[ThoseWordsAtBest]

Any insight on why my Elkhound is eating bits of toy plastic from squeakers?

My doxie loves squeakers. If it sounds like it's screaming and dying as he's chewing it, he's in heaven. He'll rip bits and bits off and make a neat little pile (I can't even imagine why he does that) and then leave it. We have to beat our Elkhound to the pile because we discovered he swoops in and eats every tiny left over bit. We discovered this after we found a few piles of barf with toy remnants. Our dogs love their toys, but there are becoming less and less things they can have, even supervised (they're quick!) We had to cut out anything with synthetic fur because my doxie will just rip the hair off and eat it (even tennis ball "fur")

Anyone else have a dog that does this? Maybe any whys? We just had our check up and my dudes are completely healthy, just... well, weird. They don't even chew any thing else, or eat any thing off the floor. Just toys.

 

[KenyiGirl]

No idea, but my dog does the eating the "fur" off the tennis ball as well. We play fetch with it, but when we're done we have to take it away from her.

 

[ThoseWordsAtBest]

No idea, but my dog does the eating the "fur" off the tennis ball as well. We play fetch with it, but when we're done we have to take it away from her.

Jonas, my doxie, is just sick for hair. Eats it off the tennis balls, the toys, and I've caught him eating Elkhound hair from a brush. Is there a doggy version of Pica?

 

[Dog Tracks]

Mabel (rat terrier) loves to tear open a stuffy toy and eat the stuffing. She's not big on getting or eating the squeaker though. Whenever we notice that a stuffy toy is getting a hole in it, we have to take it away and perform surgery (sew up the hole; dental floss works best).

The good news is that she only chews on her things (nylabones and toys), never ours (clothing, shoes, furniture, etc). It could be that she's got a million toys and bones in every room of the house.

Your elkhound might be laying claim to it since it's got the doxie's scent on it, but I'm just guessing there.

 

[Leroy&Lucy'sMom]

Yep I got one of those too. We can't have tennis balls in the house because Lucy likes to eat all the fuzz and then proceed to eat the whole thing! Same goes with anything that is not a indestructible toy... luckily I can quickly step in to take the squeaker away. They rarely get those toys because of this.
She also loves any paper products-TP, tissues, paper towel...
But at least they leave everything else alone.

 

[Mason]

Mason loves squeeky toys, but they never last more than 20 minutes. He squeeks them relentlessly, until the squeeker has squeeked its last squeek, and then he holds it down with both of his front paws and rips the toy to shreds.

I've found that he's such a powerful chewer that kongs can't even stand up to the boy. The other day, he chewed a large chunk off of a kong bone. I thought he'd swallowed it, until I found him pushing it around in his mouth.

He also loves shoes and dirty underwear. My hamper is never safe.

And don't feel so bad. At least they're not chewing holes in the wall. I have to keep reminding myself to fix that :\

 

[StellaLucyDesi]

Yes, dogs can have pica! I have one that does. Desi eats socks, hair off his toys, toilet paper/paper towels, dish towels...to point of compulsion. I have to watch him alot. He has a few health issues...skin condition. His thyroid has been checked because he is overweight (but doesn't get overfed at all). It came back normal. The vet thinks he could be borderline cushings. He is a poodle/shih-tzu mix. My other 2 dogs don't do this at all!

 

[ThoseWordsAtBest]

Well, it's good to know my dogs aren't the only weirdos. They don't touch any thing else, but these toys are apparently a delicacy.

They also can destroy any thing. We bought all these recommended "tough" toys and they were in shreds. It's almost like they're saying "We don't want this crap, stop leaving it about the house!"