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Eats Things Ground or Floor

When a Chihuahua Eats Things Off the Ground or Floor

Overview

A Chihuahua puppy or dog constantly eating things off of the ground or the floor is not an uncommon problem. Outside, nothing is off-limits, including pebbles, small sticks, acorns, and leaves. This may be done when out for a walk or when in the yard for playtime or bathroom needs. Indoors, owners report their Chihuahuas trying to eat everything that drops, from bits of food when preparing dinner to non-food items that are possible choking hazards.

To some extent, this sort of scavenging behavior is a normal part of canine instinct, heralding back to the days when dogs foraged for food. However, it does pose quite a few risks and should be addressed.

This section will cover how to stop your Chihuahua from eating everything that’s on the ground or that has fallen to the floor. There are both prevention and training tips that can help resolve this issue in as little as two weeks.

Why Chihuahuas Try to Eat Everything They See

There are several elements that can be in play:

Curiosity - Dogs naturally mouth things. Without opposable thumbs, mouthing objects is a canine’s main method of finding out what something is and if it’s worth their time. It’s very common for dogs to mouth non-food items, simply to answer the question of ‘what is this?’.

Chewing urges – Pups that are teething have urges to soothe sore or itchy gums. Chihuahuas of any age can have strong chewing urges. Simply put, gnawing on pine cones, candy wrappers, or just about anything else may feel good.

Foraging instinct – Foraging is the act of searching for food and provisions. Canines have an incredible sense of smell and when doing this, their noses lead the way. If your Chihuahua continually sniffs at the ground while being walked, chances are that your dog is on the trail of a scent, and may stop along the way to mouth items of interest, especially those that hold a particular scent of another animal.

Even when indoors, your Chihuahua’s capabilities are amazing. Canines, in general, can detect smells 10,000 to 100,000 better than us humans. Dogs are also excellent at zeroing in on the direction of scents; so, the moment that a piece of cheese falls to the floor in the kitchen, your Chihuahua that’s in the living room knows where it is in the blink of an eye and may run over to gobble it up before you even have a chance to grab it.

How to Stop a Chihuahua From Eating Things Off the Ground or Floor

Step #1 Limit Temptations

If you were trying to eat healthy and there was one cupcake in your house, you might be able to resist it. But, what if there were multiple cupcakes in each room of your house, everywhere you looked? Then, if you went outside, there were hundreds. How would you do?

This same principle can be applied to helping a Chihuahua with eating things from the floor inside the house and off the ground when outside.

Outdoors, keep the yard free of feces by using a poop-scooper or rinsing the feces down with a garden hose. Rake up pine cones, acorns, old leaves, and debris. Keep trash in barrels with secure lids. Note that these steps also help decrease other risks to your Chihuahua including the presence of ticks and wildlife like hawks and owls coming onto your property.

Indoors, routinely puppy-proof the house, no matter how old your Chihuahua is. Each year, hundreds of dogs need to have emergency surgery due to swallowing non-food items found on the floor. If your puppy or dog is constantly trying to eat coins, bits of paper, pens, shoelaces, and such, this is a big red flag that you need to keep the floors free of small objects.

Step #2 Satisfy Your Chihuahua’s Foraging Instincts

We can’t stop our dogs from being dogs; but, we can guide them to finding satisfaction in safer, more controlled ways.

When you place your Chihuahua’s dinner bowl down, there’s not more scavenging to do. However, an effective method to offer an engaging challenge is to give your Chi a treat-dispensing toy. These are meant to keep a dog busy and entertained; as they nudge and nose the toy, small bits of kibble are released.

If your Chihuahua tends to sniff all over the house looking for things to eat, you may want to have several of these, leaving them for your puppy or dog to find.

There’s a couple of good ones that are appropriately sized for small Chi, including the Busy Buddy Barnacle Toy. The extra-small is for dogs under 10 pounds, and since this has 3 connected spheres, the smallest of them can work for even very tiny Chihuahuas.

And for adult Chihuahuas, the OurPets IQ Treat Ball Interactive Food Dispensing Toy is a fun one; this is a see-thru orb that releases kibble as it rolls.

Step #3 Satisfy Your Chihuahua’s Chewing Urges

Some dogs grab things from the ground to actually eat them and some do it to chew on them. If your Chihuahua tends to chew the things that they’re mouthing, offer better choices.

Something like the DuraChew Double Bone Bacon Chew Toy will get the job done. Be sure to choose the ‘extra small’ if your Chi is under 7 pounds. This is a long-lasting chew for strong, aggressive chewers, has multiple chewing angles and textures, and is bacon-flavored.

Step #4 Keep Control of Your Chihuahua

When a dog tries to eat everything from the ground, a big part of fixing this is to take your place as leader, staying in charge of where your Chihuahua goes and his ability to pick up items along the way.

You can main control with the following steps in place:

1. Supervision and leash when outside in the yard. Simply opening the door and letting your Chi run outside is just asking for trouble. Not to mention that if your Chi is not close by on leash, it’s near impossible to follow house training guidelines which include bringing your dog to one certain area and immediately give reward when the deed is done.

2. Use a harness, not a collar. Aside from the important aspect of helping to prevent collapsed trachea, an issue very common with toy breeds, using a harness as opposed to a collar, is an effective method of having control any time that your Chi is on leash, including for walks.

A harness displaces pressure across the chest, back, and shoulders, not the neck, allowing you to be able to pull your Chihuahua back from danger, including mouthing rocks, pinecones, and the like.

A common problem with finding a harness for a Chihuahua is sizing. However, there are a couple of companies that have done a great job offering harnesses that fit even the tiniest puppies and dogs.

You may have seen some of these and assumed that they were too big in looking at the given inches. Maybe you saw ‘8 inches’ and thought, ‘Wow, that’s too big!’ If you don’t have a measuring tape, take a piece of letter-sized paper. See the smaller end? That’s 8.5 inches. Curl it end to end and you’ll see just how little it is.

The Comfort Fit Small Dog Harness in size extra-extra small has a neck girth of just 7 (and up to 10) inches. That is small enough for young Chihuahua puppies and smaller adults. This one is super easy to put on because nothing goes over your dog’s head; it has Velcro on the back. It's also padded for a nice comfy fit and comes in 5 different colors.

Another good choice is the Lil Pals Mesh Comfort Adjustable Step-in Harness. This is also designed for very petite dogs; the extra-small is for dogs with a neck measurement of 6 to 8 inches and it has adjustable Velcro on the back.

3. Keep your Chi in proper heeling position; this means to your left and never further ahead than the extension of your foot as you walk. This can be accomplished via the harness as mentioned earlier and an adjustable leash like the Flexi Classic Cord Leash.

If you let your Chi follow a trail by sniffing ahead of you, your dog will be sure to gobble something up by the time you catch up to him.

4. When inside, if your Chihuahua is a bit out-of-control, mouthing, chewing, and trying to eat everything in sight, you’ll want to consider a canine playpen. It cannot be overstated how helpful these are. These are ideal for housebreaking, as a safe and comfortable area when home alone, and to keep a Chi in one spot to control a host of unwanted behaviors.

Don’t think of this as some type of quarantine; most dogs love having their own special 'dens'. The IRIS 24'' 4-Panel Pet Playpen with a Door offers 8 square feet of space and you can add on panels as you wish to extend the area. Inside, there’s room for your Chi’s bed, toys, food and water, and pee pads. There is no stress or confining feeling as there is with a crate or cage.

Step #5 Teach the ‘Leave it’ Command

Note that many sources supply just this one piece of advice to stop a dog from eating things from the ground. However, if you do not have the other steps in place, this alone will have you giving the order every other second.

Therefore, before moving forward, be sure that you are: keeping the yard free of debris, the floors free of clutter, supplying both treat-release and chew toys to satisfy foraging and chewing urges, that you keep your Chihuahua on adjustable leash and harness when out and about, and that you keep your Chihuahua in a playpen when you cannot closely supervise.

Only then, it will be time to start working on the ‘Leave it’ command.

The goal:

The idea of this is to reward a dog to drop something he’s mouthed. The key is to make the reward more tempting than the object currently about to be chewed or eaten.

As repetitions are being done, your Chihuahua will be gradually trained to respond instinctively. In time, the command along with praise afterward is all that will be needed.

Pre-training prep:

1. Choose a training treat. Since a huge aspect of this is the reward that’s given in the beginning stages, it must be:

Something that is not given out at any other times.
Small, so that it does not interfere with your dog’s appetite.
Extra tasty, also known as a 'high value' reward.
Moist/chewy, as these work much better than dry treats in regard to marking good behavior.

If you’re looking for an effective training treat, a great choice is Wellness Soft Bites Grain-Free Puppy Training Treats. Since ‘puppy size’ for many dog breeds is the same as a full-grown Chihuahua, these are ideal for Chi of any age.

These are 100% grain-free, are made by Wellness which is a trusted brand, have no chemical preservatives, no artificial coloring or flavoring, and are made in the USA. BE sure to opt for the soft lamb & salmon, and not the crunchy chicken & carrots (which are more appropriate as snacks for in between meals).

2. Choose a training place and times. Ideally, it is best to do short (5 minute) training sessions 4 to 5 times per day, each day, in an area of your home with no distractions.

Training:

Have training treats in a sandwich-sized plastic bag hidden in an easily accessible pocket (like the front pocket of a jacket); these will be the ones given out to your Chihuahua. Others will be in your hand; these will be the ones that you will order your Chi to ‘Leave it’ and will not be given out.

1. Have your Chi on leash and harness. Sit or kneel on the floor near your Chihuahua. Place the leash’s handle around your wrist or under your knee to keep your dog in one spot.

2. Cup your hand around a few training treats and hold it out in front of your Chihuahua. Do not open your hand. The idea is to have your dog smell the treats and want them, but not be able to obtain them. Your Chi will keep sniffing your hand, trying to get them, and that’s just fine.

3. Watch your Chi closely. At any moment that your dog looks away or stops sniffing, even for a split-second moment, mark that by immediately saying ‘Leave it’ then ‘Good leave it’ (to reinforce the command word) while giving one training treat from the stash in your pocket.

4. Over and over, you will repeat this, showing your Chi that as soon as there is no attempt to try and take what’s in your hand, reward is given. And, that the action of not trying to take something is marked with the command of ‘Leave it’.

5. After first, it may seem that it’s mere coincidence that your Chi looks away or pauses. But, it’s vital that that action is rewarded. Your Chi is learning, he just doesn’t know it yet.

6. By Day Two or Three, you should be able to place your cupped hand out, give the ‘Leave it’ command right away, and in turn, your Chi will not even try to go for what is in your hand. After all, your dog learned that the real reward is elsewhere.

7. By the end of Week One, it will be time to move things up a notch by placing the temptation on the floor. Gently place it down, and give the ‘Leave it’ command. Get ready to place your hand over that temptation if your Chi lunges for it.

At first, give the real reward (from the stash in your pocket) if there is just a hesitation for a few seconds. As the days go on, increase the time interval up to 30 seconds, as ‘Leave it’ is repeated.

8. Once your Chihuahua has mastered this, you can continue to train with other things, using objects that your dog has tended to eat from the floor or from the ground in the past.

9. The next to final step is indoor practicing to obey the ‘Leave it’ command while walking by something. In advance, set up a temptation on the floor in a good-sized room or down a hallway. With your Chi on leash and collar, walk your dog passed this, giving the ‘Leave it’ command. If your dog listens, reward is given immediately along with ‘Good, leave it!”. If your dog tried to mouth the temptation, do not allow this by taking control via the leash and on harness, this will not injure your Chi’s neck.

10. The final step is to practice outdoors. This should not be done until indoor training is going very well, since there are a lot more scents and distractions outside.

Tip: If at any time your Chi cannot master a step of the training, go back to an earlier step for several days.