Dog likes eating small stones

[KarthikMuthuswamy]

Hello fellow dog lovers.

My four-month old Golden retriever seems to like to follow scent trails on walks.

However, I notice that he picks up small stones in his mouth, crunches and eats them.

I feed him around 60 gms of his dog food three times a day.

Do dogs eat stones? Is this a sign of deficiency? Any ideas on discouraging him to eat stones?

[Adrienne]

Hi there,

Welcome to the forums!

It is not uncommon for dogs to eat rocks. It is more common in puppies, who just like babies, are more oral, and therefore like to stick things in their mouths as a form of exploration. As puppies grow, they eventually grow bored of this behavior as they become more interested in other things such as pee mail, rabbit poop and tasty blades of grass. 

Most dogs are attracted to rocks because they simply like the texture and feel of them in their mouths. These dogs enjoy the act of chewing on rocks and feeling the clicking of rocks against their teeth. Sort of like some people like to crunch on ice. 

Sometimes, dogs may show an interest in eating rocks when they are suffering from abdominal pain or nausea. If your dog started wanting to eat rocks out of the blue, then there are chances your dog may have a desire to ingest rocks as way of "purging" himself.  Abdominal pain in dogs can be caused by all sorts of problems such as inflammatory bowel disease, gastritis, pancreatitis, colitis,  presence of parasites and so on. So this may be worthy of mentioning to the vet just to exclude this possibility. 

Pica, is a medical term used to describe the ingestion of non-food items. It usually has some compulsive, addicting component to it. Dogs with pica may eat the oddest things such as sticks, drywall and dirt. When rocks are the main item digested, it is called "lithophagia." Pica has been attributed to a variety of underlying causes. Pica has been said to stem from nutritional deficiencies (in the case of rock eating, it may stem from an iron deficiency) or dogs may just develop it as a way to garner attention (dogs who are lonely and feel neglected enjoy attention, even if it's attention of the negative type), to release anxiety or frustration or just to obtain stimulation from the environment.  Once again, a vet visit would be important to rule this out. 

Most likely, your pup's rock eating is just part of leisurely, esplorative activity, especially if he's not acting sick and doesn't seem too obsessed about it. However, we may want to discourage this activity considering that dogs who chew rocks on a routine basis may wear down their teeth (even to the gum line in serious cases!) and may suffer a broken tooth.

 On top of this, dogs who swallow rocks may develop scary complications under the form of intestinal disorders and even a blockage if the rock is large enough that it can't be vomited back up or passed along with feces. Of course, whether an ingested rock turns out being or not a major problem depends to a great extent on the size of the dog. A stone ingested by a small dog or puppy has a higher potential to get stuck somewhere in the stomach or intestines. Blockages occur when items lodge somewhere along the dogs digestive tract. Affected dogs typically start showing signs such as not eating,  nausea, vomiting, lethargy and abdominal pain (prayer's position). Preventing dogs from chewing and eating rocks is therefore paramount for a dog's health and well being. As the saying goes "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

So how do we tackle rock eating in dogs? Here are a few tips:

As mentioned, have your dog pup  see the vet and mention this behavior just to play it safe and to exclude any physical or nutritional problems.  And of course, see your vet if your dog ingested a large rock for his size or is showing worrisome symptoms possibly suggesting a blockage. 

If possible, avoid walking your pup on trails where there are rocks  (this may not be feasible depending on where you live) or try to walk at a distance from them so they are out of reach. 

Make sure your pup is exercised and provided with plenty of mental stimulation (brain games!).  The goal is to create an interest in working for meals and providing food puzzles, which satisfy a dog's desire to search and scavenge for stuff. 

On walks, bring along some toys or treats to redirect him. For puppies, make sure the chew toys and treats are designed for puppies of their age. Make sure to rotate your dogs' toys every now and then so that your dog doesn't grow bored of them. Look for toys of different textures. 

Train your pup the leave it and drop it commands. These are life saving commands that every dog should know. Here you can find how to train them:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/take-leave-it/

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/drop-it/

Finally, a high-fiber diet can help since these can increase bulk and reduce some of the need to ingest foreign materials in some dogs. However, ask your vet about this possibility as it's possible your puppy is just doing this out of exploration more than an actual nutritional issue.  

Hope this helps,

Best,

Adrienne

[KarthikMuthuswamy]

Thank you, Adrienne, for the detailed answer. This is quite fascinating and really useful information to know for new dog owners (especially first time owners). He does seem to have fun eating stones and grass and does not seem to be doing it out of the blue. Moreover, it has been barely a week since I got the pup and I noticed such an eating pattern since the first day I took him walking around the backyard.

I did setup an appointment with my local vet and he too mentioned that grass eating is quite common amongst puppies but he suggested me to ensure he does not eat too many stones and a lot of grass. The vet was quite happy with the health of the pup. He will be conducting a detailed stool test to get a better status of the health of the pup.

I've been training my pup to leave it and drop it but he does not seem to learn it either in a non-distracting environment nor in an environment like the backyard. I will keep pushing him to learn these two important commands for his own safety. Do you have any videos of how you teach these commands to Einstein? I seem to follow your instructions for each command but the results are not really satisfactory. Thanks!

[Adrienne]

You are very welcome. If you just started training leave it, consider that it takes some time to master, especially with puppies who have little impulse control and who explore the world with their mouths. So lots of practice with a variety of items, in a variety of places, always making sure to reward with treats/foods that are higher in value. So once you have a fluent response in the home, when you are out in the yard, and you see he is occasionally approaching a rock with the intent of grabbing it, practice with leave its and toss him a treat to catch the opposite way or if it happens on walks, hand feed him a treat for leaving something. 

Grass eating is very common in dogs. Both my Petra and Einstein were occasional grazers and enjoyed some fresh grass given the opportunity. Problems in general start when too much is ingested as your vet pointed out. 

Unfortunately, our beloved Einsten passed away last summer. He was 11 and a half which was a great age for a Rottweiler. I don't have footage with him on this task, but I have a video demo done with a lovely Pomeranian who I had the pleasure of boarding and training recently.  I hope this helps you get an idea. I will see if I can upload a "drop it" demo soon. 

Happy training!

 

 

Edited August 31, 2020 by Adrienne

[KarthikMuthuswamy]

Hi Adrienne, I'm sorry to hear Einstein passed away, I did not know that.

Thank you very much for sharing this video. This provides a much clearer approach to follow. Would be really cool if you could post links to videos for all the other commands as well. I'll try to train Nacho similar to how you did and post a video of how the training went. Thanks!

[Adrienne]

You are very welcome.

I post videos every now and then as time permits, things just get very hectic at times between work, studies etc.. I put together the drop it demo. I hope it helps clarify:

 

 

[Adrienne]

Here's a demo on sit:

Here's a demo of lie down through luring featuring Einstein when he was younger