!! I don't know how many he ate but he managed to get a few down b4 I could stop him.
> Basically I just had to watch him like a hawk and when he did go for one I would tell him NO and either pull him away or get it out of his mouth if he had one. He grew out of it by about 12 or 14 weeks i think but it is common and you just have to supervise all the time.....It felt like having a toddler all over again when you first take them outside
> Good luck


Why hello there!! Never thought I'd catch a Victorian on here! The weather has been wonderful, but very strange! For once I have the doors and windows open (while wearing a tshirt!!) and i'm not COLD! Oh, gosh..snakes. That will be fun! 


It seems as though the only thing I can do is pull it out of his mouth and replace with a treat or toy until he grows out of it.. probably a toy because my boy gets all whiney for hours whenever I bring the treats out.


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## MaggieRoseLee

RebeccaSierra24 said:


> It seems as though the only thing I can do is pull it out of his mouth and replace with a treat or toy until he grows out of it.. probably a toy because my boy gets all whiney for hours whenever I bring the treats out.


AND TEACH 'LEAVE IT'!!!!

http://www.germanshepherds.com/foru...0-intro-clicker-training-perfect-puppies.html <--- click that if you want to learn the fastest and easiest way to help with this. :wild:


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## RebeccaSierra24

MaggieRoseLee said:


> AND TEACH 'LEAVE IT'!!!!
> 
> http://www.germanshepherds.com/foru...0-intro-clicker-training-perfect-puppies.html <--- click that if you want to learn the fastest and easiest way to help with this. :wild:


I brought a clicker yesterday. He doesn't seem to respond very well. He gets naughty whenever treats are around and jumps all over me for them.  Never ever listens. Any ideas on how to better teach "leave it" to him. He's only 8 weeks old..


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## robk

I think that puppies are just like babies and will naturally put everything in their mouths. Mine is 13 weeks now and is starting to loose interest in rocks and pine cones. Still likes sticks. I have to be vigilant to keep him safe, just like if he was a human child.


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## MaggieRoseLee

RebeccaSierra24 said:


> I brought a clicker yesterday. He doesn't seem to respond very well. He gets naughty whenever treats are around and jumps all over me for them.  Never ever listens. Any ideas on how to better teach "leave it" to him. He's only 8 weeks old..


Before you teach him anything with the clicker... you need to 'load the clicker' so the click means something to him.

He needs to be hungry, so don't start this right after meal time.

You need tons of teeny treats with many many click/rewards at the start. Training videos compress time cause no one wants to watch a video forever in 'real' time.

When you have him in the yard, you CAN work on engagement with YOU so he'll stick with YOU rather than find a rock more fun and interesting...





 




 
LoLaBu Land Experience Tricks

clicker trained 3 month old..(but also look at the tugging!)

‪yolle555's Channel‬‏ - YouTube


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## RebeccaSierra24

MRL: He's learnt "leave it" but I just need to keep reinforcing it, thanks for the videos! You've been very helpful


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## doggiedad

can you remove some of the rocks
and bark from the yard?? if you can't
do the entire yard you could clear
an area and maybe fence the cleared
area.


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## RebeccaSierra24

doggiedad said:


> can you remove some of the rocks
> and bark from the yard?? if you can't
> do the entire yard you could clear
> an area and maybe fence the cleared
> area.


That could work.. Most of my yard is bark or rock, and the rest is fake grass.. So I'll get my hands on a puppy pen thing and clear out that area.
Thanks for the tip!


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## doggiedad

you might want to build a kennel. you can build the kennel
as large or as small as you want it. i like the idea of a larger
kennel.



RebeccaSierra24 said:


> That could work.. Most of my yard is bark or rock, and the rest is fake grass.. So I'll get my hands on a puppy pen thing and clear out that area.
> Thanks for the tip!


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## kitmcd

Glad to hear that most outgrow this behavior.

Mine is 14 weeks and terrible about eating rocks (or trying to). She will even gnaw on the edge of the asphalt driveway to break off chunks. If she can't find a rock handy, it's mulch, if no mulch it's pulling grass up by the roots, if no grass, she wants to dig to look for something else!

We have 15 acres of property and I would love to leave her off lead while I am working outside. But now I feel I can't because of this issue.

Have tried treats...no go. She would rather have the rock than a treat. Ditto for a toy. So, right now I keep her on a lead and if she snags something, fish it out. I'm positive many things have gone down that I didn't catch!

Sure hope this ends soon!


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## GSDMUM

I had wrtten about the same exact thing about a month ago on these forums. Mine was obsessed with red mulch and wood. She has finally stopped the behavior on her own. I sure got tired of pulling things out of her mouth. One day I scooped what I thought was a piece of mulch out of her mouth, with my finers and it was a roach!!!! YIKES!!!! I am horrified by them.
Based on my experience your pup will probably lose interest as she gets a little older. Try to distract her with a treat trade and then throw or roll a ball when she starts getting interested in them.


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