Golden retriever eating small rubber pieces

[John E.]

Good day people.

I have a problem that I think some of you might be able to help me with.
My girlfriend brought me a golden retriever puppy few days ago, so far everything has been pretty normal and common to a 14 weeks pup.

However this puppy seems to have a taste for rubber, let me explain. I do a lot of handwriting and of course sometimes I need to erase something I've wrote, as you all know when you erase something with your pencil eraser small pieces of rubber come of, and seems this pup got a taste for them and doesn't stop eating them.
Isn't in serious quantities of course but can I educate my puppy to stop eating this?

Thanks.

[McMegan]

Hi John,
Congratulations on the new puppy!

Dogs eat strange stuff for a wide variety of reasons - the causes can range from curiosity/boredom to dietary deficiencies to a condition known as "pica" (a medical disorder characterized by an appetite for substances largely non-nutritive; in dogs the most common form of this is coprophagia, or poop-eating). Retriever breeds in particular seem to put EVERYTHING in their mouths as puppies. Most of them grow out of it, mostly. Meanwhile, a couple things you can do to manage the behavior:

1. Consult with your vet to be sure your puppy's diet is providing sufficient vitamins and nutrients.
2. Restrict access so that your puppy is not able to persist in this behavior simply because it has no way of doing so. A behavior that goes unrewarded will often extinguish on its own. You may have to invest in a small hand-vac or make some changes to your writing area in order to do this.
3. Provide a plentiful supply of appropriate long-term chew toys such as stuffed kongs, bully sticks, reindeer antlers or old (clean) washcloths soaked in chicken broth and then frozen (provides relief for sore gums from teething).
4. Teach your puppy the "leave it" cue (I think one of the Paul Owens DVDs has a really good demonstration of this - his technique is by far the easiest and fastest to train that I have ever tried) and reward the pup for picking up appropriate things (such as toys) in its mouth.

Hope this helps!
Megan

[John E.]

Hi McMegan, thanks for the advice.
When I read your reply 9 days ago, I went ahead and did as you suggested:

- Used a small hand-vac to clean up the rubber pieces. Funny that then the pup always looked with a funny face at the vac, probably thinking "hey that was mine".
- Little after our pup realized he wouldn't get anymore rubber pieces he looked towards other things common inside a pencil-case, tried to get the whole rubber a couple times, of course I didn't let him.
- To curve his temptation towards rubber, I began to pick up a couple of this chewing toys that are usually around his crate and kept them with me at all times, so that when I see him around something trying to bite or chew it, I always give him the chew toy instead.
- The second toy I began placing it close to items he usually trying to chew or bite, and when I noticed he had used the toy instead of biting or chewing something else I give him a small frozen treat which he seems to like in hot days.
- I haven't done the vet checkup though, didn't seemed necessary since it was the vet himself who recommended the food in the first place and how much it should be given daily.
- Now about almost a week after, I see positive results. He doesn't chase my pencil-case or the rubber anymore and doesn't often tries to chew or bite anything else besides his chew toys. I guess that now with a bit of time he will get over it completely.

My greatest thanks Megan.

[McMegan]

Fantastic work, John! You did a really wonderful job addressing a bunch of factors and I'm very happy to hear that you're seeing good results. You have excellent instincts, as well - very, VERY good job rewarding him every time he picks up an appropriate toy!