Hi there, I’ve been searching and struggling through this site for some time now, and thought it best to ask the collective knowledge and experience here!
We’re the proud parents of a 7 month old Golden Retriever, very happy n healthy chap, but he has an obsession with eating debris- sticks, small stones, anything he can get his mouth round! We had hoped he’d grow out of it and although it has got better, he’s still consuming enough for it to be clearly evident in his droppings. I’m new to dog ownership, however I’ve seen this problem present itself in horses (chewing wood, licking mud etc) and that turned out to be due to nutritional deficiencies which were remedied by a change of diet. So I know in theory how this could be remedied, however I’m struggling with the amount of choice available! The food he’s on currently is recommended by Pets at Home as the best for his breed and age, but I’m worried it’s still not doing enough for him. I understand that brand specific advice isn’t generally given here, but I wonder if anyone could point me in the right direction of something high in puppy nutrients for a soon-to-be large Golden Retriever!
Any advice gratefully received x
Hello and welcome to the forum,
It is hard to say if he is eating strange things due to something lacking in his diet or if it is just habit. It sounds like it may be worth really working on ‘Leave it’ with him. My dog likes her food but she has a solid ‘leave it’ {mostly] She will sometimes grab a ‘leave it’ before I have a chance to get the words out and every now again she goes stone deaf! She did have a spell of trying to eat clods of earth and other stuff but she had lost weight on the food she was on so I think it was hunger rather than deficiency.
There are so many variables and each dog is different. Most have us have just settled on a food that suits through trial and error. What do you feed at the moment? Is your dog a healthy weight? What type of food would you prefer to feed?
There is so much choice and if you want any information about a particular food, hopefully some members may have had some experiences to share. Also there are lots of threads about various foods to browse through.
You can also look at this thread to see how to search for a suitable food. It should give you some ideas. I hope this helps. Good Luck.
Hello and welcome to the forum. Pets at Home sell a number of own brand products, varying in price and quality so please can you tell us the name of the food you are giving your dog and how much he is having?
The behaviour that you describe is common in puppies and it is one of the reasons that it is safer not to leave them in the garden unsupervised. I know this is time consuming but ingestion of foreign bodies can be dangerous, leading to the dog requiring surgery. Alternatively, could you fence off a portion of the garden that is free of pebbles etc? Years ago I did this in my garden when I had puppies - it was a simple grassed area and it worked extremely well because there was nothing to harm themselves with. A simple basket muzzle would also stop him from eating rubbish but you have to get the dog used to it. As Tinyplanets says, you could perhaps teach him the ‘leave it’ command. Some dogs do well with this but others will scoff the item more quickly if they think you are coming to take it off them.
Your dog might grow out of this (I hope he does) but meanwhile, keep a close eye on him and try not to let him have the opportunity to ingest foreign bodies.