Hey guys, Not a nice subject and I have posted something along the lines of this. My lab retriever is 7 months today. I am trying to teach him not to eat anything off the floor. It works when I'm walking down the street and when I tell him to leave it he gets a treat. I live right by the beach and he loves to play with other dogs but then gets distracted and follows his nose and here we go, he's hoovered up poop before I even get a chance to get to him. I should 'biscuit' and that sometimes works but a lot of the time the poop is way tastier than the dry biscuit. As a result he gets diarrhoea quite often. I think I will have to resort to getting a muzzle. What do you think guys?
Sorry, a few spelling mistakes on the post. But you know what I mean. Been practising Victoria Stilwell's leave it cue
No words of wisdom from me on whether this would actually work and I personally don't have anything against muzzles. My dog had to wear one at certain times (mainly on trains and in the metro/UBahn) due to local laws. Didn't bother him a bit as he thought it meant the start of a fun day out. I will say this, however: (1) if you want your dog to wear one while walking/playing, make sure you use the right kind. To my understanding, only the "basket" type allow the dog to pant and breathe properly for play or longer periods of wear. (2) I never saw a dog who let a muzzle of any sort keep him from eating. It may be harder, but they can still do it. (3) Be aware of how people will view your dog if he is muzzled. You can explain it's so he doesn't eat stuff, but people won't believe you. They will either think he's vicious and you are making up stories to excuse him, or that your are a cruel dog person for putting your baby puppy in a muzzle. No judgement, just tips from someone who's had to use one.
I have no experience of muzzles, but just wanted to give you some hope. Jessie was a dedicated poo/anything eater. We kept on with teaching leave it and in time this has become pretty well trained, she will pretty much leave anything now at 13 months. What helped us was using really tasty treats. Maybe try training with something other than dry biscuits? Cheese, tasty chicken, sardines, sausage are good ones for us. Good luck, it can get better!
Hey yes, I am well aware people may think that but I don't really care what they think. I want my puppy to be safe and healthy. Jessieboo. Think I'll get the sausages out Persistence pays off. I'm actually a dog walker as well and he comes with me on the walks. So he gets plenty of exercise and play time. I do hope he'll grow out of it
Ripple is a poop eater, me and OH have occasionally discussed muzzles but decided against it for the reasons Emily_BabbelHund said above. Especially as I understand the dog can just scoop the muzzle through any poop so not really solving the problem, and creating a disgusting clean up issue! We are working really hard at 'leave it' and super treats when he does, but sometimes I feel it's not working at all. JulieT has suggested 'zen bowls' so we are going to give that a try when I get over all the Christmas stuff I am doing.
Quote from JulieT 'One thing that did help me in particular with Charlie was 'zen' bowls. These are called different things by different trainers. Some people call them 'leave it' bowls. The bowls are full of food and are both a distraction and a reward. You build up the time and the default leave it until you can train with bowls of food out on the food and the dog ignores them.' Lots more explanation on the Internet.
Poo, for poo eaters, is just a huge distraction - like birds/squirrels/footballs/skateboards are for other dogs. It doesn't matter what the distraction is, the techniques are the same. If your dog is wandering along, not under orders, free to do what he likes, and a distraction (his/her passionate thing) happens along, whether that's poo, birds, squirrels, footballs, whatever, then your dog is free to engage in that. The only dogs that this doesn't apply to are those that have no great passions. The ones that are not all that interested in poo/squirrels/footballs etc. The thing to do is have your dog engaged and focused on you instead. That means your dog is doing stuff with you on walks. Not hunting for poo (or birds, squirrels, or whatever....). So you have to work on your dog paying attention to you, all the time, when outside. Unless you are in a poo/bird/football free area.
Wise words. We are so lucky to have an unobsessed dog. Or rather, lucky that her obsession (cats) are never found on our off lead walks. ...
