How to stop dog from eating everything!

[liz&Obi]

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Hi all,
I am really in need of some advice about scavenging.
Obi (1 yr old JRT)was rushed in for emergency surgery last Saturday with a blockage in his intestines. He had eaten all sorts of crap in the garden. The main thing was fuzz from a tennis ball - it anchored in his stomach and went all the way through to the other end. He had to have 7 incisions in his intestines and 1 entry incision. This cause small holes in his intestines and he got peritonitis.
He is lucky to still be with us.
He is feeling much better today after a week of resting and he is quite hyper. I'm trying to keep him from jumping around but not having much luck.

The reason for this post is to ask if anyone has got any advice on how to stop him eating non food items?
He can't have a bed in his crate, plastic toys, blankets or clothes to keep him warm as he eats these things.
He can't go in the garden without a lead on ad he will eat wood, the fence, stones and basically anything he can find.

Do puppies ( is he still classed as a puppy at 13months?) grow out of this behaviour?
He doesn't chew things and spit them out like most dogs do.

Please help!

Liz

 

[JoanneF]

How horrible for you. I'm assuming (to get this out of the way first) that he isn't hungry.
I think my first step would be muzzle. Others may have different suggestions.

 

[JudyN]

There's some good info about this here: Pica in Dogs

A muzzle could help, but you want one that allows him to open his mouth to pant, not something that holds his mouth closed. A good muzzle, introcuced carefully, isn't aversive, he can still enjoy his walks and time in the garden. Bear in mind that some dogs are rather good at eating stuff through their muzzles - but it should at least prevent him from eating larger stuff, and slow him down enough that you'll gave a chance to intervene.

And if he can't bolt stuff down so quickly and easily, you'll have more chance to teach him 'leave' - i.e. 'If you turn away from that stone and pay attention to me instead, you get something much tastier.'

 

[Flobo]

I'd also be inclined to try a basket muzzle. That's an interesting article on pica in dogs, has your vet talked to you at all about this condition?
I do wish Obi well and really hope you can find a way to help or manage this, it must be so hard for you all...

 

[arealhuman]

A timely post - I was out one evening with Rusty last week when he ate some wood! It was the type of chippings that spread on flower beds to hold in moisture, no ill effects. He will scavenge food items that have been discarded, generally he doesn't eat other things. I saw generally as when storm Darragh was here, we had lots of tree debris in our garden and he started nibbling that.

I haven't got any advice I'm afraid, we just try to be vigilant when out and about.

 

[sara_21]

I didn't realise this was considered an actual condition! We have a 7year old JRT x Bichon and she was like this as a pup. It started with eating her own faeces and then moved on to stones. We would remove toys when we weren't playing with her, which is what saved those. Miraculously she never got to ingest the stones but we lost count of how many we had to fish out of her mouth. It was a constant struggle.
We taught her the 'leave it' command as quickly as we could but I remember it was such hard work watching her every move in the garden.

She was a nervous/anxious little dog and was also very high energy(she still is). Even though we walked her everyday, it wasn't enough so we trained her to fetch a ball, bought a ball launcher and would take her to a big field to play fetch every day until she was exhausted. She was a lot more content after this. We found she needed a lot of mental stimulus as well.

What really helped with the stones I think, is that she loved chewing rawhide bones, atleast what they're ingesting from those can be eaten. But just to note, we always supervised this, and had to be very careful that she didn't break off and swallow chunks as this would've been equally, if not more dangerous than the stones. So we would watch her carefully and take away any bigger bits that broke off etc.
Our dog never really took to them but have you tried those nylon training bones you get?

Really hope you get sorted. I remember how it felt back in the beginning, it's so stressful.