Always question what you read..
I have just come across an article about 'dog's eating dirt'. - why do they do it.
the article makes the comment that Commercial Dog Food does not meet the dog's nutritional needs.
Also that the dog may have anaemia - a lack of red blood cells.
the article then goes on to comment that it is dangerous for dogs to eat dirt as they may end up being poisoned by chemicals, such as anit-freeze, in the soil, or pick up parvo virus from the dirt.
the article also says that dogs must be hungry to eat dirt.... or they are trying to get their owners attention and know that when they eat dirt they get a 'reaction'.
the article then suggests squirting the dog with a water pistol or water bottle to dissuade him from doing this behavior.
WELL WELL WELL I think someone is pulling our leg here. In all the years I have spent intimately watching dogs forage and hunt and do some very funny things, I have never seen a dog pig out on soil. Is this a euphemism for dogs eating excretia??? In which case the author should have said so.
Some dogs, some times, and all dogs some times, and some dogs at all times will eat their own, other dogs and almost any form of excretia that is available. My neighbour once said to me - ' my dog eats sand'. 'doubt it' I said. 'Come with me to the Lake Beach' she said. 'Okay' said I. Off we went. Yep her dog headed straight down the beach to a specific point and hunted around and started eating. We followed up, and what do we find, all the local pussy-cats go to the lake sand to do their business over night and her dog was the clean up agent the next day. She was appalled. Sorry, just dog stuff. Kind of pays to remember that bit when the dog gives you 'kisses' huh. Maybe the article should have asked 'why dogs eat excretia' . Well they do. I read somewhere else that dogs above all creatures are capable of eating diseased tissue, rotting carcasses and all manner of terrible stuff and processing it into a harmless material. I have also read about Sharks being the Dogs of the Sea and capable of cleaning up mess and processing it. Such are the jobs that animals have on this planet of ours.
All of my dogs eat or have eaten every form of sheep, goat, donkey, horse, duck, chicken, cat excretia they can get into mostly as a passing phase from about three months old till two years. They also manage to find human stuff where people camp on the lakefront and have a go at that as well.
I consider that my dogs get a very good diet. I also believe that Commercial Dog Tucker has come a long way in the last twenty years and is now probably more researched and honed to nutritional perfection than any food that human beings eat.
Dog the Scavenger is dog the scavenger. My dogs are very happy laid back critters who take a lick at whatever their fancy takes and certainly don't seem to want to die from it. My worst scavenger who eats bits of dead things every day is Midge the Staffie cross. She is now coming 14 and very healthy. She has practically lived on roadkill, rabbits, possums, birds. I don't feed her when she provides her own meals, because she would simply eat what I give her as well and end up enormous. Rabbit poo is a mega favourite for her. My cleanest dog, least likely to even look at a poo is Chan the Sharpei cross. He just loves good raw meat and good chewy raw bones. Becki-boo the Foxi cross is very interested in possum meat, but won't touch rabbit and would never dream of ripping the skin off anything to find what was underneath, but she is rather partial to a fresh cat dropping. Fae the Fat Fairy Border Terrier cross is very into poo at the moment, was murdering the chicken egg supply but has got over it and is now concentrating on the bits of hoof left over by the farrier from the donkey's feet, donkey poo and rabbit poo, and as far as I know has not been indoctrinated into cat stuff yet. However, her best friend is Paddy the Paddock Cat so who knows.
My dogs can, if they wish, run all over my four acres all day every day and they get what they get. They are trained not to bother my stock, chickens, ducks etc and they eat with the chickens and ducks, mash, left overs etc, Fae the Fat Fairy who is ten months, is very puzzled at the goats and donkey eating grass, she checks what they are eating and eats the grass as they do, then barks at them because she doesn't believe they are just eating grass, however, she has a very healthy appetite for grass and grazes freely.
Because I live rurally I am very aware of the poisons that might be around my dogs, I avoid using pesticides at all times, there is no rat poison out there on my property. My dogs and Paddy the cat do a wonderful job on the rats and mice. The rat I disposed of this morning was more than 10inches (25cm) long, very fat and glossy - I know my dogs and cat are doing a great job on the rodents as I find them displayed for me to admire. None of my animals eat the rodents. I do not use weed killers I rely on the goats to do the best they can and I grub the rest when time allows. I know my neighbours use lots of poisons on their properties so I hope there is not too much overlap by my dogs and cat.
I am very aware of my dogs' state of health, and I would be the first to worry if I felt that their eating behavior was inappropriate or they were ailing from a particular ingesting habit. Over my whole lifetime, during which I have never lived without a dog, and 60 years is a fair old test of time, I have never had the experience of a dog eating soil as in common and garden dirt, as a regular habit.
Raewyn Saville 31st August 2012
