Does anyone else have a GSD or other breed, with a passion for stones & boulders? Today Zak picked a boulder up on his walk & must have carried it for half a mile. He seems so proud when he is carrying it, the one today had his jaws stretched to the limit.  

The odd thing is that his retrieve is useless. He does not like carrying balls or especially a dumbell.

I asked my trainer at my obedience club about it. He thinks it's strange behaviour. Zak has even been known to pick a house brick up, he doesn't chew them or lick them for the minerals (just incase anyone wondered). Any ideas or similar experiences?

I did wonder if he would be allowed to retrieve a stone instead of a toy in competitions. 

A guy I often meet on walks has a GSD that will only play fetch with very large stones.  He syas has tried all sorts of toys and balls but the dog is only interested in stones

Maybe it's a GSD thing? :)

Our Golden Retriever is a stone collector as well - will chase a ball and pick it up but won't carry it but stones or pine cones he will carry for miles. I try to discourage the stones as he, unknowingly to me ( doesn't sound grammatically correct), swallowed a large one which he deposited back on the kitchen floor fortunately

Awwwwww that brings back such a bittersweet memory :(

My lasting memory of my first shepherd is of him on the beach trying to pick up a boulder and getting very cross with it because it was too heavy to lift! He was positively swearing at it!!! He so made me laugh when he did this......:)

Sadly he died just a couple of days later and it was a long time before I could bring myself to walk on that beach again.

Yes, I think its a "shepherd thing"

My two staffies love playing with stones, they bring them in and hide them in basket then in night start to throw them around the kitchen :)
The amount of nights ive woken up thinking someones breaking in but no just my two crazy girls, not swallowed any yet (that i know of) you should hear them whine when i put them in bin or over fence, its quite funny you would think i dont buy them toys :)

Hi Debs

Thats just what Zak does, if the boulder is too big for him to lift it, the noises he makes sound like he is being tortured. I often wonder what people think when they hear him! He doesn't pick small ones up, so I don't have to worry about him swallowing anything.

Our Golden does a similar thing on the beach, she takes a stone from the water or just on the edge and moves it up the beach then drops it where it's safe from the waves.  If I let her she'll carrying on doing this for ages. :rolleyes:

My crossbreed does this when she goes to the beach too - she picks up stones and rocks from the shallow parts of the water then deposits them on the shore. She feels it's her duty to save the poor rocks from the nasty water :D
She never usually plays with stones, it's just when they're in the water she has to save them :rolleyes:

my staffy plays with stones on the beach too.  She won't touch them anywhere else and loves to carry massive ones around and goes diving in the sea to retrieve stones off the bottom of the water.  She gets so into it she neighs like a horse and it can be heard from quite a distance.  A little bit embarrassing but she's so cute she gets away with it.

I bet he is showing off to the others!! :D
Look how strong I am! :D:D:D:D
sorry couldn't resist that!! :D

My GSD Jack loves stones what ever size!  The small ones he likes to move them around his mouth, he'll do this laid in the garden for quite a while. 

He has been known to pick up half a house brick and carry it home!!! :rolleyes:

My brothers gsd x will play 'fetch' with stones for hours! she's never tried to eat or swallow one, and can pick out that particular thrown stone from all the others in the garden (we know cos we marked one once to test her :) ) Have to be careful though because once someone threw one and she caught it, chipped her tooth
My leos love to chew bricks and the over hanging slabs on the patio :rolleyes: and think nothing of moving the big rocks from the garden to one place or another :)

Our Border Collie used to do this years ago. If you kicked a stone she would chase it, not balls just stones, If you ignored a stone she had set her heart on she would just stand and stare at it until you went back to kick it for her.

Our gordon also had a bit of a stone fetish a few months ago, she would bring them in from the garden and chuck them up an down the hall for ages! Then she discovered the joys of Christmas Baubles - and we had a tree stripped of baubles (plastic ones fortunately) up to setter height :D Haven't found any stones around for a while now actually.

I think this has something to do with the pleasure that some guarding, fighting breeds have in the bite. A rock is heavy and pulls on the jaw. If you play tug, you can see them almost drift off to sleep as they lean back against the pull, it's memsmerising for them, like a child that sucks it's thumb. I guess walking home after a nice walk, it's nice to relax?

My 12 1/2 year old Golden still stone collects, especially if she is in water. Will feel for them with her feet then dive down and retrieve them then bring them back to shore.

One of my TT's regularly brings a stone home and guards it like treasure.  The other youngsters then try to get it off her and a game is started.  A soft toy or ball does not have the same effect.  I have no idea why she does this.