He's eating my mulch....

Sometimes when I have Wesley in the backyard to do his business, he'll get frisky and run from me and try to eat the mulch from the landscaping. And the weirdo seems to like it! The only way I can seem to divert him from this behavior is to keep him on a leash while I'm back there with him. That way I'm controlling how far he goes. Is this a good idea? Also, is the mulch bad for him? And if it's not the mulch, then it's the leaves or grass.

The only reason he gets the time to do this is because I take him out to go potty, then am trying to give him time to poop, but then he'll run off and eat everything. I feel like I'm starving the poor pup. But I feed him 1/4 cup of his food, 3 times a day, along w/ snacks for training.

If after he goes potty, and he starts to get crazy again with all the foliage, should I then just take him inside immediately? I guess my answer to myself is yes, because I need him to learn that outside is for pottying while I'm still training him.

Anyway, any input that could be provided is great!

Just making sure - yours is not cocao bean mulch is it?

I think it is relatively new and dogs like to eat it, so just in case

It is probably not what you have, but I thought I'd pass on the link to share with you and anyone else whose dogs might like to munch on mulch.

http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pro_apcc_publicationscocoa

To address your main question - Wesley is really young right? they sure do like to eat at that age. Lucky's appetite has decreased substantially. I felt I was starving him too, but clearly was not. He was growing like a weed ... not fat, but he ate enough to earn the (endearing ...) nickname of "piglet" Puppies are very much like little babies - learning and exploring everything and eager to put it in their mouths. You do need to watch what they put in there and also as you answered for yourself, while they are young keep taking them out regularly.

If he won't do his business during the one trip, I'd take him in and then out again so he is clear that outside is for pottying.

I'm sure others will have feedback too...

Dogs/puppies in general love to eat, sniff and roll in things that are smelly, good smelly and bad smelly :yuk:
Just imagine what mulch would smell like to their excellent scent smelling noses. All that lovely ground up bark, flowers, leaves etc.
I think this is why he probably loves the mulch. My boys love mulch amongst other garden nasties sticks, stones etc and unfortunately they have never grown out of it, we have just had to adapt our garden and their environment to keep them as safe as is possible but on our walks they will vacum the floor for a bit of stray mulch from someone elses garden.

In realtion to you other post this could be a reason why he is being sick?

When India and Geordie were pups, we had a 24 inch high x-pen set up in the back yard for them to poop in. We found that worked better than putting them on leads.

We also used leads for walking in the backyard to keep them out of the mulch and plants. Eating the mulch could easily cause an upset tummy.

I would stop this eating of mulch as you don't know what pisonous elements are in there and there's also the decomposition to consider. Cocoa mulch is deadly as it contains the same poison as chocolate. Several dogs died over here, after eating it, causing a campaign to get dealers to stop stocking it or at least display with a large warning.

Definitely not the cocoa mulch. What we have is the bark-like, tree shavings sort of mulch. My next door neighbor uses the same thing and they have a German Shorthair Pointer. I think for him it's just something for him to grab and run off with. Just as he tries to chew my grass and chase and eat leaves.

It's just an annoying habit. And it's only started now because our snow finally melted so I think he realized there were fun things in the backyard.

Potty training sure was easier w/ a foot of snow and a path just shoveled out! LET IT SNOW!

Same problem here--but it seems worse after I put down new mulch. I think because it has a stronger smell when it's new. Mia loves pieces of wood, leaves, dirt balls, Wrigley's poop--you name it. Otherwise, she's very feminine and dainty... :roll:

Brady does that as well. He also likes leaves. He tends to just like to carry things around in his mouth and then he'll let go of it. He has somewhat outgrown some of this habbit. they just like to explore and they are just like babbies, seeing how things are with their mouths.