Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Mazie, our 9 month old husky pup, insists on eating grass and makes holes. She is not digging holes, she just grazes and creates new holes daily. Is this normal husky behavior? Is she missing something in her diet? Our other dog is a 10 year old husky/lab mix and has never done anything like this. I keep applying pepper to the existing holes, and rubbing her nose in it. She just makes new holes. She is currently being fed Nutro Natural Choice lamb and rice formula.
She is tearing up our once beautiful yard!! Please help me understand her behavior.
Thank you - Tony

>>Mazie, our 9 month old husky pup, insists on eating grass and makes holes. She is not digging holes, she just grazes and creates new holes daily. Is this normal husky behavior? Is she missing something in her diet? Our other dog is a 10 year old husky/lab mix and has never done anything like this. I keep applying pepper to the existing holes, and rubbing her nose in it. She just makes new holes. She is currently being fed Nutro Natural Choice lamb and rice formula.
>>She is tearing up our once beautiful yard!! Please help me understand her behavior.
>>Thank you - Tony

>>>>>>>>>>

Oh gracious, quit rubbing your dog's nose in it! Time to get to dog training class and learn how to teach a dog properly. You're going to get some very bad results from this kind of handling.
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Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series articles at http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=SRC&S=1&SourceID=47

My 10 year old is the most well behaved dog I have ever met (including dogs that have been to obedience school). I trained him in the same way. So I think I will stick with my method. If you have any information for me on the question I posed, please reply. Thank you - Tony

It can't hurt to try another brand of food. I believe obsessive grazing IS related to diet because I've witnessed a few of the dogs graze religiously on certina diets and not at all on others (and I'm not to crazy about Nutro, either).
I am a big fan of Pro Plan/Purina One dry foods. Its one brand I never had a problem with, it has a good vitamin mix, and is VERY digestable. I'd recommend those foods before any other but I also like some varieties of Eukanuba & Evolve.

I know some people who have had great results with Nutro Natural choice, however it is not a kibble I would select for my dogs.

I think an excellent resource for researching kibble is The Whole Dog Journal. They put out a top 10 list every year which can really help someone out when researching which kibble to feed.

We feed raw but kibbles that I personally would be willing to look at for purchasing are Innova, California Natural, Solid Gold, Eagle Pack, Canidae, and Wellness.

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tabitha
Kayo, Kahla, and Dante'