[rhessdorf]

My pup loves to carry rocks and boulders in his mouth..
Looks cute but very bad for his teeth..
I have no problem telling him no and pulling the rock or stone out of his mouth when he is on leash..
The problem is when he in the dog park.. When he is off leash, I have no control of it.. he gets the stone and carrys it around with him in the park.. Funny looking occurence, but not healthy..
ANy ideas on how to control it?
Thanks..

 

[annieG]

A couple of ideas....Tanner did this when he was smaller and then when he got older, he no longer is interested in picking up every piece of bark and every rock that he sees.

Have you tried giving him a ball to tote. Tanner loves to tote his frisbee or his ball when he walks or go to the park. It is kind of like a pacifier :wink:

 

[lmtoth2]

Dex was in a major stone phase last spring/summer. He has graduated to sticks or kong balls this year. I would just continue to discourage him from chewing on them - if he just runs around w/them in his mouth I don't think there's much harm...unless he starts swallowing them.

 

[jumpinjacuzzijoe]

Our sixteen year old pointer Pepper loved to carry rocks around...she would even go as far as to dive under water, be completely submerged and come up with a rock...I once timed her being completely under water for 8 seconds....she doesnt do this any more due to her advanced age and her teeth did wear a bit but other than that she survived just fine

 

[sdrudge]

Cacao likes rocks but now she will take her toy fish or a ball. Distract with a toy.

 

[Shaia]

shaia literally picks up every single thing we run across on a walk. and i'm not kidding. everything. unless she's tired (i.e. on the way back from the park). sometimes at night i don't catch it and i'll look down and there'll be a stick or a rock or something she's dragged in on her mat in the den. the way i dealt with it was to teach her a flawless "drop it." we practiced in the house - when she had a toy in her mouth i'd say "drop it" at the same time i'd whip out a treat. drop it and then treat. needless to say she got this very quickly. so now our walks sound like this "drop it drop it drop it drop it drop it......."
i still try and treat her when she drops to keep her sharp :wink:

 

[doodleallday]

Libby is just like this, too! She will always drop it on command, but she just looks so proud of herself when she comes trotting back to the door with a (fill in the blank - rock, stick, bird, mouse, rabbit, piece of litter, broken lattice, bird seed cover, etc) in her mouth. it's as if she wants to say "Look what I found!!"

 

[lmtoth2]

shaia literally picks up every single thing we run across on a walk.

Dex was like this too last spring/summer. He outgrew much of it (now he likes to carry his toys around the house/yard). We would be on a walk and at some point he would pick up a stick and carry it...he always looked so proud

 

[rhessdorf]

Its very disheartening.. He already broke a couple of baby teeth becasue of the rocks..
I use the leave it command whenever he picks anything up.. he always drops it and I give him a treat.. THats on leash..
THe dog park is a whole other story.. I cannot get to him once he grabs the rock.. and i do say leave it and show him the treat, but he runs away..
Maybe I should try real chicken or steak for him to drop it..
But then I'll have the whole dog park on my hand..
In all seriousness, this is a real problem.. Maybe I'll leave the dog park if he grabs a rock and he'll get the hint..
Thanks for all the respones.. Hopefully he'll grow out of it..

 

[MaxandMe]

Its not easy but keep up with the DROP IT and hand a toy he can have

we have a gravel driveway :roll: and then other rocks are under a tree,
i kept say "drop it" so much i was goign to drop hahahaa
but it worked and our doodles leave the rocks alone 98% of the time.

we keep a treat and/or toy outside just in case.
they also know they can play with sticks but they get left at the door
when going back inside.