# This is turning into a real problem, Is this common?



## skylielover (Sep 27, 2008)

Hey Everyone,

I am becoming quite concerned about this problem. Skylie has always tried to eat things since I can remember. Well I just thought it was puppy behavior. However, she is now 14 months old, and it is progressively getting worse. She tries to eat any cotton toys and even things like towels or toilet paper. The only toys she can have now is hard rubber ones. As soon as we go outside, she runs to plants to start eating the leaves. She is constantly looking for things outside. I can't even go down our apartment stairs outside without her snatching up a ball of dust, a dead bug or an old cigarette butt (our stairs outside do not stay clean). When I bring her to my parents house to play in the yard, all she does is pull up grass (eating some of it) and dig. 

Does this sound like a problem, or do some dogs just have this in their nature? 

I feed her a good food (Blue Buffalo) and an ample amount (3 cups daily), so I don't think its a food issue. 

Thank you for reading


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## jwemt81 (Aug 20, 2008)

It's normal. Tucker is 13 months and is the same way. Goldens are just very mouthy dogs and like to have things to carry in their mouth. Tucker can't have stuffed toys because they don't even last a day. He doesn't eat grass or dust balls, but any other object is fair game to him. We have been working on the "leave it" command and it seems to be helping a bit.


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## AmbikaGR (Dec 31, 2007)

Some dogs just seem to have an uncontrolable urge. My Oriana tends to be that way. She has gotten slightly better but when she is excited it is still over the top. It is every 5 seconds I am telling her to "leave it" on our walks. She will be 18 months old tomorrow. 
I have a friend who has a Golden who LOVED rocks. She had to have one surgically removed at 9 months of age and then again at 9 years of age. Some just don't ever "outgrow" some issues.


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## skylielover (Sep 27, 2008)

Thank you both for replying so fast. I do notice with the grass pulling ,she is spitting most of it out. However she loves to pull up weeds. She also shreds rugs. She will pull strings off and try to eat them. I was just hoping there wasn't more to this.

She had a nasty cigarette butt in her mouth yesterday that she tried to sneak inside. She was holding it in her mouth and looking guilty as we were coming up the stairs :no:. It's funny though that her expression and keeping her mouth closed gave it away haha.


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## AmbikaGR (Dec 31, 2007)

It truly is funny how they give themselves away. :doh: My old girl has a liking for tissues. It is funny how when we are on a walk she can give me "that" look with her tail wagging that I know she has one in her mouth.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

I'd take a two-pronged approach to this problem. First, I'd work on a positive leave-it command so you can consistently and successfully stop her from getting reinforced (i.e., playing with the wrong things and swallowing them). It's possible to manage this urge if you have to.

I'd also teach her some retrieve games so her mouthiness and prey drive have big outlets, and I'd play those games several times a day. Often, if you give an urge an appropriate outlet, you see it lessen in the inappropriate situations.

So, manage from one end, lessen from the other.


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## skylielover (Sep 27, 2008)

great advice. Thank you. I wish she was more interested in balls and fresbies. When I throw them, she will run after them then gives up and starts sniffing the grass haha


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## goldengirl09 (Jul 23, 2009)

I agree that teaching a leave/drop command would be great. If you haven't taken a positive training class yet, it is will worth the money and those are two commands they normally work on in the beginner class. Also, have you tried Bitter Apple? Harvey used to try to eat the rocks in the backyard and I would go out and spray it with bitter apple. He seems to have learned to stay away from them now. Good luck!


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

skylielover said:


> great advice. Thank you. I wish she was more interested in balls and fresbies. When I throw them, she will run after them then gives up and starts sniffing the grass haha


Not all pups, especially when they're young, can do a full retrieve to hand without some training. We start with a tiny stuffed duck and throws of about five feet from our earliest days with our guys. Any way you can teach her a short retrieve and reward it and then slowly build up?

Often, if you throw the right object (tennis balls seem to be magical for Goldens) and build up to it, the game becomes self-reinforcing and the dog lives to play it. If she's got a strong mouthing urge, I bet she could be at least a decent fetch player.


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## Mssjnnfer (Aug 9, 2009)

skylielover said:


> She had a nasty cigarette butt in her mouth yesterday that she tried to sneak inside. She was holding it in her mouth and looking guilty as we were coming up the stairs :no:. It's funny though that her expression and keeping her mouth closed gave it away haha.


lol, oh yeah. Mojo will suddenly slink off, his head cocked in a funny way. Dead giveaway.


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## Steph (Aug 31, 2009)

I also have a 15 month old who we have now knick named Billy Goat. She cannot/will not give up grabbing chunks of grass and taking off with them. She actually eats the grass, dirt and rocks that come with the clump. My lawn is full of holes and I am hoping that she will out grow it. Mind you, we just gave up eating poop!!!!!!


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## New Golden Mom (Dec 17, 2008)

Oh giving up the poop eating was a milestone I was happy to reach! I love when Rufus hides something he shouldn't have in his mouth. His mouth is all puffed up and he looks very guilty...when I ask, "what do you have" he bows down to me, lowering his head to the floor and wagging his tail crazily. He looks like he's going to lead me on a merry chase but he doesn't..he just stands there, bowed down while I pry open his mouth and scoop out the prized possession (usually toilet paper).


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

AmbikaGR said:


> It truly is funny how they give themselves away. :doh: My old girl has a liking for tissues. It is funny how when we are on a walk she can give me "that" look with her tail wagging that I know she has one in her mouth.


Tango does that too, but with crabs and clams from the beach that she is NOT allowed to carry or swallow- half for her stomach and half out of pity for the poor sea critters. She gives me this sidelong look- far from a poker face.


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## z&mom (Oct 7, 2006)

Koda is 1 yr old, and he still tries to eat everything, cigarette butts, grass, drywall, doorframe, wood floor, etc. Walking him is a challenge because he enjoys grazing on the grass.


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## NuttinButGoldens (Jan 10, 2009)

Gilmour is the same way. He's even been able to de-stuff his Zanies, which I really thought wouldn't happen. Just this morning there was HUGE pile of stuffing on the patio. I can't believe it all came out of one little Zanies cloth bone-toy.

The only thing he hasn't been able to destroy (yet) is his firedog toy. He's chewed the black ends off, but the main toy is still intact.

What he does to a stick should be illegal LOL



skylielover said:


> Hey Everyone,
> 
> I am becoming quite concerned about this problem. Skylie has always tried to eat things since I can remember. Well I just thought it was puppy behavior. However, she is now 14 months old, and it is progressively getting worse. She tries to eat any cotton toys and even things like towels or toilet paper. The only toys she can have now is hard rubber ones. As soon as we go outside, she runs to plants to start eating the leaves. She is constantly looking for things outside. I can't even go down our apartment stairs outside without her snatching up a ball of dust, a dead bug or an old cigarette butt (our stairs outside do not stay clean). When I bring her to my parents house to play in the yard, all she does is pull up grass (eating some of it) and dig.
> 
> ...


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## sammydog (Aug 23, 2008)

Mira just turned 19 months and she can be pretty bad too. We are always working on the leave-it command using treats. Also she has a command called "yuck" which means spit it out. For stuff around the house she was taught to bring us her prizes. Anything that she brings us she gets rewarded with a treat or praise. She rarely eats or shreds anything, just brings them to me and I put them away. Not sure it is the best approach, but paired with keeping things cleaned up keeps her from eating things. Her favorites are socks, pieces of paper (including envelopes), napkins, etc... The only thing she does not bring to us are dryer sheets. For some reason she just LOVES to shred them. I think it varies by dog, as Sammy or Barley never did this.


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## cubbysan (Mar 13, 2007)

Brady will be three in November, and he has a liking for anything white and fluffy. Pillow stuffing, tissue paper, cotton balls... and every once in a while something made of cardboard (cereal boxes, etc.)


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## skylielover (Sep 27, 2008)

Thank you all for your replies. I'm so glad to know Im not alone one this issue haha.. 


And I am definitely going to try fetch more. Everything is a game to SKylie though. When she has something, she provokes me with me wanting me to catch her, especially with tissues and hand towels lol


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## ardita (Jul 14, 2009)

Steph said:


> I also have a 15 month old who we have now knick named Billy Goat. She cannot/will not give up grabbing chunks of grass and taking off with them. She actually eats the grass, dirt and rocks that come with the clump. My lawn is full of holes and I am hoping that she will out grow it. Mind you, we just gave up eating poop!!!!!!


Oh I have an "amazing" grass & poop eater...I get so frustrated sometimes I can't walk him on the road because he is still young and poops in the middle of the road (even few minutes after he does it at home) and I can't go to park because he gets crazy and it looks like he's going to eat all the grass there...don't even wanna start to talk about poop!!!When he sees that I'm looking he just smells and looks at it and starts licking his mouth like saying "yummy, please let me have it!!!" :uhoh:


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## lgnutah (Feb 26, 2007)

Brooks (who is now 4 years) used to eat horse poop, and there was lots of it where we walked him in a nearby forest as horse people use the trails in there.
He did give it up--maybe a combination of training and leaving puppyhood behind. He still snatches at long grass, but it seems this is usually when it is hot and we have been walking a while and he is thirsty. I don't like him eating grass because sometimes there is so much in his poop it won't fall off normally and I have to get a big leaf to cover my hand and pull it off EWWWWW!


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## Maya's Mom (Apr 13, 2009)

skylielover said:


> great advice. Thank you. I wish she was more interested in balls and fresbies. When I throw them, she will run after them then gives up and starts sniffing the grass haha


It may be a question of finding the right toy to throw. My pup has no interest at all in tennis balls, but she is a sucker for a squeaker, so she can play fetch for a long time with a rubber squeaky ball (which is better for the teeth anyway) And if all else fails, jam a treat in a kong and try playing fetch with that. Maya will fetch a treat-filled kong for hours if I'll throw it that long. I guess the only question with that will be, will your dog want to bring it back to you? Maya knows that when I have a treat jammed in there, her best chance of it coming out is to have me throw it, so she brings it to me immediately. If I stuff it with her frozen food and banana, she gets to work on it by herself and doesn't bring it to me. Anyway, it's just something to try. I would experiment with different toys.


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## luvgolds (May 20, 2009)

*We're Normal!*

I had to share that I found this thread with perfect timing. As I was walking Harley last night and he was trying to eat literally everything I was thinking to myself I had to post today to see if everyone else has the same issue. And what did I find? That everyone else has the same issue!  Once again, Harley is "normal".

Just curious, for those with this issue, do you or can you give you golden any outdoor time alone, at all? Harley is too young for any outdoor time alone (short of me dashing into the house to grab something and dashing back out), but I'm starting to get concerned that it'll be years till he can have outdoor time alone. Our other Golden loved her outdoor time and was very good. We got her at 4 mths and the worst she did was chew at a braided carpet (her carpet) - she wasn't obsessed with bugs, plants, dirt, stones, weeds, grass, etc, etc.

On a positive note, Harley leaves poop alone, as well as all indoor items!!


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## janine (Aug 8, 2009)

Chester brings home pinecones from his walks...we don't even know he has them until he spits them out in the living room, or worst takes them upstairs to the bedroom. I think he just likes having things in his mouth.


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## Rikos Mom (Aug 11, 2009)

Ours has never been able to have soft anything!!! He'll eat them :-( No dog bed either (though we found a crib mattress works great...he doesn't chew it, he sleeps ).

Riko also LOVES socks...he will eat the foot/toe portion...so socks must be put away, etc.

We have TONS of toys for him though.....we found great soft rubber squeeky balls at Target (he got some for Christmas from Aunty as a pup) he plays with but doesn't try to "eat"!


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## snappyweather (Mar 4, 2007)

We planted grass in the spring, right around the time we had to put Bear on a diet (He weighed 75 pounds and is shorter built) and Bear has now decided he isn't a canine, he's livestock. We have to yell at him literally over 30 seconds about eating the grass!


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## Heidi36oh (Feb 27, 2007)

Oh gosh, Chewie is 2.5 years old and still eats anything in sight, no stuffed animals here just hard bones and Nylabones.

He dives for paper towel or any other things Chloe might drag out.

He ate my pager a few month back and gave it back to me in a very special present..LOL

He ate my cell phone and the house phone not to long ago, socks will be ate hole if left around.

Let's just say everyone is doing their part of teaching Chewie and he is not getting it..LOL, so we just try to put things up so he can't get them.

So far he's been doing ok, we don't give him a chance anymore to get anything!:::


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