We have flower beds all around the outside of our house, and we've put down weed-reducing fabric and bark. Finn's favorite thing in the world is to chew on the bark. I know that he chews because he's a puppy, but my concern is that it's not good for his digestive system/intestines. He also likes to pull the fabric up and dig in the dirt, but I'm much more concerned about him ingesting the bark.

 

We like to let him and Guinness out to play when we get home since Finn is locked up all day, but I feel as though we need to constantly watch him to make sure he's not eating too much or swallowing chunks that are too big.

 

Thanks!

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Izzie does this also. We have the bark around our flower beds and she knows we don't like her eating it but she gives that innocent look with the bark in her mouth and then starts chewing it after we turn around. Also Izzie is teaching the puppy to chew on the bark also.
Our puppy did this for a little while but has somewhat grown out of it. She still loves to chew on sticks though!! I've watched our dog and haven't actually seen her swallow any of the mulch or sticks she's chewing on. She just chews and chews and chews.
Every dog we've had in the last 16 years has chewed wood from our cabinet shop & we've never had a problem. I suppose some dog somewhere has had something horrible happen but so far so good here. There dogs. They chew. Walnut seems to be the favorite here. :-)
Baron loves to chew on bark and roadkill. (Don't ask!)
Some bark has chemicals in it, you may went to avoid having them chew on it.
I have to bribe Baron with biscuits to get the bark out of his mouth.
I know this is an old post, but I was just searching about bark chewing! Isabella constantly has bark or sticks in her mouth! She takes the flower bed bark and LOVES it! She even likes to pull trunk bark from a backyard tree. I'm not worried about the flower beds or the tree, but I figured it could not be good for her...She just runs when I try to take it from her. She is doing GREAT with sit, down, stay...leave it and drop it? Yeah, not so much! I just worried it was really bad for her. On the other hand, her poo has been really soft since we got her (all checks out normal) and I hoped maybe the extra fiber would firm it up!
Rufus heads straight to the tree wells, where he knows he'll find big pieces of bark. He picks one up, I throw it away. Every day. Sigh.
Sage ate tons of bark with turkey leg droppings at Ren fest last week...I was a little scared but leave it didn't work and everytime I looked down I swear she had wood in her mouth. At home she carries tree branches around but doesn't chew them as much but I swear they are about 3' long...it's funny!
My cardi puppy Luke is crazy about wood chips too. Our house has bark around the trees in the yard (it was there when we moved in) and he absolutely loves to eat it. I definitely worry about him getting a blockage even though he seems to chew it pretty thoroughly. We've tried spraying pieces with bitter apple and leaving them where he will find them in hopes that would deter him, but he doesn't seem to care. I'm thinking of replacing it with rock to match the rest of the landscaping but I kind of worry he'll decide to eat that instead!

On a side note - make sure it's not cocoa mulch which is toxic to dogs.
You beat me to the bit about the cocoa mulch - and I'm glad you did! We tried the bitter apple bit but the dogs love it! Sonny will eat anything he happens upon, "leave it" works sometimes and sometimes not (usually not)
I didn't even know there was such a thing as cocoa mulch until I started reading about it here. We just have the normal, garden variety redwood bark. They are pretty big pieces for her little mouth, but that doesn't seem to stop her. I forgot, there are also tons of little pine cones...oh, those are yummy, too!

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