Proof that Labs will eat anything. At least my Lab will.

We were woken up at 4:26am this morning by that unmistakable vomit noise coming from the living room.

Brinkley will get sick to his stomach if it's empty for too many hours but we gave him his usual banana the night before, so I was confused.

What I found was a black object, round, and wrinkly. At that time of the morning, it took a minute for me to process what I was looking at. DH says, "It's poop." I said, it's not poop! Finally, I got it...

It was a scrunchie.

A scrunchie! I was like, what the heck, dog?! Seriously, a scrunchie?

We go about cleaning it up and I'm thinking where the HECK did he get that from. I don't have anything that looks remotely like it in the house. I chastise my husband a little for not paying attention to him enough on walks, because he refuses to take a flashlight with him. He promises to now take the flashlight.

Anything that he can't digest like that has the danger of getting stuck in the intestine and if he can't pass it, could cause an obstruction. Serious stuff! This is why we don't let him chew on rope toys anymore.

So I come to work and I'm talking to my coworker, I tell her that it's a scrunchie of all things and she says, like this one? and points to her hair. Sure enough, it was the same one! We backtracked and deduced that almost TWO WEEKS AGO, he went rummaging through her pocketbook, looking for a toy, and must have grabbed an extra scrunchie in there and eaten it. We knew he was nosing around in there, the snoop that he is, but not that he ate anything.

It's a little freaky that this happened 12 days ago, isn't it? I'm just really glad that he finally got it out of him! I watch him like a hawk, and her office is right next to me but her bag was underneath the desk so I never saw it. And I never heard it, because it doesn't make any noise when he chews.

I think I have to go back to leashing him all day when I bring him here, it's too bad. I used to let him roam our office in the morning before anything yummy appeared in anyone's garbage but I just can't trust him anymore.

Has anyone had their dog eat strange things?

Re: Proof that Labs will eat anything. At least my Lab will.

i'm surprised it took almost 2 weeks for him to get it out. thank god he did.

my yorkie ate a piece of my flip flop. it was the rubber part from the bottom that holds your foot. he pooped it out but i still couldn't believe he swallowed it.

Re: Proof that Labs will eat anything. At least my Lab will.

If I didn't know for a fact that a piece of plastic he swallowed from a toy took 10 days to exit, I might not believe it. That was 6 months ago. 12 days is a new record.

Flip flop, huh? We have a shoe/slipper chewer too.

Re: Proof that Labs will eat anything. At least my Lab will.

Re: Proof that Labs will eat anything. At least my Lab will.

i had a lab mix just like this. she ate anything and everything from socks to dolls to money. it all came out in her poop!

Re: Proof that Labs will eat anything. At least my Lab will.

I'm glad she passed it. I really wonder what makes them eat these things.

my lab likes to chew and eat dryer sheets, paper in the garbage, and go after my flip flops. I also found a chewed up rubbre band yesterday. She also eats the fuzz off her toys (woke up to what i thought was a tennis ball, nope she puked.) If she had her way she would have every sock and pair of undies in the apartment!

today i was running my conference call and i hear her eating. i look down and it was poop the irony was that she was right next to her food. ugh. nasty!

Re: Proof that Labs will eat anything. At least my Lab will.

OMG! thats crazy!! thank GOD he finally got it out of him!!!

hershey has chewed on all kinds of random things... but has never digested anything *knocks on wood*

but my cat will try to eat everything from a plastic wrapper to lint lol

Re: Proof that Labs will eat anything. At least my Lab will.

My lab mix tends to stick to organic materials (including poop, much to our dismay - although I think we have trained her away from that bad habit!).

However my brother in law's lab-chow mix eats ANYTHING. Including a pair of my sister in law's satin panties from the laundry basket. She passes most things but had surgery to remove a sock.

A BIG golden who was in our training class had to have surgery to remove a large piece of carpet he had ripped up and eaten, and apparently is known to eat rocks, often.

Dopey dogs... we can't help but love them though!

Re: Proof that Labs will eat anything. At least my Lab will.

I'll never forget watching Emergency Vets on tv and seeing a dog (Labrador, of course ) that kept eating river rocks! They had to perform surgery to get them out, every time. How a dog even gets that down their throat is beyond me.

They actually have a term for poop eating - Coprophagia. No one really agrees why they do it but there's a ton of different possible explanations. We've curbed Brinkley from doing this by watching him closely and telling him LEAVE IT when he comes upon poop. But we also don't let him out in the backyard alone, so we are able to stay on top of it.

The only thing that he won't listen to at all is when he finds poop of wild animals. Dog poop he leaves alone now. Rabbit poop... Not so much. And it's all over the yard.

Re: Proof that Labs will eat anything. At least my Lab will.

My grandma's mini-schnauzer ate a popsicle stick... whole. Vet told us to watch him for discomfort.. he was fine and surprisingly managed to poop it out, whole, and with a little poop on the tip of it. We refer to that as "the Poop-sicle"

My dog has taken a liking to eating my hair. I didn't realize at first why she like to be in the bathroom with me when I blowdry my hair.. then I realized she was licking up every hair up. Gross.

Re: Proof that Labs will eat anything. At least my Lab will.

at least it's not your dirty underwear...

Re: Proof that Labs will eat anything. At least my Lab will.

Glad to hear the Brinkley's ok. Our lab has chewed through drywall. Chewed towels and curtains and our patio furniture (mesh seating). He chews on sticks of wood and gags himself!!! He's 6 now and has outgrown it slightly but, his latest fetish is teddy bears.

Message edited 10/22/2009 5:58:56 PM.

Re: Proof that Labs will eat anything. At least my Lab will.

Re: Proof that Labs will eat anything. At least my Lab will.

Things my yellow lab has eaten:

5lbs of halloween candy, wrappers and all

a whole stick of butter, again with wrapper

part of a car cover

my popple (remember those?)

various christmas ornaments

The Dept 56 Snow Village Salvation Army men. The leader is now headless.

Re: Proof that Labs will eat anything. At least my Lab will.

my sister had a beagle that ate just about everything & anything. some things he ate: rocks, the easter dinner ham, leather - shoes, purses, and even once the leather zipper pulls off my backpack, chicken - bones and all.

but he hated shrimp and would turn his nose up at it!

he also loved gum, you could give him a piece, he would chew it for a bit & when he was done he would spit it out. i miss that crazy dog

Re: Proof that Labs will eat anything. At least my Lab will.