We have a 12 week old Springer Spaniel puppy. Who has developed a liking to the Bark Chips we have in our borders. Every time we loose him into the garden (even before going to the loo) he runs to the borders for a chip to munch on. I have lost count how many times I've had my hand in his mouth retrieving these. Does anyone out there know if these things are harmful? There are no warnings on the bag. If need be I'll take them up, but we have a fair sized garden and we put 23 bags of the things down in early April, before we decided to get a dog.

Bark chips (assuming they are the normal untreated variety) as far as I know have no risk attached (unlike cocoa shell which contains thremobamine (sp?) and can be poisonous to dogs in relatively small qtys. :( )
However he may well be continuing to do it as he is being rewarded by attention from you as you remove itfrom his mouth. Instead of doing this you could try clapping your hands to get his attention, then calling him to you, asking him to 'sit' and then giving him a quick reward - this should get his attention away from chip chomping!

My working cocker also went through a bark chip phase but he seemed to get bored with them quite quickly, after that he went onto a plant phase then a flower pot phase.....I could go on. My springer loves to dog up the bark chips and roll in them, she gets them stuck in her coat and then tears through the house and sprinkles them on my carpet. I also looked into wether the bark chips were dangerous but they appeared OK as long as they weren't treated. What we did find handy was putting some rocks throughout the beds this stopped the gang from sitting in the beds and then plotting ways to rearrange them and make them more comfy. I am jealous of your puppy, my 2 springers are all grown up and sensible now, springers are the cutest puppys so just enjoy your puppy, they grow up far too fast and trust me when I say you have alot more fun ahead of you, this board is handy and there are loads of springer fans out there full of hints and tips.