Dog Eat Mud - dirty dirt eater

So I have discovered that in addition to having a sweet tooth for my electronics, my dog also loves to eat mud. Why do dogs eat dirt? There are plenty of articles on the web with explanations of why dogs eat grass, but why do dogs eat dirt?

The ground is starting to thaw and today on our morning walk, our little shichon started chowing on some mud. Yes, our dog was eating mud. Not just sniffing, not tasting, full out eating mud.

I quickly realized that we had this problem before. I dont really have a problem with it, except that they get very dirty. They burrow their snouts into the ground and their faces get extremely muddy.

A quick check around the internet confirms that once again I am not the first one having this problem. Here is a response to a question of "Why does my dog eat dirt" on Healthy Pet:

Most cases of dogs eating dirt or grass are behavioral problems. It is usually nothing to be worried about

Since the zuchons come from seemingly "clean" breeds I didn't think we'd have this problem. Also, its not clear whether we should stop his dirt eating or just let it continue.

It looks like there are forums of folks chatting about this problem. Interestingly, looks like eating dirt is not the dirties of habits... there are a lot of dog poop eaters - YUCK. At least he is not eating his own poop.

My dog is eating my electronics

Our dog is a good dog. He is potty trained. He rarely has any accidents. He knows how to fetch, he knows how to obay commands to sit, lay down, come, and shake.

We are also very lucky in that he hasnt been chewing on couches, furniture, shes or socks. He does have one weakness. He loves my electronics. He loves to eat blackberries, cell phones, cameras, network cables, power chargers, and sometimes even live power supplies. Here is a picture of his latest desert of my plantronics blue tooth ear piece.



We are not sure why he loves to eat electronic gadgets. We aren't sure how to train him otherwise. We provide him with bones to chew and congs so he generally leaves our stuff alone, yet he generally prefers a new shiny gadget to a hide. How do we break this habit?

Winter Potty

This was the coldest weekend in January so far this year. As January is Chicago's coldest month, and it gets pretty cold here, it was a COLD one. We had temperatures drop to -18F (feels like) and -5 Fahrenheit its pretty cold. And the dog walking gets pretty short.

I have observed a peculiar thing in our puppy. When taken out first day of the cold spell, after a few minutes he started lifting his paws and holding them up. He actually looked like his paws were freezing! Of course this is unconfirmed but its strange.

Now I have heard or read somewhere that Huskies and big sled dogs don't have feeling in the tips of their paws and they can survive the deep freeze without feeling it. Unfortunately our dog is a shichon (also called a Zuchon) a descendant of the ShiTzu and a Bichon. I doubt that his ancestors had developed this survival component.

So until it warms up to at least to 15 F degrees we will have to make our potty outings breef. Interestingly he has started picking up the speed in which he decides to get his business done. There is a bright side to taking the dog out in blistery and bitter cold of the winter.

Dog Adolescence

So we have our puppy potty trained. He is very good at home, and hasn't had
an accident for over two months.

However we have found that he is only potty trained at home. When I take
him to the office for an extended amount of time he does not abide by the
same rules he was taught at home. He does go out if he is taken for a walk,
but he is unable to hold it in the office. We thought that he would
eventually stat following potty rules that he learned at home, however today
was the last straw on that hope.

I believe a re-training is in order for a new location. We'll keep you
posted on the progress.