Provide plenty of mental exercise to keep your puppy busy. Give her a variety of toys and safe things to chew, such as a Tricky Treat™ ball, food-stuffed KONGS™ and Buster®
Provide plenty of physical exercise, too. Play tug and fetch with your puppy, go on walks together and let her play with dog buddies.
Monitor your puppy at all times. Verbally discourage your puppy whenever you see her start to pick up something she shouldn’t eat. Redirect her attention to appropriate treats and toys instead.
If your puppy starts to eat any nonfood items, quickly take them out of her mouth. Inedible objects can cause illness or internal blockages if your puppy swallows them.
Whenever possible, prevent access to all nonfood items that your dog tries to consume. Always supervise your dog carefully when she’s not in a safe dog-proofed area. If you think your dog might try to eat something she shouldn’t, put it away so that it’s out of her reach. You can also muzzle your dog when you think she might snatch and swallow nonfood items. For example, if your dog loves to pick up and consume rocks, you can try using a muzzle when walking her outside. Be sure to use a basket muzzle to ensure that your dog can pant and drink water. Verbally discourage your dog whenever you see her start to pick up nonfood items. Try to redirect her attention to appropriate treats and toys instead. Praise her happily when she looks at or picks up a toy.
If your dog starts to eat a nonfood item, quickly but gently take it out of her mouth. Inedible objects can cause illness or internal blockages if your dog swallows them.
Provide lots of mental and physical exercise. Try giving your dog a variety of toys, such as a Tricky Treat™ ball, food-stuffed KONGS™ and safe things to chew. Play tug and fetch with her, go on walks together and let her play with dog buddies.
Talk to your vet about the possibility of using medications to decrease your dog’s stress and compulsive behavior.
Teach your dog to reliably come when called. Then you can use that skill to call her away from dangerous items that she might pick up and try to eat.
Teach your dog the “leave it” cue, and then use it to ask her to leave inedible objects alone. Train your dog to perform a specific behavior, such as sit or bark on command, whenever she discovers anything similar to the nonfood items she usually tries to eat. Teaching a new skill will enable you to prevent your dog from eating dangerous inedible objects and reward her for some other behavior you like better. Your dog can’t bark at an object and eat it at the same time!
Use taste deterrents on nonfood items your dog might try to eat. Useful, safe taste deterrents for dogs include finely ground black pepper, crushed hot pepper, Tabasco® sauce and Grannick’s Bitter Apple® spray or gel. You must consistently apply whichever deterrent you choose to all desirable items your dog can access. You might need to use the deterrent for many weeks or even many months to convince your dog that all desirable nonfood items always taste bad. For maximum effect, restrict her access to water for 10 to 20 minutes after she tastes an object coated in deterrent so that she can’t immediately wash away the yucky taste by drinking. If you see your dog approaching an item you’ve treated with deterrent, say “Leave it,” just as she begins to taste it. If she turns away from the object and looks at you, praise and pet her. After several repetitions of the sequence above, start to say “Leave it” just as your dog reaches a deterrent-treated object to taste it. If she turns away from the object instead of picking it up, praise and pet her. If you repeat this sequence, she’ll learn to associate the warning cue, “Leave it,” with the bad taste. Eventually, you’ll be able to use this cue to discourage your dog from picking up any desirable object. Note: It’s hard to permanently get rid of pica, so you’ll occasionally need to leave tempting objects treated with deterrent lying around to remind your dog that it’s not a good idea to gobble up nonfood items.
Use a punishment device that you can activate remotely (from a distance) so that your dog doesn’t associate the unpleasant event with you. Loud air horns and remote-controlled citronella collars work well as remote punishers. If you choose to try a collar, you must let your dog wear it for 10 to 14 days before you actually use it to deliver the unpleasant spray. If you don’t, she’ll associate the punishment with the collar and learn to engage in pica behavior whenever she isn’t wearing it.
Best of luck.......