The Pursuit of Grass

If you have a dog, you've probably noticed that no matter what you feed him or her, your buddy still pursues the odd snack of nice green grass, at least on occasion. That leads inquiring minds to wonder – what's up with the grass? Why do our canine friends like it so?

Theories abound, but definitive knowledge on this topic is in short supply. So, here goes with the theories and remember, they are just that.

One thought that concerns some dog owners is a nutritional deficiency is driving the dog's desire for grass. According to veterinarians, modern food is nutritionally complete, and so in theory, our dogs should not be minus any required nutrients if they eat a quality commercial dog food. I don't vote for commercial dog food, preferring instead like many people I know, to provide homemade food for my dog friends. In that food, I always provide greens, in addition to a variety of other veggies and a bit of fruit, so all nutritional components for dogs should be there as well.

Perhaps as some suggest, dogs are trying to mimic the ancient days when they were largely predatory, and are ingesting the grass they would have ingested from the stomach of prey animals, before the days of domestication. I don't know about that, they've become awfully acclimatized to pizza – do they really remember those far-flung wild days?

Perhaps eating grass is reminiscent of the ruminants dogs eat – cattle and lamb and such. Perhaps the taste or the gestalt of grass comes through meat and the dogs nibble on grass to remember the fine experience of eating grass-eaters.

Certainly, Nicholai will eat grass at times simply to throw it up. He's always done it, all of my dogs have. Sometimes, they snack on grass and keep it down, other times they barf it right back up. Does grass serve as some kind of digestive cleaner-upper that can be used discretionarily for either upper digestive tract or lower digestive tract cleansing?

Whatever the case, I trust my dogs on this. No matter what I feed them, they still eat grass. So I think they know something that we don't. Nutrients, fiber, pleasure, digestive tonic, I am happy to allow them this dietary choice. We don't put chemicals on our lawn, we grow some tall grass – which they seem to prefer – and I limit access to grass that I worry may have pesticides or herbicides on it.

If grass ingestion suddenly becomes excessive, or is accompanied by fever, bowel changes, or lack of appetite, we'll probably take a trip to the vet. Otherwise, I say have at it, dogs. You seem to know what you're doing.