Swallowing Stones

[Guest Travelover]

I'm sure this has been covered, but I can't seem to find it by searching, so forgive the repetition. Our girl is 5 yo and has started eating small rocks frequently. We live on a gravel road, so it is not easy to stop her, short of muzzling her. She was in the prison training program before we got her and their notes indicate that she was eating rocks then. We saw it very infrequently in the year and a half after we got her, but in the last few days she is doing it much more. She is a very food oriented dog - protective of her food from other dogs, will do anything for a treat and if free fed, would probably weight 200 pounds. We feed her 3 cups of kibble a day and it seems to keep a nice weight on her (68 pounds).

 

My questions are:

 

Has anyone had success in training this out of their dog?

 

Is this going to lead to a medical issue or will the stones pass through her system eventually?

 

Thanks in advance for your insights.

[DesiRayMom]

True story: I work at a vet clinic & a couple of years ago we saw a large (130 lb) bloodhound for lethargy & loss of appetite.

xrays were a horror. Turns out, his "turn out" was in a large run with those pretty smooth river rocks.....and his belly was

FULL. After a 90 min sx, we had a freezer size zip bag full.

 

Granted, those river rocks were probably larger than what's on a gravel road (1-2"dia), but still.....

 

I have no experience & thus so advice for preventing her from sucking them up, but it would concern me.

 

Maybe a snack before walk so she isn't feeling ravenous?

 

Good thoughts & good luck.

[TheFullHouse]

A muzzle with a stool guard will stop it. Cheaper than surgery.

 

The only other alternative would be to keep her on a very short leash and not let her nose near the ground. You could also teach the "leave it" command. That might work.

[Guest Giselle]

There's a lot of speculation on what causes pica in domestic animals, but, to date, I've only read one academic journal article on pica...and it was about pica in cats...

 

The general consensus is that pica is a form of infantile behavior, and its onset is generally centered around early kittenhood/puppyhood but lasting for up to several years. There's also evidence to suggest that pica is a response to acute stress (such as new additions to the family or moving or rehoming) or just plain boredom (like a stereotypy or OCD behavior) or maybe even nutrient deficiency (phosphorous and bone fragments, for example).

 

I think your best bet would be to tackle all three.

- Have there been changes to your household? New additions? New visitors? New machines? Thunderstorms?

- Have there been changes to your schedule? Is she getting mental/physical stimulus? Has there been a decrease in training or exercise? Does she exhibit other behaviors that may be related to boredom or stress?

- Has there been a change in diet?

 

If you can pinpoint a particular trigger, that will make behavior modification much more effective

[Guest Travelover]

.................

I think your best bet would be to tackle all three.

- Have there been changes to your household? New additions? New visitors? New machines? Thunderstorms?

- Have there been changes to your schedule? Is she getting mental/physical stimulus? Has there been a decrease in training or exercise? Does she exhibit other behaviors that may be related to boredom or stress?

- Has there been a change in diet?

 

If you can pinpoint a particular trigger, that will make behavior modification much more effective

 

Thanks for the reply. We have a stable home life - I'm retired and home with her 99% of the time. Nothing new going on in terms of additions, visitors, machines. She seems oblivious to thunderstorms. She gets a 2 to 3 mile walk everyday and does not seem bored the rest of the time. Diet is steady - good quality kibble with a second brand of kibble as training treats.

 

I've tried walking her immediately after eating and she still makes an occasional lurch for a stone.

 

She knows the "leave it" command but her compliance is based on how much she likes what she has in her mouth vs the value of a treat given for compliance. Little rocks win, bigger rocks she will drop for a treat.

 

As noted, she was doing this several years ago before we got her, so maybe it is a bad habit she picked up in puppyhood. Hate to do the muzzle thing - but we may have to do it for her health's sake.

[Batmom]

I would go for the muzzle. If you're have her on leash, might not need the stool guard as the regular basket muzzle will slow her down a bit.

 

Small rocks may or may not pass -- even the small ones are heavy, and heavy things tend to remain in the stomach. Larger ones won't pass.

[Guest Giselle]

If it is an ingrained habit, a stereotypy, then I think your best bet is to teach an alternative behavior if you really want to eliminate the rock-eating. Stereotypies are partially the result of highly strengthened neural pathways that have been reinforced through prolonged practice. In other words, practice makes perfect. So, even if she has a basket muzzle on, she may not be able to put rocks in her mouth, but she may still exhibit the searching/rooting behavior.

 

And if you want to eliminate that rooting behavior, I would suggest preventing the behavior from occurring at all. If she eats rocks when you're on a leashed walk, you can just take 3 brisk steps backwards and ask for a "Come!" and then ask for a Target/Sit/Down/Spin/whatever you want. Then, you can continue on your walk or move away from the problem area. The point is to interrupt her before she can practice the rock-eating/rooting/searching behavior and replacing it instead with a alternative ("Come!"/Sit/Down/Target/whatever-you-want).

 

If there is gravel in the dog run and you can't monitor her, maybe you could replace the gravel with a different material or fence it off. Essentially, manage the environment as best you can, interrupt her before she can practice rock-eating, and then teach an alternate behavior that won't allow her to practice the 'bad' habit.

[Sambuca]

I don't have a yard, but I do have access to a fenced in tennis court. I have a grey, a small mutt and a foster grey Tuffy. My last foster grey Justin was adopted this week. When I first brought Tuffy home 2 months ago, Justin had already been with me for 2 months. Justin started eating small pebbles in the tennis court (by small, each pebble was the size of a piece of kibble). He ate about 5 pebbles in 2 days. I thought through what was happening and how I reacted and how he was reacting to me reacting to him. I realized that when he ate a pebble, I'd yell his name (in a playful manner) and start chasing Justin, which Justin LOVES. So I started chasing him around the tennis court more often when he wasn't eating pebbles and he stopped going for the pebbles. Essencially, he wanted more attention and this was his way to get it. Once I started giving him the attention when not related to the behavior, the behavior stopped.

 

I don't know if that helps, but I hope it does.

 

eta- Justin only ate a few pebbles and I noticed that they made it through him in a timely manner.

Edited May 29, 2011 by Sambuca

[GeorgeofNE]

This has nothing to do with hunger or diet.

 

If she's doing this when she's in the yard, the easiest answer is to muzzle her. If she's doing it on walks--well, then you need to not let her even pick ANYTHING up!

 

We had an English Setter who ate rocks, and he had surgery twice to remove them. While pebbles will probably pass, our dog ate rocks to big to pass and almost died twice, so you need to stop her from doing this--I don't think you can train her not to do it. For our dog, it was just a compulsion. We have no clue why he started, but he did seem to stop after the second surgery.

[Guest RichardUK]

The only thing we tried which worked to some extent was misdirection - nice juicy treats every time she showed interest in stones. Eventually she would come to me looking for a treat when walking or if we were outside in the yard together. I assumed that she associated the treat with every time she felt like eating a stone. But it didn't really stop her eating stones when she was in the yard on her own- though never had any complications from this habit. It was suggested it was due to a diet deficiency but never found out what deficiency.