Does your doodle eat potentially harmful items?

[Kim]

I'm worried about Riley because he eats EvERYTHING. He doesnt care if it's food or not. When anyone drops anything he will grab it and run before you can pick it up. After our walks I've taken nails, screws, perperclips and many more objects out of his mouth. I'm afraid it's just a matter of time before he swallows something harmful that he can't pass. Any advice? I don't know what to do at this point. He's 1 year and 8 months old. Do you think he'll grow out of it?

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

We are discussing this very thing in my blog:http://www.doodlekisses.com/profiles/blogs/is-there-anything-she-wo..., come join us. BTW...Do you have pet insurance?

[Lauria Orr]

I was just going to mention pet insurance....one of my dog trainers told me today that he has used pet insurance a lot because of this...that his dog would eat things that usually passed, but there have been a couple of occasions that he required surgery. Do you think carrying one of those moose antlers along with you on a walk would help?  It sounds like the dogs love them.

[Eva]

Pet Insurance #1 to get because it will only be a matter of time before he does inject something harmful unfortunately. Then dog obedience classes, where they will learn  the command leave it and drop it. It's so worthwhile and could save his life. Best of luck .

[Linda and "Toby"]

I had to laugh when I saw Sue's reply about the pet insurance. That's the first thing I thought of when I read this post - lol! I got Pet Plan after a $1,600 vet bill for what we thought was an abdominal obstruction. Turns out, Toby had already vomited or passed whatever was making him so ill. FYI: Pet Plan came highly recommended by several friends. See: http://www.gopetplan.com 

I've had 2 dogs in the past that were like goats (they ate everything from Barbie dolls dresses to tube socks), so I know what you're going through. Both of mine outgrew it (other than eating the socks). Spraying "Bitter Apple" on everything helped a lot!

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Oh yes, Getting very solid "Leave it" and "Drop it" or "OUT" could be life savers, or at least surgery savers. I am very firm on these three. She has Leave it down pretty good now so I am moving on to drop it or out along with the leave it if I don't get to her or see her pick something up in time. I have put my hands down her throat so many times that my daughter said tonight "She must be pretty used to that because she doesn't even try to get away from you"  Yep, it's a pretty common occurance around here.

[Lauria Orr]

The training will be very helpful, if you are able to catch him in the act, you can save a lot of grief.  I hope he out grows this.  I know it has to be worrisome. When going for walks, you can probably stop some of this.  I wonder if you may need to muzzle him for walks, if he is picking up items that could cause him harm.  Would that help?

[Kim]

Thank you all for your great suggestions. I think we need to go back to training.