Justin Huntsdale
ABC
Wed, 25 Jul 2007 23:29 UTC

Owning a dog can be a fascinating experience. You get to know their personality and learn how they work. And something that has baffled a lot of dog owners is why dogs eat grass.

Our dog used to vomit whenever he'd eat grass, and a lot of people think that they do it when they need to be sick.

Sam Bjone is a PHD student at the University of New England (UNE) and she's been studying this, because she says it's "one of life's mysteries".

"When I was doing my masters at UNE I worked with dogs and they were being fed really expensive high quality food that was supposedly everything they needed in their diet and more.
"But the dogs would go to great effort to get grass through the fence," she said.

"It got me thinking, what is this all about?" Sam said.

She said that it's understandable that there's so many theories behind it, because researchers aren't certain themselves.

"I've heard lots of different reasons for it and every dog seems to be different, but so far in my studies I haven't found any links to it being to do with dogs wanting to be sick.

"They could be getting moisture from the grass because we've seen dogs eat more grass in the morning no matter when they were fed during the day."

Sam said she's still got more research to do.

"I've got one more experiment that I hope to have accomplished in September and October, looking at the theory that they do it do be sick," she says.

"As I proceed along I just seem to be coming up with more questions."

Even though a definitive answer seems some time away, Sam remains positive.

"It's a great thing when you're in an environment and you're doing what you love, even if it is a lot of work," she said.