Convicted Sock Eater

[Michele Ghee]

Larry is obsessed with socks...... eating socks especially. I am trying everything to keep them out of his reach. But with 4 boys and a husband, one occasionally gets misplaced. This dog can sniff them out of any nook! So far he has thrown them up, but I know how dangerous this can be to him. Any suggestions? We are starting obedience training and I have been working with him on "leave it"! It works for everything but socks.

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

Perhaps sit your family down and relate the horrible stories (of which there are many) of dogs that have suffered horrible deaths due to swallowing socks. I am sorry that I don't have a nicer or easier solution but it is heartbreaking to read the sadness that follows such an event. A sock thrown on the floor can and does end in pain and death.

[jenn D]

Hi there. I can relate here. Jake likes to eat socks. He has thrown up so many and with each one I've relayed horror stories to my family. While they didn't like to hear them it really didn't help. Two things have worked but let me warn you, our Jake will probably always be a sock, napkin, Kleenex, hair tie addict. First, I do my best to wear Jake out. Lots of exercise. This reduces but does not eliminate his desire to find and chew these items. Second I had to retrain my familysnd create a new habit. I set up 4 jars that I would put money in if my kids would put up their socks or hair things or napkins. If they left it out it was fair game for anyone in The family to pick up and put away. If they did it themselves they got money in their jar, (DH got a coupon for back rub, foot rub, me to make him his favorite treat, etc). If someone else had to do it, they got to take money from the offenders jar. This made it a game and they were more likely to develop the habit. I also made them put on gloves and clean up a throw up incident with their sock or hair thing. I still do my share of picking up others stuff to make sure Jake will be safe. But we've been lucky, Jake has not had a blockage and thank goodness he is still here. And there are no more sock incidents and my house is straighter given the new rules. Good luck. :)

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Great suggestion re making 'keeping things picked up' a game, jenn!

[Adina P]

Those are some fun ideas. My youngest is only 3 and doesn't quite think through where a dog can reach, so he's still a work in progress on the sock putting away. He doesn't get the seriousness really. Boca is our sock thief. She only takes kids socks or small ones and really "drops"anything if caught. But she's sneaky.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

I have a sock retriever but not eater.

You and your family  need to have a meeting.   Bring with you all the pictures of dogs and the horror stories of death and surgery.   

We have too many stories of death, necrotic intestines,  and $3,000 surgeries!

Get your point across to them because his life depends on you!

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

I can see where you understand and are concerned about this problem.  Somehow this needs to get through to DH and the kids.  I'm sorry, but DH is just old enough to know the consequences of this.  The kids however are another story.  I'm not sure how old they are, but possibly you could sit them all down and let them watch this video of the surgery that is required for an intestinal blockage.  No one should want to see their dog go through this.  And this guy was lucky, many don't make it.  That solution aside, where is he getting the socks?  Is it in their room?  If so, possibly gate the hallway to the bedrooms so the doodle can't get back there.  I would do anything and everything if I had a sock eater.  Easy for me to say as I don't have one.  Good luck.  I hope you find a solution

http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A0LEVicWZONUMWUAJoUPx...

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Wow, what a handsome dog.  Best Wishes to you. I know you are concerned.  Pups change and the chewing does become less for many.   

[Michele Ghee]

Thank you!

[Wendy and Myla]

I don't have any advice as to what you can do except to definitely get insurance if you don't already!  When I was phoning different insurance companies for information, at least two of them told me that retriever crosses were known to be sock eaters.  Luckily Myla isn't one and I can truly understand that it would be a really frustrating problem to prevent.  Would spraying a few socks left on the ground with bitter apple spray deter him?  Or maybe use the startle tactic (where you throw a can of pennies or pebbles near him when he goes to grab a sock - but make sure he doesn't know it's you throwing it)?? 

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Oscar is our sock eater (as well as anything else that he can swallow) and it's just my DH and me here so when he gets one its a big mystery, because we don't consciously leave socks lying around. Once, Lucy dug socks out if my sock drawer (one of which ended up in Oscar). Another time he threw up 2 identical men's socks, so it was obvious he'd eaten them as a pair. We had no clue how he'd gotten them though. Wet wipes make a regular appearance in Oscar's poo, and each and every time I find them, DH and I have another talk about making sure those are thrown away immediately and not left on a dog-accessible table. Even with due diligence, we're human and make mistakes. We do have pet insurance, thankfully!

[Michele Ghee]

Thank you so much for all the replies. We do try so very hard to keep things up. All of us know the importance. However it still happens. For example, my youngest was getting ready yesterday. He was putting on one sock and the other was on the sofa. Larry quickly snatched the sock on the sofa and ran down the hallway. Thankfully we caught him. Today I have been placing socks around him and giving the "leave it" command. He is receiving treats for the good behavior. However, he is very smart and an opportunist. As we diligently work on keeping things up, I do need to look into pet insurance. Any suggestions? Also any other training ideas are welcomed.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

In addition to "leave it" you could work on "drop it" as well.  Find something really yummy that he can't resist and only use it for the "drop it" command.  As for Pet Insurance the two most popular IMO are Pet Plan (which is what we have) and Healthy Paws.  You can do a search in the search box (top right corner on the main page) for Pet Insurance and find many conversations over the last few years on why some prefer one over the others.