Dog eating dirt

She is just obsessed with house plant soil to the point that we had to platform all of our plants. Then the other day she was playing outside and ate so much wet dirt that she became violently ill for a few hours-- to the point that I almost brought her to the animal hospital. What could cause a dog to eat this? She eats a very good diet of blue buffalo hard food mixed with merrick soft. I'm at a loss right now.

Re: Dog eating dirt

Mine does this too. Vet said its a taste and texture thing. He only does it when in our backyard never on walks. I just make sure the potted plants are away from him and weeds are pulled cuz he loves weeding between cement cracks for me lol. Just be especially careful. We had an outbreak of potted plant mushrooms and they are extremely poisonous and hard to control. So keep and eye on plants left outside

Re: Dog eating dirt

My dogs do this when they're bored and aren't getting enough exercise or mental stimulation. The key was doing something challenging that included us, instead of things like letting them out in the backyard for a while.

We play trained fetch, where they have to do commands before we throw it, have to come straight back to us and drop it right in front of us. Hide pieces of treats around the house and then command them to search. Hide their toy under an overturned garbage can so they have to knock it over to get it out. That kind of thing.

Of course nothing is better than the daily walk, but with the cold, we are only doing this once a day so we do all those other things to make up the difference. We don't let them out back for long periods, only for five minutes at a time, but more frequently throughout the day. So they spend more time sniffing around the yard than entertaining themselves by eating distasteful things

Re: Dog eating dirt

Posted by greenfreak

My dogs do this when they're bored and aren't getting enough exercise or mental stimulation. The key was doing something challenging that included us, instead of things like letting them out in the backyard for a while.

We play trained fetch, where they have to do commands before we throw it, have to come straight back to us and drop it right in front of us. Hide pieces of treats around the house and then command them to search. Hide their toy under an overturned garbage can so they have to knock it over to get it out. That kind of thing.

Of course nothing is better than the daily walk, but with the cold, we are only doing this once a day so we do all those other things to make up the difference. We don't let them out back for long periods, only for five minutes at a time, but more frequently throughout the day. So they spend more time sniffing around the yard than entertaining themselves by eating distasteful things

Re: Dog eating dirt

Posted by greenfreak

My dogs do this when they're bored and aren't getting enough exercise or mental stimulation. The key was doing something challenging that included us, instead of things like letting them out in the backyard for a while.

We play trained fetch, where they have to do commands before we throw it, have to come straight back to us and drop it right in front of us. Hide pieces of treats around the house and then command them to search. Hide their toy under an overturned garbage can so they have to knock it over to get it out. That kind of thing.

Of course nothing is better than the daily walk, but with the cold, we are only doing this once a day so we do all those other things to make up the difference. We don't let them out back for long periods, only for five minutes at a time, but more frequently throughout the day. So they spend more time sniffing around the yard than entertaining themselves by eating distasteful things