What do these items have in common? All of them were vomitted out of my girlfriend’s puppy yesterday.
Yes, that’s right. The newly named “Hoover” was sitting on GF’s roommate’s lap, started making some heaving noises, jumped out of her lap, and coughed up dinner, a condom, one of those strips used to pull Nads wax off of legs, and half of a pair of panties.
Now, we are fully aware of the danger that this dog’s life was put in (as condoms aren’t the greatest thing to be going through the digestive tract). But we have no idea where he got it from, and he recently squeezed his butt through what was thought to be an airtight bathroom door.
Anybody else have a dog that eats EVERYTHING? We thought this dog was a brittany, but I think its part goat.
My husband’s (it is not MY dog.) border collie/mutt mix has eaten:
Several groundhogs, rabbits, squirrels, etc.
A vcr remote control.
The fringe off of the bottom of our couch.
One of the rails from the hall banister, and all of the wood trim from around the window beside our front door.
A Bart Simpson squeaky toy, about 12 inches high (at least, it was 12 inches high. Before Huc ate his legs. Then his head.)
Numerous sticks.
Several stuffed mice, that once were the cats’ toys.
A few beanie babies.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. All dogs chew stuff. This dog EATS this stuff. Then regurgitates it. If we’re lucky, the latter happens when he outside. I’m amazed that he hasn’t perforated his stomach yet.
My darling, but none too bright, lab mix used to eat everything in sight when he was a puppy.
The highlights:
[ul]
[li]the corners of paperback and hardcover books[/li][li]cat feces[/li][li]empty cardboard toilet paper/paper towel rolls[/li][li]leather sandals[/li][li]the upholestry of our computer room couch[/li][li]photographs (my cat shares this particular vice)[/li][li]used sanitary napkins that he would pull out of the garbage (ick!)[/li][/ul]
Thankfully, he’s outgrown devouring anything other than food and the occasional chew toy. Speaking of bizarre canine eating habits, my sixth grade math teacher had a dog (aptly named Dummy) who once tried to chomp down on a doorknob (still attached to the door). Fortunately, he was unsuccessful, although he did leave quite a few dents in the metal.
My friend’s dog Pootie (a bull terrier) once ate an entire ball of twine like a long strand of spaghetti.
We once had a really gross dog that would dig our used tampons out of the trash and eat them.
I recently read an article about an animal hospital. One of the animals they featured was a dog that kept eating the family laundry coming in for surgery to get it removed. They pulled out two t-shirts, some socks, underwear, and a bunch of other stuff IIRC.
My current dog is constantly trying to eat my cat’s head. It’s really just a game but my poor cat always looks like a mad professor, saliva-caked fur on end.
I used to have a poodle who would do the same thing. God that was nasty trying to clean up while I was gagging! Needless to say I no longer own the dog, thank goodness.
My father has a chocolate lab, not quite a year old, that likes to chew on his car. The car is a 68’ Corvette that he restored and was in mint condition until the dog did his work on it. For some reason the dog likes to climb on top of the car and sit on the roof and chew on the moulding around the windows and naw on the car itself, scratching the paint and putting teeth marks in the body of the car. I do not think that the dog is going to last to much longer before he finds a new home.
My brother’s dachshund (1.5 years old) has eaten:
–carpet
–big parts of several blankets and towels
–any piece of paper of cellophane he can get
–a soft rubber toy fish
–part of a foam dog bed
–the wires off of two Nintendo controllers
–a plastic cup
–more than one pair of undies
–half of a t-shirt
–several books and magazines
–my leg (I tried to pick him up when he got into my room, and he bit me!)
and a lot more that I can’t remember at the moment. I once added up all the stuff he’d destroyed, and it came to over $500 (and that was eight months ago). We have to lock him in the kitchen whenever we leave.
According to my mom’s veterinarian (now there’s a ringing endorsement!), dogs tend to chew things due to separation anxiety. When their owners leave, they get upset, and take it out by chewing things. After mom’s black lab ate a large section of linoleum from the kitchen floor, mom finally gave into the advice of her vet, and locked the dog in the cage when away from home.
Mom did not want to do this. In fact, in the beginning, she was adamantly against the idea. But desperate to keep the dog from hurting herself, she bought a cage and started locking her up. At first, Sally was quite difficult to get in the cage. After a week or two, she would go into the cage on her own whenever she saw people getting ready to leave the house. After that, she started sleeping in the cage, and also going into it whenever she was upset, such as when the cats bothered her, or there were too many people in the house. At that point (only about 3 months since the purchase of the cage), mom stopped locking her into it, and the dog stopped chewing stuff.
Per the vet, the cage becomes a safe place for the dog. When she is upset about the people not being home, she will go into the cage and feel safe, rather than getting more upset and starting to chew things.
Anyone else out there ever tried/heard of this?
FWIW, it is recommended to start when the dog is a puppy, starting with short periods of time and gradually lengthening it. Check the about.com pet’s guide, there is info there.
I had a beagle that was particularly fond of Leggos. Also, a cocker spaniel that ate an entire Whitman’s sampler (chocolate is very poisonous to dogs so I was sure we’d find Amber dead, but she survived). Floyd, another beagle, ate the baseball my father had Joe DiMaggio sign in the early 1950s (I had never seen a beagle fly through the air before.)
While these are all sort of “cute” stories you really need to be careful about stuff you leave out that a puppy can eat. Clothiing in particular can knot and twist in the stomach creating a blockage that only surgery will fix. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen to Fido.
KimKatt, it’s called crate training and it’s something every dog owner should do! If you are unsure how to properly crate train your dog, ask for tips from the vet, or from a dog trainer. If crate training is NOT done properly, you will only make the problems worse.
Yup, I have. Romeo (so called because I wanted a literary name and my sister had a thing for Leonardo DiCaprio at the time) would only chew things he shouldn’t have been chewing when we forgot to put him in his “safe place” (the kitchen or his crate) before going out. The first night that we had Romeo at home, I wanted to let him sleep in on my bed, but Ma Serendipity was adamant that he be crate trained. It was rough at first, listening to him whine because he was downstairs while the rest of the family slept upstairs, but he quickly became accustomed to it and all worked out for the best.
I’m glad that my pup isn’t the only one fond of menstrual products. I was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with him… By the way, I just remembered another thing Romeo used to eat – TV remote controls. Anyone else have a pooch with a taste for electronics?
Our Newf Angus is very fond of anything that belongs to us or the baby, especially toys, socks, hats- anything that smells like his people. Nowadays, he just takes them for attention (USUALLY), but it used to be a smorgasboard.
My old Dobie-Shepard cross Taj once ate an entire pair of panyhose when she was a puppy, all in one piece. Then she went out into the back yard and puked up 3 feet of nylon. Took us a while to even figure out what the hell it was…
Short hijack- this dog buried everything she could get her paws on. So what happened the day she died of a heart attack? Yes, she was digging a hole, died right there and fell partially into it. Morbid but fondly funny if you knew her.
All the really extreme chewing/eating stories I know involve labs, for some reason.
My ex-girlfriend’s parents have a lab which would eat the wooden lawn furniture (think picnic table bench). It also completely consumed its big foam rubber dog bed, and then spent the next few days pooping flourescent pellets.
Same girlfriend’s cousins had a lab which, when locked in the garage (for warmth during winter) while the family was out, ate its way through the garage door to get outside. They replaced the door and began leaving him outside while they were gone. He then ate through the new garage door to get back in. He also ate the faucet off the hot water heater and flooded the basement. Crazy!
My darling hunk of puppy love Buck, a 3 year old brittany I very fond of those pads that are packaged under juicy cuts of meat. He will eat them every chance he gets. He knows he will get yelled at for even getting near the garbage but meat diapers are apparently worth it. I now have to place them in a specially designated bag in the freezer to be taken out at the last minute on garbage nite or risk having to take him to the vet for a bowel obstruction. When he was a puppy he was also fond of hats (my hubby’s) and shoes (mine) but he has outgrown that. We did crate train him as a pup and he loved it until he outgrew the crate. Now his favorite place to hang out is anyplace cave-like—under the end tables, behind the headboard, behind the chairs in the corner between the furniture, etc. I guess it feels like a cave or something. I read that the reason dogs like to sleep with their humans is because they see them as the alpha dog in one big dog pack.
Amen, sister.
When we first got our dog (terrier mix), we gave her the roam of the apartment while we were out, thinking she was pretty well behaved while we were there. Then the ol’ separation anxiety kicked in. When we’d come back, we’d have sworn we’d have been robbed. After about a month of that non-sense we broke down and got a crate for her. We were hesitant because we weren’t sure if we could get her to like it - is it cruel - etc.
That day has now been declared Sanity Day at the Batty ranch. And Daisy-Bob loves her crate. She fairly leaps into it every morning when we go to work.
The secrets (at least it worked for us) to crate training …
1 - Go slow - don’t just throw her in and lock the door on her. I spent two days playing with her inside the crate.
2 - Lot’s of positive reinforcement. If I were her I’d like it in there too. She never gets yelled at when she’s in her crate, and always gets a heaping helping of “good girls”
3 - Incentive - Her favorite chewy toy is her little rubber kong - she only gets it when she’s in her crate. It’s to the point now that when I get her kong from the shelf -zip- right into her crate, tail just a-waggin’.
Michi could probably tell you if this is prescribed training or if we just got lucky.
Oh yes My pup Buck ate the control for the digital cable the very first hour we had it. It cost me $50 to replace. I flavored the next one with a little bitter apple. it only took one taste to put him off of remotes forever.
