My dog eats grubs from the yard instead of her food. Is this healthy?

If your dog is tearing up the grass to try and get at vermin (or slugs), treating your lawn to remove the vermin and slugs will likely solve the issue. Taking Goku out on leashed potty walks and exercising him elsewhere can also help prevent him from focusing on the grass, as well as monitoring and redirecting his behavior when you see him do it.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! This can of course be an issue as she could eat something tha perhaps upsets her stomach or even worse that causes an obstruction. The best thing is to teach her by continuously letting her know that that is unacceptable behavior. Otherwise, another option is using a basket muzzle when going outside which may prevent her from getting things in her mouth. Good luck and have a great day!

The biggest problem we have with nutrition in dogs is obesity. And it can be hard to measure food on a dog that grazes, so to prevent problems in the future, I would continue to measure Elsie's food twice daily, so you can monitor how much she is eating. There are sometimes problems with having other dogs in the house when one dog is a grazer, but if Elsie is the only dog in the house, let her graze. I hope that helps! Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! This can sometimes point out the possibility of a gastrointestinal condition and just like you pointed out it can be some lack of a nutrient or something in the diet. I think a good place to start would be changing his diet to something else to see if that makes a difference. If no difference is noted, I recommend that you have him evaluated by a veterinarian for further assessment and treatment. Otherwise, start by changing his diet to something like a Purina Pro Plan or Hill's Science Diet product that tend to be very complete diets. Also, try to avoid him eating the sand as that could result in gastrointestinal upset or obstruction. Good luck!

Most dogs like to eat bugs, grass, and other items they shouldn't. Keeping an eye on Molly and stopping her from eating anything potentially harmful is a good idea. It would be hard to say if the bugs are safe to eat or not without knowing what bugs she is eating.

This is certainly a frustrating behavior and can it hard to control. I have two thoughts for you. 1) Often dogs who eat lots of none food items have mild intestinal upset all the time. I would recommend starting by talking to her vet about this and starting her on probiotics 2) For management, remove all the dog beds from your house and teaching her to wear a basket muzzle while outside and/or only taking her out on leash. Check out this site for more information: https://muzzleupproject.com/muzzle-training/ . I know this sounds extreme, but her current behavior is potentially life threatening. My last idea is to talk to a behaviorist to see if she needs help with anxiety or other behavioral problem. But only after exploring the possibility of intestinal upset with your regular vet. https://avsab.org/resources/behavior-consultant-near-you-2/

I believe she snarfed a bunch of grubs.....a snack so to speak, without chewing. There is no stomach bot that would look like that , so she had to have eaten them. It should not be a problem other than that you should watch what she picks up when frolicking in your yard....grubs are no problem, but dead stuff would be. Vomiting/regurgitating is a function of the body ensuring that the dog can get rid of what he does not need, what bothers it. So apparently the grubs where activating the pressure receptors in Coco's stomach which promptly went into action and made her regurgitate the offending fare.