At my wit's end with mulch eating

[kimbersmom]

Stormy loves to eat sticks, bark, and mulch. I've worked hard on "leave it" and we cleaned up most of the branches from our yard, which has helped. Well, I thought we had improved- and then last night at 3 am (of course) she yerked up a small pile of shredded wood! (That was especially lovely because you all may remember she likes to sleep under the covers with me, and I didn't get her out of the bed in time.)

Obviously, the bigger concern is that she could get an obstruction or injure herself eating this crap. It's rough because with spring, mulch is everywhere. She loves to grab a nibble whenever she can. Is there a way to make to mulch less appetizing to her? Put some bitter apple or tabasco on some, and hope she transfers the disgust to all mulch? I don't know. I'll keep redirecting her away from it, but I would love if she didn't seek it out.

[zd262]

Bubba used to eat mulch non stop. We did what you did, working on leave it and cleaning up the yard. Honestly he just grew out of it as he stopped teething and being a puppy putting everything in his mouth. I'm not sure what else you can do until then besides being careful and watching them closely.

[Sue-Ram]

Maybe use something like this. OutFox Field Guard OutFox Field Guard

Uses for the patented OutFox® Field Guard:

• Helps protect dogs’ eyes, ears, and noses from foxtail penetration.
• Helps prevent dogs from scavenging and eating harmful items.
• Helps protect dogs’ faces from insects such as flies and mosquitoes.

[kimbersmom]

Maybe use something like this. OutFox Field Guard OutFox Field Guard

Uses for the patented OutFox® Field Guard:

• Helps protect dogs’ eyes, ears, and noses from foxtail penetration.
• Helps prevent dogs from scavenging and eating harmful items.
• Helps protect dogs’ faces from insects such as flies and mosquitoes.

OMG! That would probably be effective, but I can't imagine putting that bag on her head every time she left the house, including potty breaks!

She's finished teething but maybe she'll continue to lose interest as she matures. Paws crossed...

[smartrock]

Oh, ha ha ha! I hadn't actually looked at the link until you said something about "that bag". Geez Louise! That's quite an invention. Lark did end up with obstruction surgery from eating mulch when she was about 8-9 months old. We tried Tabasco, sriracha, bitter apple- all nothing more than tasty condiments in her world apparently. She still gets into the mulch and chews sticks, haven't been able to deter her of that habit . Our back yard is full of trees whose main purpose it seems is to repopulate the stick supply on the ground. Henry is learning that bad habit also. I can play fetch and get him to run around and exercise for a good long time but as soon as the fun ends, it's back to the sticks. I wonder what my neighbors would think if my dogs were running around with those bags on their heads. Of course, with 2 of them, they wouldn't last long before they were yanked off and torn up.

[bmathers]

Diggity is a mulch and stick eater too. Just a few days ago, I put fencing up around my four young apple trees because he is particularly fond of those branches and has torn off quite a few of the lower ones. I am debating if I should put fencing around an area in my backyard where I have hydrangea bushes (that he also loves to eat) and a pretty large area of mulch where the bushes are planted. He sometimes goes out there and lies down in the mulch bed and just starts chowing down. Like you, I walk around the yard and pick up all the sticks the best I can, but it’s hard to stay ahead of that because I have big trees in the yard and they drop new sticks every day.

I also have two firewood piles under my deck and there must be chipmunks in there because his latest thing it so obsess over them. It’s a distraction from the mulch, but I have to watch him to make sure he doesn’t knock over one of the wood piles and get hurt. It’d be pretty hard to do because they’re tied down with a tarp over the top, but if anyone can do it, he could. :-)

I have no answers, but I can commiserate!


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[barry581]

All mine have been bad with sticks and mulch when they were pups. I basically cleaned up all the much I could, and put small fences around trees, bushes, etc to keep them from eating them. Sophie grew out of it at about 2, Bruce was maybe a year when he no longer ate this crap. Brooks will stick crunch up a stick if one falls in the yard, but he doesn't eat them. He also has a very good "leave it" and "drop it" now, but it took a lot of work and a lot of reps to get him to this point.

I'd do my best to limit access to the things Stormy wants to eat, and practice "leave it" and "drop it" a couple times per day, using a high value treat or toy as a reward, and always carry those things with you anytime you go out where she could get it these things.

One of the things I did with Brooks when he was little was he always had a check cord attached when we went outside in the yard. It allowed to to almost immediately enforce any command I gave him. I kept it on him until I was 99% certain he would do what I told him to, he was about a year old when I stopped using it.

[JackK]

Cassie was awful with eating sticks as a puppy and still likes to chew on them. I ended up buying a tow behind sweeper to clear the yard of small sticks and pine cones. I run it around the yard about once a month. Thank goodness she never took to eating mulch because I use 6 to 8 yards of it every year. I would have to put up a loudspeaker repeating "Leave It" every 5 seconds.

[Macy]

Macy ate a lot of pinecones, sticks and mulch when she was a puppy. I started scattering a few surprise toys in the yard and just leaving them out there. She was always delighted to find one. It didn't stop her love of sticks but it helped a lot.

[3labmom]

Toby does the same thing- mulch, pine cones, sticks- he loves them. Lumpy stopped at about 11-12 months.