Nibbler is getting mostly lead walks in the morning and evening at the moment with longer off leash at weekends. Cannot believe the stuff he finds on the pavements to pick up -a birds wing this morning, half a butter tub , a plastic bottle and tried to eat some tomatoes. All within a short round the block walk -people are so untidy -must be a nightmare trying to train a guide dog. We live in town and looked down at him the other day and he had a carrot in his mouth??? Have to take lots of treats to drop and swap with him but he just always has to have soemthing in his mouth - at least he is no longer interested in poo. Is this a lab thing -getting quite annoying especially in the freezing cold.
We're doing lots of lead walks around town at the mo too, and my Tansy is such a forager. Must be a lab thing! Cat poo is a top favourite and bananas, you'd be amazed how often we come across random bananas lying on the pavement The week after Halloween was interesting as the trick or treaters had littered a lot. One thing I am pleased about is she'll now spit out chewing gum when I say leave it...
Yep we’ve had bananas too. I just feel that I never stop saying What have you got now. I worry about chewing gum too and am always prising his jaws apart to find a tiny bit of paper .Tansy is gorgeous -what super big ears - has she grown into them?
Some Labs are scavengers. My first two were very easy going but Holly (and her dam) will eat just about anything. On recent walks this has included various poops, windfall apples, the remains of a McDonalds (found in a woodland car park), and something black that I couldn't identify. I think her stomach is lead lined because she's seldom ill. Rubbish is not just an urban thing. The popular walks and cycle routes in the Forest of Dean are littered with plastic bottles and sweet wrapper. What makes people take a healthy walk in the country and leave all their rubbish behind? Who do they think is going to clear it up? Holly likes to pick up plastic bottles and carry them back to the car, so we take them home and recycle them. Her love of plastic bottles makes photography interesting. Sometimes I have to take the bottle off her to get a nice picture. You can tell the pictures where I've just taken a bottle off her because she's staring at me very intensely, waiting for me to give it back.
Our walks are punctuated with: “What are you eating?” “What is that?????” “Disgusting” “Oh don’t eat that!! Don’t eat tha....*sigh*” “Is that cat poo?” “What the hell is that?” “Why is that crunchy? Is that chicken?!?!” etc.
Maisy is the same, I guess labs are good at this sort of thing. We walk a very short distance from the train station to my workplace and her nose and my eyes are glued to the pavement. We have lots of takeaways in our area but there is lots of other nasty stuff too, especially chicken bones, kebab wrappers, broken glass, cigarette ends, soiled tissues etc. She doesn't pick up all of it but it is a constant battle to stop her. Where I live we have woods and fields and I often find soiled baby nappies .. what is wrong with people???
