eating all kinds of stuff

[Charmin]

I am just wondering if pyrs usually eat grass and sticks, and crickets and grasshoppers. Pretty much anything mine can get she will eat. I feed her good food, but still eats all this other stuff. She also loves to eat any dead animal she can find. I try to stop her from that though. Just wondering if the rest do the same. Thanks

[TrueMom]

Hi, Mine eats grass but chews on sticks sometimes. She doesn't chew on sticks if I give her a rawhide chew stick which I try to make sure she has atleast one everyother day. I also give her large dog biscuits for her teeth. This helps with her wanting to chew on something. I wouldn't let them eat old carcusses.

[risestar]

For most things, its normal. Dogs are dogs, they are going to eat things that make us queasy

Grass is normal, they use it for roughage to clean out their digestive system periodicly. You will normally see them vomitting it back up a short time later.

Eating sticks is a problem, but most bugs are fine.

[Christine]

in addition to the things you've named, my girl even eats the bark off trees, I've never seen that before - and she has a steady supply of toys, rawhides, dogs bones etc. etc.

teething dogs will eat anything they can get there mouths on, we can only try to direct them - they teeth to approx. 18 months of age - yeah :)

[risestar]

bark and some types of wood is common for young dogs. One of my females had gotten a taste of red cedar and would chew the siding on the house. She luckily outgrew it

[PTVroman]

bark and some types of wood is common for young dogs. One of my females had gotten a taste of red cedar and would chew the siding on the house.Don't tell me that - we just put up a cedar fence! She luckily outgrew itWhew! You had me worried there! :D

[chuny1951]

Don't tell me that - we just put up a cedar fence! Whew! You had me worried there! :D
I want to put up a fence for my puppy, any ideas as to what would make a good fence for our kind of breed?

[gloria8]

My dog eats everything he can get his mouth on... today when he was on the deck he shorted out my cable tv from chewing on the lil' bit of cable that runs fr0m my deck into my kitchen ... all the wood and stuff he chews on he really dosen't swallow ...but yikes whats gonna happen when spring comes and the frogs come out of hibernation :{....Gloria

[Erika]

Gandolph is 9 months old and chews but dont eat everything, he leaves a trail of shredded card board, cloth and rubber toys & sheer curtains everywhere.I have tryed freezing socks with peanut butter on them etc.......finally I found a dish of crushed ice satisfies him. He crunches ice with Gigi and Greta likes its a game.He chews less on other cherished objects.lol. Wow his teeth are some big honkers growing in.I swear they look like dinosaur teeth.lol...........thank goodness he dont eat sticks etc.,Im a worry wart about those things

[DPW]

Yesterday while out in the pasture to keep Cider from abusing the goats he trotted up to me, laid down and proceeded to chew on what I first thought was a stick. It sounded a bit to crunchy for a stick though and figured it was a bone. I don't like him chewing on old bones if I can help it because of the chance of splinters so I took it from him. Turned out to be what was left of a really old Eveready flashlight.
And people seem to think GOATS will eat anything. :)

[cardioverter]

Maggie my 9 month old has issues with chewing. Let's see...... she has chewed the vacuum cord, my daughters DS charger cord, several ink pens, numerous socks and underwear, choice stuffed animals, cardboard by the ton, flip-flops, anything that is interesting! Since I live in town, not on a farm, the thought was that Maggie was bored (not to mention teething) so I have been taking her for more walks. She seems to enjoy this and has cut back on chewing things other than her toys. Wear her out, that's my motto! :D

Does anyone have ideas on how to curb her chewing on the wrong things?

[2ndPyr]

Sounds like you have it nipped ;)
But boy it doesn't take long for them to destroy something does it?!!!
and our male makes great use of his jowls! He can hide an entire man's sock in those jowls. ;) oh and an ink pen.

We just 'puppy proof'. But sometimes it's been worse than having two year old! Sometimes, when he was younger, it's like a demon would get him at nighttime and it was impossible to keep up with him. Pretty soon we have everything up as high as we could get it so we'd be able to sit down and relax and stop chasing him all over telling him to 'GIVE IT!'

We have found that a water filled spray bottle works. We hardly ever have to use it, he just hates it (but he loves the hose silly boy) he sees the spray bottle and he's putty in our hands. :rolleyes:

On puppy proofing.....also think safety....all plastic out of his reach, anything they could ingest that would suffocate, or choke them. Vet bills for injuries can become very expensive, not to mention endangering their life. No choker collars left on ever, if you use a choker.

Also something that has worked for us is to take his leash and just put it on him and let him walk around with it on (ours has wild moments, and putting that leash on calms him down right now!)

question
Does your act like this more when you're home, but not when you're gone? Our 1 yo male gets into nothing while we're gone (we don't crate him...He has ISSUES with it...scared...big burly Pyrenees....yep scared to death of his crate). But when we're gone he sleeps.

Kris

[cardioverter]

Maggie is scared to death of the crate too, she has destroyed one and is working on another. I have been experimenting this week and I put her in a larger crate with my ****er/border mix. I tried leaving them for an hour or so and then longer. She has done much better, less barking and freaking out.

She also has a really weird phobia with large balls, so if she won't come to me in the yard, I pick up one of my daughters kick balls and she runs for the door. Only do this as a last resort when I need to get to work.

It's funny that you should ask if she does it more when I am home. I switched my hours about a month ago. I was working 8 hour days and now I work a different schedule and I am home most days. It started around the same time. Maybe she didn't like the change to her routine. :)

We are puppy proofing but it is sometimes hard when you have an eleven year old leaving her stuff around. I have closed off all of the rooms other than the general living area. Shoes are in the laundry room and stuffies in the bedroom. Ink pens.... well she's kinda tall and can reach the countertops (food is not left out either, lol!)
We also thought maybe she was jealous of the spaniel because he has a few more privileges. He is on the couch, she is not. Started reading about pack mentality and beginning to understand that she is most likely trying to establish dominance. Decided to retrain the spaniel so we establish the pack leader as human not dog. This week has been much better but it's only Tuesday :D

I might try the leash idea if we still have trouble. Thanks for your tips, Kris.

Theresa

[fluffylove]

Are you feeding in the crate? For atleast a week, feed her in there, put the food in the back and leave the crate open. People often just throw the dog in and the dog doesn't like it, of course. Covering the crate to make is cozy? Put any bedding in there she enjoys? Clothes that smell like you?

For the record, dogs are not jelous, EVER. They do not have the part of the brain that we do that houses jelous feelings. It can all be explained by pack heirarchy.

If you want lots of respect, start with ignoring the dog's demands for attention, play, food, treats etc. You will never be 'alpha' if you 'pamper' your dog's demands (dont' know if you do or not). Dominance is about keeping your 'pack' safe. You set the rules, be consistent with them, I mean every single day or it will not work. Ignore the dogs when you come home and before you leave etc.

Hope this helps. I have an alpha at home, though I am in charge, you should see him work and dispclin the pup. Very subtle body language. He growls and rarely now snaps. In a few weeks she NEVEr counter surfs, runs out of her crate without being invited, heels, has 95% recall EVEN with other dogs around, never runs out the front door, even if it's open, has 95% stay command, does not chew up anything and is of course potty trained, and we got rid of her crazy, crazy jumping in a matter of a few days!!!. All thanks to Bark busters in a matter or a few weeks. She's almost 6mths old now.
ps-we NEVER pin a dog down. That's not dominace but aggression

[cardioverter]

We have tried several things with the crate, including bedding and shirts, putting the crate in the bedroom with us. She now sleeps in the room without a crate. She started having problems with the crate around six months but never before that.

As for being "jealous" that wasn't the right choice of words. The spaniel heads for higher ground, the top of the couch where he can see everything going on, next to me. In the pack hierarchy this is considered a spot for the beta dog, which before the two pyrs, was his place. Most likely Maggie is wanting to establish the fact that she is the beta female and therefore sees my spaniel as the omega dog who is in her place.

I believe it is my fault for showing favoritism and not allowing the natural order. Both of our Pyrs are manageable and follow commands. They can be trying at times, but all both are under a year and we were told that having two or three dogs all under a year would be more difficult to manage.

I do not really pamper the dogs because I really don't have the time. I am working on my masters and spend most of my time at home working on my computer. I do think that if I had more time to work on their behavior training we could be further along, similar to where you are now with yours. We have started working with them more consistently. Will let you know how we progress. Thanks for the info. T

[2ndPyr]

Fluffylove...I'm going to have to check that barkbusters out.
And try your tips for the crate.

Theresa, Sebastian was afraid of one particular ball we bought him (he was 6 months old at the time). It's a purple ball with diamond shapes cut into it. We put peanut butter in it and it's become one of his favorites (even without peanut butter).

Sabby is obsessed with pens! If he spots a pen he grabs it and he's off..with the pen hidden in his jowls.

We have lots of work to do :rolleyes:

Kris

[cardioverter]

I am going to check out the barkbusters also...you seem to have a handle on the training and house discipline, Fluffylove.