Schnauzer Puppy Obsessed With Food

[aking350]

I have a 15wk mini schnauzer who eats everything from normal food to stones. she found some Lilydale topping (the little white stones people have in their garden or paths) and she ate so many she made herself sick. she also likes crunching on larger stones and rocks. She is obsessed with food and sticks her head in the fridge every time the door opens and scoffs at her food. we bought her a 'go slow' bowl which has slowed her slightly. she is beginning to follow commands such as sit and drop but when it comes to meal times she shakes and bounces and i cant get her to sit and stay. How can i stop her eating things she shouldn't? any ideas please!

[RiverStar-Aura]

At 15 weeks I'd say she'll be teething so of course she's going to be chewing everything. My Kirah still chews rocks and sticks and she's nearly 2 -- but it's more of a tormenting game with her big brother now!

Try giving her things she can chew instead of the rocks -- chicken flavoured Nylabones worked well for me and even a chicken wing or frozen Kong. It's more a matter of distracting her, rather than teaching her to stop chewing the rocks. If her teeth hurt, she's going to seek out hard things to chew on to help with the pain. Tough rubber toys are also good like a Cuz or Kong, but if you get a Kong, you can put peanut butter inside them, freeze it and make much more appealing.

Think of your pup like a child teething -- they'll chew anything they can put their teeth into because it eases the pain.

Best of luck -- and we need photos of your little one!! :D

Edited to add: regarding her excitement at dinner time, perhaps you could feed her dinner out of your hand rather than a bowl. Use her dinner time as a training session -- make her work for dinner. You need to teach her that the food is yours and that you control when she eats. My two sit and won't touch their food until I give them their release word "okay". I think I worked on their sit mostly and left waiting for food until they were a bit older. By that stage, when they were sitting, if they sneaked closer to their bowls I'd growl "no"; they eventually learnt not to touch the food until I said it was "okay".

Start with an empty bowl if she gets so riled up at dinner time that she won't listen. Keep her dinner in your hand and only give her the food when she's sitting.

The dog training I went to has a game called "It's Your Choice" in which the dog chooses how long it takes to get the treat. Start with a treat in a closed fist and show your dog. She'll be interested sniffing and trying to get to the food. The minute she pulls back (even if for only a second) say "good" and reward with the food. This way, it teaches the dog that they'll get the food by not wanting or showing interest in it.

Hope this makes sense and is somewhat helpful!

Edited February 8, 2013 by RiverStar-Aura

[Dogsfevr]

We breed Minis & they are pigs for food,even if they where dying they would still eat food BUT eating stones & the likes isn't normal .

They will eat till they burst ,we emphasis this in our paperwork to our puppy buyers .

They work very well training wise for food.

Depends if pup is gulping or just eating quick??

Ours would take 10 sec to eat there meal on a bad day .

Minis are very smart dogs & learn very quickly they also train there owners very well because people fall for the cute syndrome.

Was your pup brought from a breeder or pet shop ??

Edited February 9, 2013 by showdog

[dancinbcs]

First step is to fence her off from the stones. You could end up with a very, very big vet bill or a dead dog if she keeps swallowing stones.

Then give her lots of safe things to chew like large bones with some meat on them, nylabones, deer antlers, the big 4x4" greyhound biscuits or even a chunk of fire wood. Anything she can chew without getting chunks off that could cause an obstruction. I buster cube or treat ball for slowly dispensing dry food could also help.

[aking350]

thanks guys. she has got lots of chew sticks and dog toys to play with but still manages to find stones either in the garden or even when we are out walking she will pick graval up off the road, she just has to have something in her mouth just like a baby. I realise schnauzers are pigs as i have had them in the past and they LOVE thier food. I did get her from a breeder as i refuse to buy an animal from a pet shop as i know majority of the animals come from bad breeding and horrid living conditions. I finally found where she was getting the stones from it was a tiny hole in the fence and the neighbours have just renovated their yard with little tiny stones and my puppy was sticking her tongue through the hole in the fence to get them so that hole has been fixed! I think it was more of a game for her as every time she put her tongue through the hole a bunch of stones would fall out. I will try the food training at dinner time i think that is a great idea. She is learning very quickly and will now sit on command :-) I took her to the beach for the first time yesterday and she had a fantastic time and behaved really well off the leash coming when she was called.

thanks for your advice

[cnsunshine]

Hey Aking350 I have a puppy who is food obsessed too and she was eating grass etc on her walks, so I started walking with food in my hands so she would focus on me. We'd walk for about 10 metres and she'd get a treat and I'm slowly increasing that distance and she's not eating random things anymore.

Also, we withhold her food and use it for training instead too, she can eat her meal in 10 seconds flat if we left her alone with food. We've just bought a buster cube so we'll see how that goes. I freeze some of her meals in her kong too.

[julesluvscavs]

I have a puppy food obsessed as well.. shes a Cavalier after all lol I Ive caught her chewing on those little white stones out the back eeek! i dont know if shes actually swallowed any yet, I will have to keep a very careful eye on her !

I gave her a kong but shes already chewed the rubber bits of it already

[Nushie]

The dog training I went to has a game called "It's Your Choice" in which the dog chooses how long it takes to get the treat. Start with a treat in a closed fist and show your dog. She'll be interested sniffing and trying to get to the food. The minute she pulls back (even if for only a second) say "good" and reward with the food. This way, it teaches the dog that they'll get the food by not wanting or showing interest in it.

This is how we taught Jager to "Leave It". It was one of the first things we taught we him and we still use it all the time. He knows he has to wait for his dinner, don't even need to ask him to sit or leave it. Usually give him his release word as soon as the dry food is closed up so he is waiting for only a few seconds. But i like to keep it interesting and tend to walk away and turn the kettle on or put something away before releasing him, I have been known to forget and happened to wander past 5-10mins later and there he is still sitting waiting for his dinner. Always feel guilty for that!

In regards to the original poster - Jager was the same, would not settle at meal times, from day one I wouldn't give his his dinner until he was settled. It might have only been for a split second to start but his reward for standing still, sitting whatever position he wanted to be in, as long as he settled was his dinner. Generally he would settle for a super short period of time and as soon as i started to put the food down he would bounce around again, I didn't worry about that to start with as long as he did the initial settle i was happy and he would get his food. From there you can extend it. Once he knew a solid sit command, i would ask him to sit and then give dinner. Again, as soon as he sat i would give him dinner, didn't worry if he stood up again as soon as i started to bend down.

He was also a pig when it came to food, i feed him now in a 'go slow' bowl, but as a puppy he got all his meals in a kong. Started off loose so that all he had to do was bump it and food came out then i will pack it in with yoghurt or some peanut butter so that it was sticky and harder to come out, then i froze it.

Its a very slow process but works in the end.

As for chewing rocks, you just need to find something that she would rather chew on, be it kongs, nylabones, sticks etc. At 3 Jager still loves his nylabones.