Tissue eating...

[Pigletpoglet]

Ddog2 has developed a penchant for eating used tissues. We live in a touristy rural area, so at this time of year there are loads of used tissues on and around paths where they have dropped out of people's pockets.
When he picks one up, the other 2 dogs think that it's a great game to chase him, so he swallows them fairly quickly. No harm so far, but it's getting to be every day, and it can't be good for him!
He is a retriever breed, so I don't know whether it will be easiest/best to work on bring it (and drop/swap for a treat), leave it, or drop it, or a mixture of all of them!
Any ideas?

My rottweiler also eats tissues!! And the stubborn *** will not drop!! Best to teach drop /swop ime!!

He ate a poo bag full of poo yesterday that some delightful person had chucked into the bracken. (watching carefully to check it comes out the other end!)

My retriever doesn't eat tissues, but will grab toilet roll, tissues, kitchen roll, paper etc if he gets a chance to and will shed them in to pieces. IV been working on 'leave it' with him with those items specifically and there has been an improvement with him.

Mine does the same. She is obsessed with them, to the extent she will raid pockets in the hope of finding them. Litter bins she might have access to have all been changed to the lidded variety to stop her raiding them. Why? I have no idea! She will eat the tissues, and you can never get them off her because she will disappear to an inaccessible spot. The only answer is to limit her access, and I am very aware of tissues on the pavement and steer her away. One of my tissues is one thing, but who wants to grapple with a dog for someone else's soiled tissue. Gross.
Oh, and she will also do the andrex puppy thing with loo rolls too, given a chance.
I have heard of other dogs having a similar obsession. I, too, would love to know what the attraction is.

Used tissues are definitely very high value... (not envy)

My pug loves nothing more than a snotty, soggy used tissue. He spots them a mile off. We live in quite a built up area and there are tons on the pavements and in the parks. He managed to find one in the middle of the New Forest.

He will not drop them, not even in exchange for a tasty treat. We try and pick our battles but I do worry about his stomach.

The more gross the tissue the less likely he is to leave it. He tried eating a used sanitary once and refused to drop it. I ended up grabbing it off of him because I really didn’t want him swallowing it. I have never washed my hands so thoroughly!

My cat keeps licking the toilet roll !

Mine knows the sound of a tissue being pulled from the box and comes hurtling onto the sofa when she hears it, then tries to rip the tissue out of my hand! I try and spot them on our walks to steer her around them, but it doesn’t always work. She had half a Costa napkin today before I could pull it out of her mouth.

Tissues and loo paper are about the only non food thing my dog eats. So I'm always very careful now with them. Fortunately they always seem to come out the other end.

Is there something about them that makes them attractive to dogs? The tissues can be clean or used but obviously the loo paper is clean.

I used to have a cat that would shred a whole box of tissues if he got the chance. I watched him once, out of interest, when he got hold of a just opened box. He clawed at them in a sort of frenzy until he'd managed to remove and shred everyone of them.

Well it seems like we are not alone! I'm heartened by the lack of 'my dog ate a tissue and it cost £3000 in vets bills' stories anyway. Think I might try and work on his retrieve (of non-tissue related objects), work on 'drop it', then build up to dropping and retrieving tissues...

My dog can sniff out a used condom at 50 yards. There is one particular park near me that I have learnt to avoid.... and I carry poo bags and a little packet of wet wipes at all times, you never know what you might need to dispose of. Gross (and likely to be more dangerous than a used tissue if eaten).

Ballet dancers eat tissues as they are starving. Tissue paper is just cellulose and goes straight through. I’ve never heard of it causing a blockage in dogs (or ballerinas)

That's good to know. I'm still not keen on him eating too many though!!