# why do my dogs eat grass?



## schpeckie (Jun 29, 2010)

I think everyone can relate to this question and it doesn't matter what breed. I phoned into a local pet talk show one day, and the reason why they eat grass is a behavour problem. They love the taste of it and then throw up. The vet said that in order to avoid this is to just scold them not to do it. My girls do the same thing - like a bunch of cows in the backyard!


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## sarpoodle (Dec 26, 2011)

The cause generally falls into one of three possibilities. The first, as already mentioned, can be an upset stomach. Eating the grass helps the dog to vomit. The other reason can be thirst. If a dog is really thirsty, and has limited or no access to water, they will turn to eating grass as some means of ingesting moisture. For instance, if you limit your dogs to no water at night, and haven't yet set out a water bowl in the morning before letting them potty, they may eat the grass because of thirst. Neither of these cases are behavioral. They are physiological. 

The third can be displacement. The dog may be avoiding something, experiencing anxiety, or has a conflict internally about what it should be doing next. The dog wants to do something, but because of the conflict, resorts to doing some other behavior, but at an inappropriate time, or out of the proper context of the situation. Another common displacement is ground sniffing and yawning, just to name a few. This is a behavioral problem.

An extreme example of this happened to a friend of mine about a month ago. Her lab put a piece of rebar through her right paw. At first the extent of the injury was not fully apparent, but by the next morning, the dog had chewed all of the fur off of her left paw. The vet misdiagnosed the problem, but prescribed some antibiotic, anti-inflammatory and pain meds. These meds reduced the swelling and pain sufficiently that the dog was able to chew on the actual, injured paw. This revealed where the real injury was (a deep infection in one of the toes on the right paw; she wound up losing that claw, and almost had to have the toe amputated off). This was a form of displacement, in that she chewed her uninjured paw because she was not able to address the one she had hurt.

Another example happened to my dog Saydee. A colleague and I were training, and she was playing with Saydee using a toy at the end of a buggy whip. The whip accidentally wrapped around Saydee's leg, and when my friend pulled hard on it, it hurt Saydee. She did manage to finish the exercise however. Two days later, I met this friend again, and when it came time for her to play with Saydee, my dog started to sniff the ground, yawn and shake (same way a dog does when it's wet), and completely avoided my friend. I took the toy, and played with Saydee and she did just fine. We recognized right away that Saydee was displacing, and my friend was the trigger because of the previous incident; poodles have VERY long term memories, and can hold a grudge for a long time. Over the next few days, Saydee's behavior worsened, and she extended her avoidance to more of my teammates whom I train with. It took me about a week of solid, one on one training to get her back into a good state of mind. After that, she returned to her previous level of training, and then improved by orders of magnitude.

Whenever a dog is displacing (the behavior is normal, but the context in which it is being performed is not appropriate), you need to determine what is triggering it. Scolding or disciplining the dog is not necessarily the best thing to do. You could be adding to the conflict, and actually wind up amplifying the problem. Obviously, dogs can't talk directly to us, and this is one of the ways in which they communicate. If the dog is trying to communicate, and you aren't listening, but instead scolding him, think about the impact that will have. They are confused or in conflict about something, and you need to determine why.

Now, in your case, I'm not saying that your dogs are displacing. There isn't enough information here to make that sort of determination. However, in order to answer your question fully, I wanted to spell it all out. It could very well be that there is a physiological reason for your dogs eating grass. If they aren't displacing, then a correction may be appropriate. But if that isn't solving the problem, you'll want to look deeper into why they are doing it.

Greg


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## Joelly (May 8, 2012)

DH quizzed the vet one day about this. Charlie starts doing this at 12 weeks old and he threw up big time right after. Surprisingly, my vet said it is okay if the dog eat grass. The vomit maybe caused by something else. As long as that the grass is not the only thing they eat, thats fine.


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## paisley pup (Jul 12, 2012)

Thanks Greg that's alot of good info.I actaully don't have water in our room at night when we sleep! Ill start kepping a water bowl upstairs for them.I had no idea!I've always kept water constant throughout the day and just never thought to keep a bowl in our room for bedtime.


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## paisley pup (Jul 12, 2012)

Also they don't throw it up


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## Joelly (May 8, 2012)

sarpoodle said:


> The third can be displacement. The dog may be avoiding something, experiencing anxiety, or has a conflict internally about what it should be doing next.


This is very interesting. So he eats grass to avoid feeling anxiety. I wish Charlie would do that instead of barking at everything that passes us by.

Also interesting about the long memory, I do wish Charlie has long memory because he is not as discipline as when he was younger and he is just 4 months old. I guess he is getting into that difficult teenage phase.


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## sarpoodle (Dec 26, 2011)

Joelly said:


> This is very interesting. So he eats grass to avoid feeling anxiety. I wish Charlie would do that instead of barking at everything that passes us by.


Well, the dog displaces because of anxiety, stress or conflict. Not knowing what to do with it, the dog then engages in some other behavior.

As for barking, I think Charlie probably just likes running his mouth, lol. He's responding to stimulation, and that's something you can help him to deal with. Poodles are extremely alert by their very nature. It's part of the reason why they make such excellent watchdogs. They just insist on telling us about every bird, dog, person, creek of the floor, closing of a door, fluttering of a trashbag, etc. It's up to us to help them stay calm when it's not appropriate to bark. A tall order indeed. Imagine my situation. Saydee is a working dog, and I actually trained her to bark. Ultimately, she is supposed to bark at me when she finds a missing person. In order to get to that point, I encourage her to bark for certain things, such as her toy when we play. In fact, I need her to run up to me and unleash a verbal assault of barking. To build this up, I will sit there clutching her toy and yell "what!" after each of her barks until she gives up a string of 15 or more barks. While teaching her this, I never really discouraged her barking, and believe you me, she is a very mouthy girl. Now, she needs to start learning some manners, and well, that is not without its problems. When I take her into stores as a service dog in training, and she wants to visit with a person, and I say no, she will bark. Oops! She'll sort out the different contexts eventually, but it can be annoying. However, she is doing exactly what I taught her, lol.



Joelly said:


> Also interesting about the long memory, I do wish Charlie has long memory because he is not as discipline as when he was younger and he is just 4 months old. I guess he is getting into that difficult teenage phase.


Believe me, poodles remember stuff. What they do with it is a different proposition. They aren't like labs. You can do something to a lab, and they will typically shrug it off, and act like nothing ever happened. They are much harder in that respect, especially for a non-confrontational breed. Because of their intelligence, a poodle will hold onto that knowledge, and let it thoroughly marinate in their little brain. That's why it is particularly critical with this breed to avoid anything that will break down your dog's trust in you. Until they mature enough, problems need to be dealt with in a profoundly positive manner by redirection, etc. Once they are old enough, then you can start giving stronger corrections if that's the route you decide to go.

Greg


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

All of our dogs graze on grass. When kibble fed, when raw fed. They usually go after it voraciously after they play a bit outside. Fresh water is always available...And Mil likes to dunk her head in it to cool off.

The other day Mil took a huge bite of of SOIL! I figured she must just be thirsty...why she didn't go to the water bowl? Who knows...

The only reason any of this concerns me is because we do treat our lawn.


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## sarpoodle (Dec 26, 2011)

CharismaticMillie said:


> The only reason any of this concerns me is because we do treat our lawn.


Yeah, that's an excellent point. Like anything with dogs, behaviors that start for one logical reason when not addressed can become an out right habit. Breaking that can be way hard. Not necessarily applicable to your situation; just wanted to make the point.

Who knows. Maybe your grass just tastes that good! LOL.

Greg


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## LEUllman (Feb 1, 2010)

Beau not only eats grass, he's quite the gourmet, searching diligently for a clump of just the right color, consistency, or some other X factor only he can define. I normally don't worry about this behavior, except when he wakes me up at 3 AM and instead of a quick pee, he rambles about the yard on a grass grazing expedition.


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## Joelly (May 8, 2012)

Saydee sounds like a very cool dog. Working dog is so cool. 

Yes, I do have to train Charlie some manners. I am working on it. I have to admit I can't be the one training him as I don't have the patient and I tend to forgive him anything. DH said I babied the dog. So someone has to train him and then train me too.


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## Lily's-Mom (May 31, 2012)

LOL @ LEUllman 
_"Beau not only eats grass, he's quite the gourmet, searching diligently for a clump of just the right color, consistency, or some other X factor only he can define."_
Thanks sarpoodle for all of this great info.


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