Yes, rawhide is a poor choice, I'm afraid.

What is his food? Pica can be a sign of a dietary lack, but definitely not always. I have seen dogs on the best diet who still ate dirt and pebbles, and the "cure" was exercise and training.

http://www.usask.ca/wcvm/herdmed/applied-ethology/behaviourproblems/picabeh.html

Have you tried a Kong with something inside?

Also, you didn't ask this, but is the vomiting time-related to the vaccinations? Has he had one or two "puppy shots"?

If your pup is getting into trash cans, cat boxes, and eating tile and the walls inside the house then he needs to either be tethered to you or in a crate if you can't have eyes on him every moment.

My pup was very destructive outside when he was bored and left alone without anything else to do. With my pup it took no time for him to become bored. I put chew toys in the yard and those stay outside. One chew toy I like is a big heavy-duty rubber tire that you can get in the store. It is the one thing he hasn't yet destroyed.

But Connie is right...exercise and mental stimulation will help curb the destructive behavior.

I will sheepishly admit that I do give my dog rawhides on occasion. I learned, however, that if I gave him the rawhides with the big knots on the ends he would inhale them in a 1/2 hour...and throw it all up later. I give him the rolls now and those take a lot longer to consume and we haven't had any problems. But they aren't the best choice for a dog that breaks off big pieces and they aren't a good choice nutritionally.

You can also get THK from Leerburg, if you don't have success getting it locally. (I use it as backup to raw, and I order it from Leerburg. The shipping isn't prohibitive at all, to my surprise.)

EXCELLENT to dump the IAMS and switch to THK. Best possible thing (short of fresh raw food) that you can do, IMHO.

You can try peanut butter in the Kong. You can smear it inside if you don't want to give a Kong-full of peanut butter.

Freezing it can slow down the emptying.

Also, do you know that Greenies have been re-formulated? They are now made with gelatin instead of cornstarch. I would check the label, BTW, to make SURE I was getting the new ones. Is gelatin in first place on the ingredients list?)

Not only did gelatin make much more sense to me -- also, my vet told me that she had induced vomiting on a dog who gulped a whole one when he thought his sibling was going to take it, and she found that the new Greenie was already dissolving into a soft gelatinous mush instead of a slippery lump heading for the intestines.

 Quote: Louanne Manter

His diet for the last week has been rice and boiled meat (chicken, turkey, or beef). Today I've been transitioning him back to his dog food, combined with rice and boiled meat. is bad, any alternatives?

I would not mix his dry food with his boiled rice and chickem.Do one or the other.You might be giving him too much protein and also too many diffrent foods to digest..Raw Hide are the worst, give him a soup bone instead, fresh.

I would give a soup bone (marrow bone) as Angelique suggested. It's really hard to find a dog that doesn't like them (raw).

My pup wasn't too excited about the Kong either when I got it. I started putting some of his food inside of it at meal times and now he LOVES it. So much so that he actually optimistically brings it to me right around mealtime. I've found that it slows down his gulping, too.

Angelique once posted about giving pieces of garden hose to your dog for (supervised) chew time, too (correct me if I remember that wrong, Angelique).

I haven't tried this yet, but it sounds like a good idea. Like any chew toy, I would imagine it will break down eventually but I'm guessing it will last longer than a rawhide bone!

 Quote: Louanne Manter

What he does is EAT EVERYTHING. This vomitting episode followed him just recently getting in the trash in eating a part of a chocolate bar. I was hoping he would vomit, in this case. Along with the current pile of chocolate and part of his lunch was what I am guessing is part of his rawhide bone. (Is rawhide bad for dogs/puppys? He loves them!)

Yesterday's vomit had no visible signs of his lunch, just mud! Yes my dog eats dirt. He likes to chew rocks, walls, tile & cement. He likes to eat cat poop, orange peels, apples, dirt, et cetera. You name it, will eat it. I am thinking about a muzzle for him.

His energy and mood are normally healthy puppy and he is doing great with his training. Our issues are normal puppy issues, like wanting to chew everything in sight and nipping/biting at us when he wants to play.

Anyone have any thoughts or comments on this eating dirt, chewing cardboard, eating/chewing his rawhide bones? If rawhide is bad, any alternatives?

Loanne sorry to hear about your pup being sick, in this thread,
http://www.leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/128459/page/1#Post128459 I have been given some great advice about my pup with some similar problems. My pup was going into the garbage as well but Mr Frawley had mentioned somewhere on his website to use mousetraps under peices of paper to stop a dog from skimming the counter for scraps so I did the same thing for the garbage. Just I used some double sided tape on the flip lid instead to hold the mouse trap and paper. Worked like a charm!

As per the vomiting and the diahreah my dog had severe diahreah like yours once as she spent the night at my sisters and ate a mess of cat food. Maybe with your pup all the other things that he has been getting into has contributed to this? It doesn't take much to upset a young dog's stomach by any reach.

I had a hose that cracked over the summer and I cut it up in small 15 inches or more(bad at measurements unless I actualy measure it lol) I used it as a reward, or tossing for retrieve type of games but not for acutaly chewing, unless he is super young and does not have the strenght to get little pieces chewed off.If he chews off little pieces and does not eat them then your safe but I wouldn't bet on it.
It's hard for me to say cause all my dogs are adults except the King Charles and he loves his stuff animals ,could care less about a piece of old hose

My puppy doesn't like Peanut Butter. But he does like Ice Cubes. I give him ice cubes in his water dish and I also freeze chicken broth for him. He does like to chew those up quite a bit.