Why does my dog like rocks!

[savalez]

My lab has toys up the kazoo but once a day I catch her running around with a rock in her mouth.

[elleng]

1. Tasty neighborhood!!!

[Sanity Claws]

2. I had a foster dog like that too

She was a boxer/staffordshire terrier mix and quite fussy about her rocks.

Before we could start our walk, she needed a rock to put in her mouth. I would get tired of waiting for her to find her rock and would put one right in front of her, hoping she would take it so we could get going. She always rejected the rock I chose for her. I never did figure out what criteria she had for rock selection before she was adopted into her forever home.

[savalez]

4. Thanks, at least she's not the only one.

Funny it has to be her choice of rock too. In her case they are all similar in color though. She likes the brownish red ones. Sometimes she appears to not have one in her mouth but then I'll notice she hasn't opened it for awhile so I'll dig in there and sure enough - a rock. Oh well, I guess to each their own.

[marzipanni]

7. Siince red rocks contain iron, maybe that's her DIY mineral supplement

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pica_%28disorder%29

last sentence in first section:
"Pica can also be found in other animals and is commonly found in dogs."

[shenmue]

3. Awwww :)

Hee hee.

[SalviaBlue]

5. My lab does that too.

We have a shallow fountain with rocks at the bottom. He ducks his head all the way under water and picks up rocks from the bottom and then throws them around and/or brings them to us with his teeth quivering and chattering against the rock and drops it in our laps for us to throw.

Silly dog

[QED]

6. I hope she doesn't swallow them.

My mini doxie ate rocks near the end of his life. The vet said it was part of him just not feeling well. (He had a brain tumor then started having seizures. R.I.P. Louie.)

I know of another dog that, although only 9 months old, has had two surgeries due to eating rocks.

[savalez]

9. Thanks for the heads up.

Sorry about Louie too. Yes I am looking out for that like a hawk.

[Granny M]

8. Molly adopted a rock at the beach one day.

She insisted on bringing it home, and it's still out in the garden. She picks it up and carries it around often.

[savalez]

10. She's got her very own

pet rock!

[TorchTheWitch]

11. dogs seem to love to play with the most ridiculous things

A stick, a rock, a leaf, a bug... they're all so much more fun to them than anything else it seems.

Yoshi's all time favorite thing to play with is dirt. Hard dry dirt or sloppy mud that's mostly dirty water and everything in between. I think his next favorite "toy" is bugs whether flying or crawling. Last night there was some kind of strange gazillion legged bug that found it's way into the house that he discovered crawling across the carpet, and he still played with it long after he squished it dead his tail wagging furiously through it all with the thrill.

Later when we went out for our walk he found a huge beetle type creature running across the parking lot of the police station (he likes to go there since the skating rink uses the same lot and has a lovely pile of "snow" behind the building). He chased the beetle creature all over the parking lot, snapped it up in his mouth several times just to throw it in the air and find it again where ever it landed, pawing at it, and finally rolling on it to smash it really good. He had so much fun with that bug we had to go back to the "snow" mountain to cool off again once he finally squished it... good thing, too, since all his rolling around in the "snow" probably got rid of any beetle guts mashed in his fur after the grand bug body slam finale. He had so much fun he practically skipped all the way home... where he flopped happily into a mud puddle from all the rain we had earlier. He's out there again right now sitting in his mud puddle watching the birds in our tree doing whatever it is that birds normally do (though I really wish they didn't want to poop in my pool so much).