My 7 month old staff will eat anything! She is fed Nature diet as its the only dog food she will eat, and she loves a raw bone as a treat. But she will eat, not just chew EAT carpet, shoes, wood, soil, grass, plants, socks, well just about anyting!! Obviouslty we do our best to prevent her hetting hold of things like this, but sometimes she sneaks one in!

Our concerns are that it may harm her, sometimes ,withourt being too graphic, she gets things stuck in her behind when she tried to open her bowels and we are left with the rather grim task of pulling it out, yuk! Can anyone advise me of a way to stop this habit of hers, and is it likely to harm her? As I said we do try our best to stop her, but she occassionally gets hold of the odd thing. Thanks.

Helen

Heen
I would be careful when trying to *pull the things out of her behind* as depending on what it is you could actually cause her some harm . :(
I know what you mean though as Gus once ate part of an old trainer and a piece came out the other end :(

Hi Lel

Believe me its not something I do with great enthusiasm! Sometimes she gets some cloth or string stuck and she shivers and gets quite upset if she cant pass it herself. On the odd occassion Ive had to help her out by gently pulling the offending article to remove it. Id leave it to the vet if it looked to be anything harmful. :)

My concern is mostly, what all this could be doing to her insides? Shes such a fussy eater when it comes to dog food, yet she'll happily eat a sock! She actually ate the heel off a welly boot the other night! I know dogs will often chew inappropriate things if they get the chance, but is it normal for them to EAT them? I have removes as much stuff from her reach as I can but sometimes the kids might leave a cuboard open or a door and she'll get hold of something she shouldnt (like my best shoes!) how can I control her urge to eat non food things? HELP!

Hello
I do not know your opinions on crating/caging but really feel that this is an option you should consider for at least the short term in order to ensure the safety of your dog.
When you are not there to supervise what your dog is getting up to and what objects he is choosing to eat then at least in a cage you know he only has his food and water (in metal bowels :-) ). Maybe after a while of him not being able to eat anything other than his food he will get over his addiction for non-food objects?
If you do decide to give this a try make sure you get a metal bottomed cage not one with a plastic tray as I know of a staffie bitch thet died as a result of eating the plastic cage bottom :-(.
Edit: oops should have written this in the feminine as it is a girl - sorry :-)

yuk@ pulling string out of bums...lol...been there done that!.

We taught our girls when they chewed something up they spit the bits out. Mostly their toys, if we saw them pull a bit off we'd ask for it and they'd drop it. They did the same with toilet rolls and anything they chewed. They weren't chewers of non-doggy things thank goodness, but it did keep nasty stuff from goign through them all the same. We would just have a pile of chewed off bits to pick up LOL!

Ideally she shouldn't get into stuff - and the best way to keep her safe is to crate her as someone has already suggested, but if you can teach her to spit out bits it should do well for those times you can't see her doing something.

Wendy