My doodle loves to eat and swallow socks, among other things!

[Susan Ternoski]

My dog Dunkin loves to eat and swallow articles of clothing, especially socks. We already had to take him to the animal hospital for an overnight visit from swallowing an unknown object.  Does anyone else have this problem? If so, how do I stop it from happening?

Susan

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

This is a huge problem and one of the reasons we have so many discussions here on Pet Insurance.  Hopefully you have it for your Dunkin! I think one thing would be to teach "drop it".  So at least if you catch him you will be able to get him to drop it rather than immediately swallow it.  The other thing is to just become better and keeping these type of things out of his reach.  I always claim responsibility for getting our original two doodles to stop counter surfing.  However, I think what we really did was just become better at not having anything left out on the counters for them to surf for!  We have a new puppy right now as well.  I find that I'm much better about putting my shoes away and not leaving socks lay around because although I haven't yet seen any signs of chewing or eating I know it is a possibility.  It is hard, particularly if you happen to have littler ones around.  I would also restict his access to most areas of the house with doggie gates and things like that so you only have to worry about a small area being puppy proof.  As he becomes more reliable and learns to leave those things alone  you can make the area larger.

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

My Sasha does not chew or swallow clothing until the other day I saw her poop and she pooped out  a orange hair scrunchie (sp)  !!! and she never does anything like that !!!!

My Oliver is some what of a thief so I keep all items out of reach or behind closed doors.  Its a MUST, after a while you just get into the habit of not leaving anything out that they can get into.

[Tammy and Violet]

Violet is the same...always have the best treat handy that Dunkin loves ...and do a swap.. I say .. leave it and reward her....she is fast though and can jump up higher that a kangeroo....I try to keep all bad objects out of her way .. not always the easiest !

[Heather & Brinkley]

Doodles are infamous for being sock snatchers.  Brinkley steals them but he doesn't eat them-- he just shreds them in about 1.5 seconds.  Don't get in the habit of "chasing" him to get the sock back.  I did this at first and Brinkley learned that stealing a sock 1) got my attention; 2) we got to play a fun game of chase.  We've had to work hard on the "drop it" and "leave it" command.  He's getting better.  And I try to keep everything out of reach that could become a shredded victim.

[Adrianne Matzkin]

Pet Insurance is a must!!  Ask your vet how much hydrogene peroxide is appropriate for your doodles weight so if this happens again, you get it into him and he will vomit it up and avoid real problems for him. Our vet told us to give her HP, 1/3 of a cup. If she doesn't vomit give it again in 15 minute intervals up to 3 times. If she doesn't vomit then we go to the vet. 

You have to get on your hands and knees and see what they see and clean it up. I live with 4 - the newest and youngest, Niña, is the only one that does this. This was done in about an hour - huge hole in Ugg boots and a bra shredded. Expensive lesson for my daughter to learn. She is also a counter surfer so meat is defrosted in a cold oven and nothing is left on the counters that she could eat.