HELP - How to stop young pup from eating things she finds?

[mick miller]

Well, little Merla is progressing nicely. She's very good on recall unless distracted by another dog, and will sit nicely when asked unless distracted by another dog, human, bird, scent. She hunts nicely and turns when asked (in fact this is her favourite thing) and retrieves nicely to hand unless distracted by another dog, human, scent (you get the idea)..

 

Not bad for a 4 month old pup and it's all done as fun/play with plenty of praise for good behaviour. One thing is really bothering me though, she eats anything rank she finds; dead, rotten mice, flat dead frogs, animal guts no matter how rotten, discarded doughnuts, bread, sweets and other human detritus, excrement and most worryingly, mushrooms (so far an unidentified shroom, and several dying inkcaps).

 

Despite calling her 'here' (which she ignores), telling her to 'leave it' (a command she knows and generally obeys in the house) she defiantly and obstinately ignores me, scoffing the item with even greater enthusiasm. I don't want to muzzle her when out and about and I don't want her tied to a lead the whole time but the frequent eating of random rotten items is giving her gippy guts (she's had the runs off and on for three days now since the rotten mouse episode on Monday) and I'm afraid she'll scoff something that'll prove terminal.

 

Any advice folks?

[stubby]

mustard hidden in something

[straightbarrel]

Scruff her. Have ten mins every now and then purposely putting her over stuff you know she will scoff. Make sure you are within a yard or two,with the leader on if need be, as soon as she makes a move towards it tell her sternly 'no' or whatever you use as no,'leave' etc.If she ignores 'no', she will be within reach, grab her by the scruff and give her a shake. The first time she listens and leaves whatever ****y thing you plant, make sure you reward her. She will soon get the message, make sure she gets the message.

 

Give the mustard a mis, you dont want her refusing to pick everything up.Just do the basics mate. 'No' then scruff if she ignores.

Edited October 20, 2011 by straightbarrel

[mick miller]

Makes sense so far. I think I must have terrified her with the treatment I gave her after the lastest episode (the unidentified shroom), I grabbed her when I could then marched her back to the rover on a short leash with the silent treatment. Just tried a couple of 'leave it's' and she was good as gold but the scruffing idea makes sense to me. Will give it a go later.

[straightbarrel]

Makes sense so far. I think I must have terrified her with the treatment I gave her after the lastest episode (the unidentified shroom), I grabbed her when I could then marched her back to the rover on a short leash with the silent treatment. Just tried a couple of 'leave it's' and she was good as gold but the scruffing idea makes sense to me. Will give it a go later.

 

Be 100% consistant and make sure if you do scruff her she knows exactly what its for. Dragging her off to another post code will only confuse matters. Punish her on the spot and as quickly as you can, if she shows she is learning make a fuss of her or give her a retreive with the tennis ball or whatever it is she likes to be rewarded with, ( as long as it's not a lump of **** you reward her with)

Edited October 20, 2011 by straightbarrel

[Paul T]

My dog was a beggar for it when he was a young pup. Anything from festering sparrows to rotting rabbits he'd bolt down as fast as possible.

 

Straightbarrel's is good advice, but in the field there was no way I could get to my dog to scruff him in time. Instead I worked hard on recalls, practicing with my own fresher dead rabbits and pigeons in the garden or a grass field. Eventually I could exchange whatever he picked up and retrieved for a tastier treat. After a while I could forget the treat and rely on praise.

 

It did mean that instead of scoffing down his rancid finds in the field he would bring them back, so all you can do is put your hand down to take it and smile sweetly at him. Occasionally he still does this but on the whole he'll sniff and ignore, unless I tell him to bring it. On the plus side, it does mean he'll retrieve anything

 

Mustard???!!

 

Best of luck mate

[mick miller]

I tried Straightbarrel's advice yesterday, giving Merla some serious re-adjustment. So far it seems to work with occasional lapses (first day), I can get her to leave a bit of chicken then reward with another treat and out on the walk this morning I could get her to ignore most things or drop them when told. I just need to keep working on it 10 minutes a day, everyday now until its hard wired into her.

 

Thanks for the advice, I knew the PW'ers wouldn't let me down!

Edited October 21, 2011 by mick miller

[Axor]

Great Advise Straightbarrel, it has been very useful with my 4 month Lurcher also.

[straightbarrel]

My dog was a beggar for it when he was a young pup. Anything from festering sparrows to rotting rabbits he'd bolt down as fast as possible.

 

Straightbarrel's is good advice, but in the field there was no way I could get to my dog to scruff him in time. Instead I worked hard on recalls, practicing with my own fresher dead rabbits and pigeons in the garden or a grass field. [b]Eventually I could exchange whatever he picked up and retrieved for a tastier treat. After a while I could forget the treat and rely on praise.[/b]It did mean that instead of scoffing down his rancid finds in the field he would bring them back, so all you can do is put your hand down to take it and smile sweetly at him. Occasionally he still does this but on the whole he'll sniff and ignore, unless I tell him to bring it. On the plus side, it does mean he'll retrieve anything

 

Mustard???!!

 

Best of luck mate

 

Seems more like a compromise to me mate. That could work with some dogs,as it has with your dog. The danger is when the dog realises everything it brings to you, you reward him for bringing them, then you have the problem of him bringing all the **** you dont want him to touch, back to you. Some will start dropping reteives in anticipation for nice treats also, this is obviously no good to anyone. If you condition the dog to return with everything it finds, good bad or indifferent, you are also breaking up a natural hunting pattern for game, also very undisireable in any hunting dog in my opinion. Recall is the most important thing to instill early in the dogs conditioning but it also has to understand that when it hunts it hunts, 'leave it' and 'no' etc are also early training/conditioning commands. Reward for obeying the 'no' or 'leave' but never for something you dont want him or her to do.

Edited October 21, 2011 by straightbarrel

[Beretta28g]

A big thing that i did with my dog when training and even now, was if either Mum or Dad was sitting in the sitting room walk in with the dog and innocently drop something (a treat or something desiarable) while making dad/mum aware of what id done. If the dog went to pick up the treat he would be admonished, but if he left it after a few minutes it would be picked up and then given to the dog.

 

 

He wont pick them up now.

[Paul T]

Seems more like a compromise to me mate. That could work with some dogs,as it has with your dog. The danger is when the dog realises everything it brings to you, you reward him for bringing them, then you have the problem of him bringing all the **** you dont want him to touch, back to you. Some will start dropping reteives in anticipation for nice treats also, this is obviously no good to anyone. If you condition the dog to return with everything it finds, good bad or indifferent, you are also breaking up a natural hunting pattern for game, also very undisireable in any hunting dog in my opinion. Recall is the most important thing to instill early in the dogs conditioning but it also has to understand that when it hunts it hunts, 'leave it' and 'no' etc are also early training/conditioning commands.

Correct in what you say mate, and I took all this into consideration when breaking his scoffing habit. Yelling 'leave it' didn't work for me either in this situation and I couldn't scruff him when he was 75yards away trying to swallow a young rabbit whole, so another solution was called for. Treats were only used initially to give him something else to eat besides whatever he found. It was used as a habit-breaker, not a permanent reward, and we quickly moved on before rewards became another habit.

 

TBH, I do want him to bring back dead or wounded as he finds them, and I'm perfectly happy with him making the occassional error with something that's been dead rather longer! Hunt and point the living, bring back the dead and wounded - If he does that everytime out then that's good enough for me .

 

Sometimes it's difficult to get across exactly how the situation is and everything you did or considered without writing a huge novel and of course, every dog is different

[straightbarrel]

Correct in what you say mate, and I took all this into consideration when breaking his scoffing habit. Yelling 'leave it' didn't work for me either in this situation and I couldn't scruff him when he was 75yards away trying to swallow a young rabbit whole, so another solution was called for. Treats were only used initially to give him something else to eat besides whatever he found. It was used as a habit-breaker, not a permanent reward, and we quickly moved on before rewards became another habit.

 

TBH, I do want him to bring back dead or wounded as he finds them, and I'm perfectly happy with him making the occassional error with something that's been dead rather longer! Hunt and point the living, bring back the dead and wounded - If he does that everytime out then that's good enough for me .

 

Sometimes it's difficult to get across exactly how the situation is and everything you did or considered without writing a huge novel and of course, every dog is different

 

I think in your situation it sounds like introducing the dog to hunting/working before the basics were in place. The commands ' leave' or 'no' are really basic things a working dog should be trained/conditioned on from an early age, meaning when in a working situation for real, the problem should not exist. If the homework is done in the early training, with no short-cut's, the rest takes care of itself. The problem with Mick Millers dog ( bitch), is really something that should be taught now anyway, it's part of the dog's early learning,basic training, so not a problem as such, just a stage of training that needs to be instilled 100%, just like recall, just like 'sit' or 'hup'. You are right though as far as the huge novels and every dog is different, although every dog does need the basics in place before doing the real thing.