Hi everyone I've got myself a stunning little back lab called Tia. She's immense she's 13 weeks and does sit without batting an eyelid and for the most part, other than a couple of puddles and a fair bit of poop on my arm one day, toilet training has been tiring but not too bad. She seems to be getting the hang of basic recall and we had our first off lead walk today which was brilliant loved seeing her running around properly she was clearly very very happy. She likes to jump up on the sofa to sit with you and have a nap and it's really nice she wants to do that and I'm really looking forward to seeing how far I can take her training her dad's a champion working dog and she's got quite a lot in her family history. That all being said she is absolutely driving me round the bend. I can cope with the accidental bites, destroying my trainers/shoes/coats and trying to chew the furniture to pieces what I'm finding difficult to cope with is trying to stop her doing stuff I know will hurt her. Every piece of litter she comes across she tries to pick up and eat, she scoffs grass like it's tastiest roast chicken in the world and she is obsessed with stones particularly mortar/concrete/charcoal that she can break down. The stones worry me more than anything I literally have to watch her for every second she's in the garden as if I don't she'll have one in her mouth and I'm struggling to figure a way of stopping her. I have taken a couple out of her mouth I've tried playing with her every time she's got a stone, swapping them for treats (which was successful but she got wise to that very quickly) and basically ignoring it hoping she will spit them out if anyone has got any tips please plese let me know. Thanks
Erm.....lol sorry no tips here as my Bella ( also a black lab ) was exactly the same at that age , now aged 2 she will still pick up the occasional stone and munch on it , play with it etc but I have found that its less often than she used to . She is also getting better at leaving rubbish that she finds on the pavement and will more often than not leave things alone when told ...however this is a recent thing . All I can say is keep vigilant and keep swapping for something safe .
My puppy did this loads - I found it very scary. I did the treat exchange which worked reasonably ok so I have no advice. She did however, grow out of this and now at 7 months picks up the odd stone or bit of slate but it's not the big deal it was. She either drops it or I swap for a treat.
This worked for us. Make it a game of retrival, anything the dog manages to bring to you is awesome. Even if it's something that isn't harmful. Start with her toys, if she gives it to you it's awesome and you'll give it back to her. Later, it'll be the same with rocks and other (more)harmful stuff. I know it's very difficult to trust your dog enough to give back the rubbish they've picked up, but it helps immensely if they don't think they'll lose the best thing(in their mind) once they've handed it over. So next time she drops a rock at your feet, give it back to her and let her give it to you again. Rinse & Repeat. Ignore her with the less harmful stuff(usual trash), just wait until she's lost interest and then make it seem like she did the best thing ever once she drops it, especially if it happens next to you. I've gotten to a point where if something interesting is found, he brings it to me straight away. I can then decide if I'll give it back to him or not. But I had to stomach giving back a bird carcass, many times, before I could even dream about not giving something back to him.
Sounds like some good advice that I will also try and follow (12 week old yellow male -Watson). I have to laugh you could be describing him, I actually find it in his poo labels, small whatever s -you name it it is in there the other day he found a fledgling -I am really hoping it was already dead -I am telling myself it was. It was a trick to get that poor baby out of his mouth but he had brought me his treasure so proudly and I did get it -then threw it out poor boy.
Bailey also used to do this - also eat and roll in fox poo on EVERY SINGLE WALK!! That boy was always being washed at that age! We worked hard on "leave it" and made sure he got lots of praise and treats (high value such as cheese or hot dog sausages) for anything that could hurt him - as a very treat orientated dog he was, and still is, always happy to trade for a treat. At 16 months old he now rarely picks up stones, he prefers to carry around a stick or plastic bottle (that we have given him), he will go and investigate anything he sees rubbish wise, but generally he sniffs it then looks at me/OH and when called he comes away. If its a plastic bag he will "attack" it (pawing at it, barking and air "snapping") before walking off with his nose in the air - he showed it what's what! I do still carry small chunks of cheese or hot dog sausages especially if we go to a new place so that I can be sure his recall will work - so many new smells to investigate! At 16 months old he still has the attention span of a fruit fly and a brain full of butterflies but he's not rolled/eaten fox poo for months and is willing to leave stuff that I don't want him to pick up - but he does like to much on grass, or eating salad as we call it! So far he has only discovered one dead bird that he used as a toy - I must admit it took ages to get it off him as initially we made it into a game, but he played keep away with it and not even cheese worked on that day! In the end we managed to get close enough to get his lead on - he then came away willingly while my OH disposed of the dead bird (yes I'm too much of a coward to do it!)
Thanks for the advice guys. I think I went wrong from the off I took a couple out of her mouth and now she thinks that's the game should have known better. I hadn't thought about giving them back which with the bigger ones I guess isn't so much of a problem as she can't swallow those it's the smaller ones that concern me. It does make sense when I think about it though because all I'm actually training her to do is give me stuff I want rather than run away with it for me to chase. She hasn't really gone for stones today but my new trainers were found while my back was turned, for about 2 seconds, which she knew I'd want back she initially pegged it but I didn't chase her and she brought it back into the room looking over the moon with herself. So I gave her a treat and she dropped it. Normally I'd just put it out of the way but I gave it back preying she wouldn't destroy it and again she pegged it but came back gave her a treat she dropped it this went on for a bit she lost interested and just stopped wanting the trainer happy days hope I can get that going with the stones thanks for the advice!
Not sure I could give the bird back to be honest!! Tia is treat orientated too she likes toys but looses interest pretty quickly food on the other hand is her main occupation. My sisters got a lab a bit older and hers will do literally anything for a tennis ball she obviously is greedy but the ball seems to be all consuming for her. I haven't had to clean her down properly yet but need to get some in just so she knows what's happening when the time arrives.
The problem is that, if they think you will take it out of their mouth, the way they then 'keep' it is to swallow it. We ignore any picking up of stones etc. Teaching a solid 'leave it' and 'drop it' is - of course - essential, but needs doing away from the normal puppy exploring everything with their mouth stage imho.
Yep that's exactly what I'm trying to avoid but it seems I've started something with it now. Yesterday she didn't pick any up but she was unbelievably sleepy for some reason. Today she's had a few already but as soon as she gets one I've been getting treats and playing fetch with it in fact she'll play fetch with the stones longer than she will with toys and trainers and hopefully I can use it to try and teach "leave it" lol. She was sheepish about coming to me with it at first but actually is dropping them at my feet now and eventually seems to be getting bored with them. I just don't want to end up teaching her to pick them up in the first place and im a bit worried its reinforcing self reward as she picked it up in the first place? I guess she just will do it and I'll have to deal with it I've just ignored the rubbish tosay and she's just dropped it by herself so that seems the way to go.
She'll likely grow out of it if you don't make a big deal out of it. My Willow used to pick up stones when she was a puppy, so I would swap them for a pine cone. She got bored of the stones in the end. Shadow went through a phase when he was a bit older of becoming obsessed with certain rocks. I would swap them for something and then put them in my pouch so I could drop them off somewhere along the walk, without him seeing. If he saw me do it, he would become obsessed with going back for it. This only lasted a few weeks before he stopped.
Definitely did the wrong thing with taking it off her in the first place but I've been swapping them for treats and been giving them back to swap over again seems to be working she doesn't get one and run away now and seems a little less interested in them hope it lasts!
I completely understand! My pup is 18 weeks and it is definitely improving. Months 3 and 4 I was permanently terrified she was eating something dangerous - so many stones etc and to be honest it completely ruined the puppy for me, I was miserable - major case of the puppy blues. So many people told me to muzzle her which made me panic even more - I didn't do it. Now she still picks things up but almost always drops them again fairly quickly. It's still a problem and I still have to watch her like a hawk but it's much more manageable.
