Oshie's World

Do you let your dog eat sticks? Many breeds like to chew things and what is better than a stick found out in the yard. Typical to Golden Retrievers Oshie loves to chew sticks (he also eats grass and dirt and socks and underwear but that is a whole different story).

Generally I do my best to prevent him from eating the sticks that he finds. Luckily we don’t have any trees directly in our yard so in order for him to even get branches we have to be walking near the woods. More often than not he just chews it up and maybe eats a small portion of it which normally passes in the form of a wood chip filled poop. The reason I normally prevent him from chewing and eating branches is because I worry he is going to cause damage to his stomach or intestines if he swallows a big enough piece or possibly get something stuck in his throat. Like any pet parent this is simply a situation I do not want to happen.

We have had some pretty close calls when he was a puppy that should have ended up with a visit to the vet but thankfully did not. This was during his sock and underwear phase. He has literally eaten entire socks whole (not chewed just swallowed in one piece) and passed them out the other side. The same has happened with panties. Strange dog we have ha-ha. It got to the point that we have to hide laundry and keep every piece out of his reach and we still do. We have dodged the bullet several times and had more than our fair share of luck as far as Oshie eating things he shouldn’t. I don’t want to break that streak so when it comes to sticks I usually say no.

The other day I gave in and let him enjoy the sticks he found as we were playing in the yard. I think my attitude change is a combination of the weather finally being nice, (yard has been a mess so he has been cooped up inside) Oshie being depressed that mom is in Norway and the fact that it just brings a smile to my face seeing him run around with a stick in his mouth. He prances around and throws it with his mouth and generally just acts like a fool. So I let him chew a few sticks under close supervision and was able to snap a few cool photos and enjoy the nice weather.

In the grand scheme of things I don’t think it is too terrible to let our pups chew a stick every once in a while. They seem to enjoy it and I think just like any chew toy, if supervised properly it is relatively safe.

If you own a dog share please share your thoughts in the comments and any strange habits your pet has. As always thanks for stopping by.