How to get a dog to stop chewing rocks

February 23, 2016 By Marc Morrone   petxperts2@aol.com

Marc Morrone and his Yorkshire terrier, Corina. (Credit: Bruce Gilbert)

Q. I have a 1 1/2-year-old purebreed black Labrador and we have a problem with him playing with and swallowing rocks. He already had surgery to remove one rock, but he will still go outside and look for more. What can I do to stop him from eating or playing with rocks? --Nicole Kearns, Valley Stream

A. You would think that with all the dog toys available these days that a dog could find something better than a rock to play with, but your situation is more common then you may think. I, too, had such a dog, and I actually named him Rocky. He had two such surgeries like your dog did and actually broke off many of his teeth in his quest for rocks. I even tried to rid my yard of rocks, but we lived on the North Shore at the time and this was not possible.

I tried every toy available to distract him from rocks and nothing worked until I noticed the way he pounced on a potato that rolled out of the cabinet one day. He grabbed it and carried it about with the same intensity that he did with a rock. So before I let him out into the yard the next day, I scattered a bunch of big potatoes around the yard. He sought them out and grabbed them and put them in a pile and chewed on them and ate them and spent so much time and energy with them that he got tired and went to sleep among them.

After that I always let him seek out potatoes that I hid for him first like Easter eggs, and he never bothered with rocks again. I do not know how nutritious eating a raw potato is for a dog, but they never hurt him and certainly we never had to pay for potato removal surgery. The only downside is that all summer long we had potato plants popping up all over the yard. I cannot say if this would work for your dog, but it did work for Rocky.

Q. I adopted a dog in November. She is a sweet, shy dog, about 3 years old, 30 pounds and appears to be a Sheltie/Aussie mix. I was told she was pulled from a no-kill shelter upstate and was a fear runner. I have an older Sheltie and three cats (she gets along with all). I’m retired and have a fairly quiet house. She has settled in but is a difficult dog to live with. She runs when she sees the leash or even hears me move it but seems to enjoy walks or going out to the yard. I take off the leash once she is in the yard, but she is difficult to hook up to return to the house. She will not eat in the kitchen with the others and will bolt from the room at any unexpected noise — a dog bark, dish drop or even if I turn the pages of the newspaper or move a plastic bag. Sometimes she just paces between two areas she seems to deem safe before she will settle on one.

I gate the stairs. Otherwise she would stay upstairs on my bed all day. My brother takes her for an afternoon walk almost every day and she will relax in his arms while he reads the paper and sometimes even falls asleep. But she will not come to greet him and he has to carry her in to sit with him. About a month ago we thought we were making progress as she did come into the kitchen and sat next to him after about 30 minutes of taking a few steps forward and running back to her couch. It was almost agonizing to watch her try to come in, but we felt she had turned the corner. She did it for a day or two but did not continue.

She will sit next to me with coaxing and then I can put her in my lap to watch TV, but if I try to sneak the leash on her for a bedtime walk she runs and gets frantic all over again. She doesn’t mind the other animals resting near her. I praise any positive action. She appears to have had some training. She walks well on a leash but must always walk on your left side. When she gets in the door she immediately sits to have the leash taken off and then runs to one of her safe spots. I give her a treat but it takes her a few times of running back and forth before she will take it.

I would really hate to return her as she is a sweet dog so I’m trying to be patient and find a solution. -- Peggi McGrath, Mineola

A. She sounds like a very polite dog who just likes to avoid anything that may lead to drama. It actually sounds as if you have the situation well in hand as she is more relaxed with you and your brother now than when you first got her. There are a few pointers:

1. Do not offer her treats from your hand as it involves too much conflict in her mind. Just drop a treat on the ground and then step back a bit. When you take her outdoors it would be easier if you used one of those leashes that extend out from the hand-held container 30 feet or so that she can amble about the yard but then by just gently reeling her in you can avoid the confrontation of trying to catch her to put the lead back on her. Before you do reel her in just call her and drop some treats on the ground and step back so that she then can feel free to come to you with no fear of whatever happened to her in her past. Then when she has come close to you can reel in the slack lead and just walk back into the house.

2. You can try to sit on the floor in the house to call her to you to put the lead on indoors as she will feel that this is less of a threat then chasing her down like you have to do now, but you also have to understand that she evolved these behaviors to survive better in her past life for whatever reason and they have become almost instinctive by now, so they are very hard to get rid of.

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