Why Does My Dog Eat Grass?

Grass is in fact both a stomach irritant and a binding agent. Grass binds to certain toxins that may be present in your dog’s stomach. While not an optimum method for ridding your dog’s system of a particular toxin, ingesting grass can help your dog expel toxins from his system. However, it is generally believed that your dog is not making the connection that consuming grass leads to vomiting any more than he makes the connection that scavenging through the garbage will make him sick later on. Instead, your dog most likely eats grass – like garbage – because he likes the taste. Your dog’s wolf ancestors also ate grass when they consumed the intestines and stomach contents of their grass-eating prey, so the craving for a bit of a grass is likely still hard-wired in many dogs. One note of caution: eating even small quantities of grass can be dangerous if the grass your dog is nibbling on has been treated with pesticides or fertilizers.