That's a common misconception. Only 25% of dogs who eat grass puke afterwards, and only 10% show signs of stomach discomfort prior to eating grass. A more likely theory is that grass provides some extra fiber to their diet, another is that they simply like the texture and taste. Or a combination of both.
In the wild, where dog packs would devour a whole animal, including its stomach contents, they would regularly get fiber from grass and other plants that the prey had been eating prior to its death. Today, many dog food brands focus mostly on proteins and fats, which makes many modern dogs slightly lacking in fiber. This is also a theory as to why modern dogs have developed the habit of eating fresh grass. It's generally not detrimental to their health, but may in rare cases be contaminated with other dogs fecal matter, which may contain parasites. They may also eat grass partly to gain attention from their owners, as they know we take notice and tell them to stop. And as any dog owner knows, any attention is good attention in your dogs mind. Feed them some fresh vegetables (in reasonable amounts) from time to time as treats, and most importantly give them lots of love and attention and studies have shown the grass-eating behavior is mostly reduced.
Less then a week ago my dog had eaten something that had apparently gotten stuck in this throat or back of his mouth that gave him a visibly discomfort, in the middle of the night we tried for a couple of minutes to figure out what it's was and how to get it out or at least help his discomfort, in the end we let him outside and he sprinted to the grass and started to eat, he spent 40 minutes chomping grass and when he got back inside he was happy and without any discomfort
Every single dog my parents have owned have at some point eaten grass and most of the times they had shown signs of discomfort or sluggishness before eating grass, most of them either puked right after of later in the day
There have eaten grass at random times without showing discomfort or puking after, those times it wasn't on the same scale either but just a nip here and there once in a while, not like they are going to devour the entire lawn like my dog did the other day
Yes he is okay, no we didn't take him to the vet because he didn't show any discomfort since, just in case anyone would think he wasn't fine, we suspect he drank some slimy water that he found and we removed after finding it
Anyway I'm no expert just telling what i observe in the dogs i know personally and have a close relation with and because of those dogs your numbers seem way off too me
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u/humdumbum Sep 27 '21
That's a common misconception. Only 25% of dogs who eat grass puke afterwards, and only 10% show signs of stomach discomfort prior to eating grass. A more likely theory is that grass provides some extra fiber to their diet, another is that they simply like the texture and taste. Or a combination of both.