Why does my dog eat wood chips?
This is a question that we often get from sitters and owners who work with Rover. Help the community out by answering them in our forum!
1 Answer
The two most common reasons for this are learned behavior (watching another dog do it) and boredom. If your dog doesn't have enough to keep his/her attention when out in the yard, they can resort to chewing on random and inappropriate objects. Try to engage your dog in games that he/she likes (like fetch) and make sure to redirect whenever they're eating something inappropriate. Yelling "no" as they're chewing on the inappropriate object, replacing it with an appropriate one and then praising the heck of of them for redirecting is a really effective method. Dogs are people pleasers, so the more you praise them for what you WANT them to do, they'll learn to act appropriately. Also, any sort of barrier to keep them away from unwanted objects can help break that cycle and get them to focus on appropriate outdoor activities.