Is It Bad If My Dog Eats Rocks?

is it bad if my dog eats rocks

Dogs are inquisitive creatures who are born scavengers and voracious eaters. By nature, dogs and particularly puppies, use their senses of sight, smell, and taste to explore the world. They eat a variety of strange things that make no sense or even seem repulsive to most of us.

And some dogs have an especially bad habit of swallowing everything they come into contact with. Dog owners frequently report finding various objects in their dog’s stool or vomit. From our years in pet care, dog walking, and drop-in visits, we’ve seen dogs pass crayons, shredded grocery bags, torn-up fabric and toy stuffing, and much, much more.

Keep in mind that this is fairly normal behavior, especially for puppies. However, whether normal or abnormal, chewing rocks (or other non-food items) can be dangerous incredibly dangerous on a number of levels.

Is it bad if my dog eats rocks?

One way that chewing and playing with rocks and other hard objects is a serious danger to dogs is that it poses a very real risk to the health of their teeth. Dogs can damage their teeth on rocks and tough objects like certain bone treats and even household items. When the teeth break, they can not be easily fixed. Dental care for a dog with damaged teeth can be expensive and very uncomfortable for the dog.

But even worse if your companion consumes a foreign body entirely and is unable to pass the object through their digestive system, they may suffer serious consequences. These objects can become lodged under the tongue, as well as inside the esophagus, stomach, or gastrointestinal tract. Depending on the final location of the rock or other object, this can lead to choking, intestinal blockages, and perforated stomachs.

In veterinary medicines, this condition is known as “Foreign Body Obstruction.” Foreign body obstructions are one of the most common reasons for emergency veterinary surgeries.

Why do dogs eat rocks and other objects?

Dogs chew and swallow these non-edible items for a variety of reasons. It could be due to a medical, behavioral, or neurological issue. Curiosity draws some dogs and puppies to rocks, as tasting different objects enables them to better understand their surroundings. The smell can also play a role in this attraction, as rocks may have been marked by other animals or may contain food remnants.

Dogs may swallow foreign objects due to a medical condition “Pica”, which is an eating disorder caused by a nutritional deficiency in their diet. Or they may have some undiagnosed medical conditions like diabetes, parasites, worms, or tumors, which can influence eating behaviors.

It is possible that your dog may be anxious, annoyed, frustrated, or bored. If your dog is keen on keep-away games and doesn’t get any form of corrections for inappropriate or dangerous behavior, picking up and even eating large and hard objects can be very self-rewarding as an effort to attract your attention.

Back in the days of dog walking, I had at least one client who had to cancel because they needed to take their puppy for emergency surgery when he swallowed a rock during an unwanted game of keep-away with them.

brown and black short coated puppy running on green grass field

What objects are dangerous for my dog to eat?

Below is the list of some common foreign objects that if swallowed can cause problems to your dog.

  • Rocks
  • Stones
  • Balls
  • Bones
  • Corn cobs
  • Sticks
  • Strings
  • Balls
  • Fishing hooks
  • Toys
  • Socks/Stockings

What are the symptoms of foreign body obstruction?

If a dog has swallowed some foreign objects, they may show the following signs or symptoms.

How do I tell if my dog has eaten a rock or other object?

To diagnose the condition, first of all your veterinarian will recommend a blood and urine test to rule out any cause of vomiting or diarrhea other than foreign body obstruction. Then to confirm the foreign body , your veterinarian will take radiographs (X-ray). Normally, multiple radiographs from different angels are required to locate the foreign body, especially if it is a thin or sharp object.

Treatment of foreign body obstruction in dogs

Often times, the object is passed out of the body on its own without causing any serious harm to the dog (especially when the object is rounded, small and does not have sharp edges). In such cases, only supportive therapy is recommended to avoid dehydration.

Radiographs are taken regularly to confirm that the foreign object is moving and it is not causing any harm to internal organs. Once the object is passed out in feces your dog will return to normal life within a few days.

If the object is not moving and is lodged in the esophagus, stomach, or intestine, it will block the passage, put pressure on the wall of the digestive tract, and blood supply will be compromised or blocked completely. And if the blood supply is cut off for more than a few hours, these tissues may become necrotic or die, leading to serious complications.

In such cases, time is incredibly important and your veterinarian will recommend the surgery immediately. Any delay can result in irreversible damage.

If the condition is caught early, your dog should be okay and recover swiftly as soon as the object is passed out of the body, though there are always risks associated with surgery that may come up should it be necessary in order to help you dog. Still, the prognosis is good and your dog should recover within a few days.

dog pulling his toy

How do I keep my dog from eating rocks?

While it’s very natural for dogs to explore and investigate by tasting and even eating things in their environment, it clearly can also be an incredibly dangerous behavior.

Prevention through supervision

One way to prevent dogs from ingesting inappropriate objects from a care perspective is to always keep dogs under consistent supervision when in environments where they may ingest dangerous objects. This is one of the reasons that place and crate training are the pillars they are in any good dog training program; when you know where your dog is, they simply can’t be getting into nonsense, and are safer as a result.

If your dog has a habit of picking up objects outside, keeping them on a leash is the safest way to ensure that you can prevent keep-away games and remove dangerous objects regardless of their training.

However, please do not ever put yourself in danger to wrestle an object from a dog, and if the dog has a known history of resource guarding or other aggressive behaviors, it is not worth the trip to the hospital or otherwise serious injury.

Teaching the out command

Preventative training can also help immensely in this area. At Lugaru K9 Training, we teach the “out” command, which is a bit of a mix between “drop it” and “back off.” The out command is a full surrender of an object, and training this command is hands-down the safest way to remove a dangerous object, because a dog trained to out reliably is not at risk of clamping down on an object or turning it into a resource guarding scenario, which can result in an injury to the handler.

Training out typically begins with a game of tug. Each time your dog releases the tug toy, mark with “out” and reward with food and resume play.

After doing many repetitions marking and rewarding every release on the toy, you can try adding in “out,” as a cue, and reward with food, praise, and resumed play. Continue doing this in repetitions until your dog consistently releases the toy during the game when the out command is given.

From here, you can begin scaling up and practicing with items that are more valuable, and mix the command into daily life for regular practice.

Correcting the behavior

While having the out command is important, being able to follow through can be the difference between life and death. We support the use of remote collar training, which allows dog owners to follow-through on inappropriate or potentially dangerous behaviors.

Always condition the remote collar when first introducing it to your dog so that your dog understands where pressure comes from, what it’s for, and how to remove it. When the collar is conditioned and your dog understands how it works, you can begin also using it for correction when necessary.

Because foreign object obstruction can be incredibly dangerous and even fatal to the dog, it is definitely an appropriate behavior to apply a higher-level correction, both in the instance of picking up rocks and other dangerous objects, and ignoring an out command after the dog has learned it thoroughly.

Combining supervision, structure, and appropriate training can work wonders in keeping dogs from eating rocks and in preventing foreign object obstruction and other complications.

Author: Kimberlee Tolentino

Kimee has worked hands-on with dogs for over ten years, and today serves the role of head trainer and owner at Lugaru K9 Training in Port Orchard, Washington. Kimee has been a shelter volunteer, a dog walker, dog behavior intern, a dog trainer, and now specializes in behavior modification for pet dogs.