Puppy eating everything he can find

[LozS87]

We have an 11 week old puppy, he’s been great and seems to have settled in so well, we’ve had him for two weeks.

He is on the correct amount of food for his breed/weight (and takes into account training treats throughout the day). He eats his food well.

However the issue is he’s also eating non food items really well too. In the house it’s fine as we’re obviously vigilant and make sure nothing is on the floor. But when we’re in the garden (we’re they’re a lot due to toilet training), he will literally eat anything he can find off the floor, random stones, soil, grass, sticks. I’m out in the garden with him, but he’ll run off if I try to go towards him to get whatever it is out his mouth. He also thinks it’s a game when I chase him but the alternative is just to let him eat these things! I’m not sure what to do. Maybe put him on his lead? But I’m unsure if this will actually teach him not to eat stones and it could mean toilet training takes a few steps back as he likes to have his own sniff around.

He’s well stimulated in the day and we play lots and he has so many chew toys, we go on walks where I carry him around as not had jabs yet, teach tricks etc., so I can’t think that it’s a boredom thing, but he won’t stop and I’m worried he’s going to make himself really ill.

Keep him on a long line, you could end up with an expensive operation if he eats the wrong thing.

Time to teach the "leave" command!

My dog was like this as a puppy.
We had more vet visits when he was under a year than since, touch wood!

I'd say a tiny bit of soil or leaves or grass whatever probably will be fine- but basically you do need to keep a really close eye on them when they are little and teach "LEAVE IT!" And reward them with a treat when they leave the stone/rubbish/disgusting thing.

I lived in a town centre when my dog was at this age and it was a nightmare with chicken bones etc on the pavements. You do have to be SO careful! But I do think training helps!

This is totally normal. I'd start putting him on lead on the garden so you have control when he tries to grab something. You also need to teach the "leave it" command.

"Leave it" was the second thing I taught after "sit" because I wanted my pup to have it nailed before her first walk. I knew she'd try eating random stuff otherwise.

You need super tasty treats to make them leaving an item worthwhile, I use the JR Paté diced into tiny little cubes.

A lab?

He needs to be on the lead in the garden - we didn't let ours have free run of the garden without use of a lead/longline until he was about a year old, maybe older - he just couldn't be trusted, even with supervision.

As PP said if he swallows something dangerous he could end up needing emergency surgery.

As others have said lead on in the garden always if you have a scavenger, they soon associate toileting with being on the lead anyway so toilet training won't be affected.

Ours is the same eats absolutely anything. No amount of 'leave' works, the only thing is to always have a biscuit in your pocket, coaxing a swap out of them tends to be effective.

My 15 week pup is exactly the same. I was most worried about slugs and snails before she had her wormer. I don't know if possible for you, but I bought gates from Amazon and gated off my patio from the rest of my jungle garden and it's really helped, as I can give it a visual sweep before I let her out.