Grass/mud - puppy obsession

[EmandAndy]

Hi all,
Firstly, this forum has been fab for giving us key information ahead of our Lenny coming home.. He is being a typical puppy, it’s hard work, but we absolutely adore him. We have waited a long time before we made the commitment to get him and yes life is different, but we are so looking forward to many new adventures with him.

I know that MS love a bit of grass and mud, Lenny loves to pull at ours however, sometimes he gets right into it and nothing can distract him, we then worry he is doing it too much and don’t want him to come to hard. He is like a dog possessed with it. No ball, toy or any other distraction can take him away from it. It ends up us picking him up, mouth full and a growling dog. We do have a massive garden, but due to his puppy ways and being intrigued we have reduced the amount he has access to. He loves a ball and we spend good periods daily entertaining him with them outside until the grass side tracks him. Is this normal for a 16 week old puppy? We have had him just over a week, we got him at 14.5 weeks due to an unexpected family illness which meant we couldn’t pick up as planned. He has settled in well, toilet trained, crate trained, been to groomers, gets out on walks, puzzle toys and kongs galore. But it would be good to know if this grass/dirt possessiveness is normal and we ride it out, or we could be doing anything more. I don’t want to bring food in to get him away in case this gives off the wrong message. We both work from home, with commuting days but one of us is at home and we have started to leave him and seems fine. Just the typical pup behaviour.. biting, hypo, slipper and shoe taking and all that.

Any thoughts, or just that it’s all about the settling in, would be welcome. We don’t care it ruins the grass, we would section it off and just give him the patio, but we want him to have the grass..

Thank you..
Emma

[zeta1454]

Hi Emma,
Lenny does sound like a typical puppy and digging and eating grass, mud and (at this stage ) almost anything that looks fun or could be tasty is just part of him enjoying the world in his own way. I wouldn’t worry too much if he is fit and well - and if you have parts of the garden you are OK with being damaged! It can be almost impossible to get puppies to stop this kind of behaviour as it is natural to them so, if you don’t want him digging/eating mud and grass it would be best to section off or in some way deny him access. As it is a hard wired behaviour and does give puppies pleasure, you would need to find alternative places for him to enjoy this kind of digging behaviour though.

Regarding ‘possessiveness’ this is a kind of ‘resource guarding’ behaviour which means the puppy is trying to prevent you taking away something he wants/likes by growling or nipping. You should work on this kind of behaviour as it can be extended to other objects or situations where you do need to take them or him away safely. I would practice in all different situations taking things from him or taking him away from different areas e.g. the sofa, the digging patch but always in a controlled and relaxed way and rewarding him for being calm and, most importantly, to start with you then also return him the food /toy or let him go back to the favoured place so he becomes content that, if you do take something away or remove him from somewhere he wanted to be, he is not only enjoying a ‘reward’ (e.g, food treat) but also getting back what he had or where he was before - win/win! You don’t want him to think you are the fun police taking the things he likes away from him but there may be situations where you do need to permanently take something from him or take him away from some place and you want to be able to do this safely and know that he trusts you enough not to react with hostility. It may just be puppy assertiveness at the moment when he growls but this can escalate as he grows and if you build up his trust to let you intervene with toys, favoured places etc. now it will stand you in good stead for the future. In a situation where he is in danger, of course, you would not return an object to him or let him go back to a dangerous place.

[Dawnspell]

I would say you are letting him get too engaged with the grass before you are trying to distract him. The first moment you think hes going to pull grass thats the time to distract so he doesnt even get the chance to practice the behaviour you dont want.

I'd avoid trying to pick him up, its not a tactic you'd use if he was a great dane puppy Little dogs tend to get picked up without their permission which can make them wary of being handled.

[EmandAndy]

Thank you all for your feedback.. we have seen improvement since posting following feedback and he seems to be doing better.. so thanks again…

[Dawnspell]

Thats good to know