Hi everyone, So Luna is 15 weeks old today. She is our 3rd lab. My concern is that she is picking up everything on her walks or in the garden. I don’t recal my last lab Sadie doing this when she was a pup and our other lab only came to us when she was 2 years old. Now I know labradors are prone to picking up and indeed eating things but I’m concerned about Luna and how frequently she is picking things up. She does stop when told but what if we don’t see her snaffle something. So far it’s been twigs, rubbish, leaves, moss and stones. Is this normal? Any advice would be great.
Yes , it is normal but not all pups are such scavengers ! My late boy Sam was a shocker and never really got better, except that he did respond to Leave , but would still scavenge when I wasn't watching him like a hawk . I guess it is a case of being very vigilant , but she is a good girl for leaving when she is told to , excellent for her age !
Yes, totally normal. My dog picked up everything and since we live in the city, this included olive pits, various garbage, cigarette butts, bottle caps etc. in addition to less gross things like leaves, sticks and rocks. Leave it/drop were the first things we focused on and now she doesn't pick up anything except goose poop and the odd bit of tempting food (but will drop when asked).
Yes, Tuppence is a scavenger and can smell something tasty (like an apple) at some distance! It's very difficult to make her drop something she shouldn't have too, so I have to watch her like a hawk. Wispa isn't as bad, but she will try sometimes. A good 'leave it' command is essential, even if it doesn't always work!
Most of Xena's walks are on lead and you would be amazed at what she manages to scavenge. The other night we were walking up the street and bam, she had an ice-cream cone on her mouth! Sometimes she'll drop it for a treat, other times I just reach in there and pull it out.
When they are pups they learn by using their mouths, hence the reason for picking up everything. I would teach a good 'leave it' which will help with this.
Labradors have smell glands in the roof of their mouth(as do many/all dogs). So getting it in their mouth adds to the smell. I don’t know how much they actually swallow. I found my 9+ week puppy with a piece of glass in his mouth last night. We waited all day checking ofr blood in his stools, but apparently the one piece I found was the only piece. If its on the floor he puts it in his mouth. Since we heat with wood, and since winter has endless dirt coming in, its an endless battle to stop him.
Hi Tammy Bailey is 16 weeks old and is very driven by food/scavenging. She picks up literally everything. I’ve been training her to leave it/drop it and always take a bag of treats out. Generally she is doing really well with her training but I still struggled when she found cat or rabbit poo when out on walks and she would gobble it up but I knew anything about it I mentioned it to the vet when I last popped in and apparently girls are worse when it comes to poo! The vet wasn’t worried and said that it was perfectly natural puppy behaviour that she should grow out of. I did read the page on the Labrador site about ‘why does my dog eat poo’ and as a result I have been practicing the ‘magic word’ technique when it comes to poo - when she starts snuffling anything out in the undergrowth I simple say ‘Bailey meat’ and she is reliable coming back to me for a tasty bit of chicken or turkey. She hasn’t eaten poo for a few days now which is a real result as she had selective hearing when it came to poo!! The training for leave/drop it or ‘meat’ is working but I have to be ‘on it’ and consistent as I know if I left her to her own devices when on a walk she would be picking it all up again.
We did a very non-scientific poll on the forum some time ago and it seemed pretty evenly split. But my own experience is two girls who eat poo and one boy who doesn’t
