Eating Everything!!

[Katie & Mr. Bodhi]

Hi all! My 10 week old goldendoodle cant seem to stop eating small things. We are especially having trouble while outside. He gets so distracted and goes after the grass and leaves. He also is not pooping well, as if he is having trouble going. His poop looks ok when he does go, just a little green. Does anyone have any suggestions to help out or can you relate? Thanks!!

[Jen, Lachlan, and Declan]

I wish I could tell you how to "fix" this, Katie, but I live with the kings of "if it fits in the mouth it must be edible." Forget grass and leaves, they're just an appetizer. Shrubbery is the salad. The back deck? Main course, given half a chance. I'm pretty sure I never told them that rocks make a nice side dish, either. And I just removed an unmentionable article of clothing from Declan's mouth not five minutes ago. No, I didn't leave it on the floor. It was actually hanging over the grooming table arm. (Whatever you do, do NOT picture my house! *giggle*)

Goldendoodles are retrievers on both sides (Poodle and Golden Retriever) and they're very mouth-oriented. It's how they explore their world. How that translates into "and the whole world is edible" I don't know. I just look at it as an exercise program: Leap up, remove foreign object from mouth, replace with legal object ... 30 times a day! *grin* It does get better over time, I promise.

The pooping issue, I'd have a word with his vet just to be on the safe side.

[Tasia Lung]

I definitely agree that it has more to do with the "retriever" in them than them necessarily wanting to eat something.  Maggie has always been the same way.  Fortunately, she doesn't chew on things she finds and rarely swallows them (anymore), but she puts her mouth on EVERYTHING! She loves retrieving, it's kind of hilarious actually.  Every night when she's ready for bed and we haven't yet headed in that direction she will go in our bedroom and get her bed and bring it into the living room to sleep on while we watch tv.  When she was a few months old she retrieved everything she could find one day and made a pile in the living room, including pulling wine bottles out of our cabinet and dragging them in.  It's cute so I have a hard time getting mad, but I understand the frustration.  I would agree to constantly replace bad objects with appropriate objects, even with outside and make working on the command "drop it" or "leave it" a priority......after all that command can save a life! Good Luck!