

Pica may also be caused by your dog’s anxiety or other negative emotions. Our hope is that children with pica will receive early intervention to prevent pica from developing into life-threatening behavior.Ĭopyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. Proper diet and changes to their current dog food can help combat this cause of Pica very quickly. Our hope is that administrators, professionals and practitioners will consider our guidelines and recommendations as they attempt to protect people with pica and developmental disabilities from harm by developing standards for assessment, treatment and prevention for this difficult-to-treat population. Behavioral Pica exists, too, and can be the result of compulsive eating or your dog’s anxiety levels reaching too-high states. Pica may or may not be caused by other issues with your pet’s health that you’re unaware of. These recommendations are based on two extensive reviews of the literature and our extensive experience as practitioners in the treatment of pica. Some dogs will just lick or chew rocks, which can also be a sign of nutritional deficiency. We make recommendations for assessment, treatment, and prevention of pica for practitioners. Your puppy is probably suffering from pica, a condition where an animal eats dirt and other non-food items in the environment. Treatment Attention-seeking and compulsive causes should be treated accordingly. A second limitation of current research is that some studies reduced pica substantially, but pica responses still occurred at rates that are problematic in terms of prevention of adverse consequences, which leaves practitioners with the task of further decreasing pica to protect people exhibiting pica from harm. Pica is part of normal experimental behaviour in young dogs and so it is. While a number of published studies have demonstrated that pica behavior can be decreased substantially with behavioral treatment, few of these studies incorporated strategies for generalization and maintenance outside of brief sessions. Studies also indicate that pica has led to the death of people with developmental disabilities. Our Natural Canine Behaviourist, Caroline Spencer, explains why dogs will eat non-food items and what you can do to treat pica in dogs. Pica is a dangerous form of self-injurious behavior that occurs in people with developmental disabilities who are institutionalized. 3 min read Pica in dogs is a real concern when you have a dog who compulsively, obsessively eats non-food items.
