My first question on here (after our earlier introduction here) so here goes...

Our bernese pup has taken a liking to eating small stones - we have a large gravel area out in the yard and at first we thought she was just chewing them and spitting them out, but it now looks as though she is swallowing them. There isn't any signs of them passing right through and so we are worried that this is going to cause her problems. She doesn't seem to be in any pain or discomfort at the moment but she has started to have loose bowels over the last day or so.

If anybody has experienced this before or knows of a good way to stop her doing this I'd be very interested to hear?

Riley ate EVERYTHING he could get in his mouth when he was a puppy, but luckily it all came out the other end, and he eventually "grew out of it". I have heard of dogs that have had bowel obstructions from eating rocks though, so I would really watch her, and call your vet if she stops eating / drinking or ( and I am no vet) if she stopped pooping. I would think that meant she had a blockage. We used a product called Apple Bitter. Apparently it tastes awful so we would spray it on things that we knew he was just dying to chew on, and it did seem to help. You said that it was a gravel area, so I am thinking you couldnt really spray the whole thing, but maybe if you just sprayed enough that she would get a taste???? Basically you are going to have to watch her, and single time she gets one, take it away, and say "NO" and/or "NON"
lol After 100 or so times, she'll get it.

Our Berner liked to eat wood. We could never figure out why he liked it so much. He stopped when he was about a year old. He doesn't seem to be any worse for wear but stones are much different. Sorry I don't have any ideas on how to get her to stop immediately. You could try to contact the breeder where you bought her and ask if they know something that will work to get her to stop. Good luck, she's a beautiful girl!!

Our berner loves to eat everything. I'm talking pebbles, worms, moths, sticks, weeds, small trees, grass, etc. When we go for walks I try to just keep clear of the big stuff and fish it out of her mouth if she tries to eat something. It is really annoying. I'm praying she grows out of this!

We use the bitter apple spray for stuff she eats in the house. I've even gone so far as to spray it on my house plants so she doesn't eat them. It works really well. After a couple of mouth foaming incidents (apparently it makes their mouths foam up) she now recognizes the smell and stays away.

Thanks for all the tips and advice guys. I thought I'd give you an update on where we're at with this issue...

We decided to go for the method of continuously reinforcing the message of "no/non" and "mange pas" when she started reaching for any stones/weeds/rubbish when out on her walks. It has been a couple of intensive weeks and means having to watch her like a hawk when she's out in the yard, but if she starts to take an interest in the gravel we distract her with a chew bone (which she loves). She is definitely starting to get the message now. She does occasionally try to sneak one now and again when she thinks we're not looking (at least she now knows it's wrong!), but I'll chalk that one up to the intelligence of the breed!