Hi. I have a 5 Mo old Lab puppy - who is generally pretty well behaved ( without too much excitation ) and obedient. he however has several challenging traits and I see at the core of all it is his obsession with stuff lying on the ground. Generally he is getting pretty good with leash walking, also started ignoring or at least not pulling towards other dogs ( as long they are not too close) etc. But the moment I move away from the road to the side wall all hell breaks loose. He will be aggressively pulling towards any smells he picks , put whatever he can in his mouth. Will not listen to any Leave it or Drop it command even if he knows he will get a treat ( he generally does pretty well during training on those , even when I use some of the same stuff he is obsessing over). Trying to control him with the leash causes Frustration reaction - he often starts getting riled up and occasionally attempts to snap at my hand - just moving back to the clean road completely changes the situation . He is pretty large and strong already - so it would be great if I don’t have to constantly wrestle with him on this. Sometime if he picked up some weird fruit or flower or bark - I have to wrestle it out -and that surely affects his liking for me at least temporarily. Very rarely he will comply to a drop it and leave it when it is really needed and I remember to give him a few treats in a row as a jackpot reward. Should I use a basket muzzle during the walk ?
That must be really frustrating I think a basket muzzle does sound like one possible solution, at least temporarily to potentially help him get out of the habit of picking things up. You might find some of the other ideas and advice in this article useful too. Let us know how you get along!
Hi Lucy Thanks for the article. One thing I should have mentioned he does not actually consume “many” of those objects he is putting in his mouth and spits out eventually. But it is hard for me to continue trusting his judgement and he does swallow wood as I have found it in his poop later. I continue trying the swapping out deal to see if it improves. Does basket muzzle hurt them ?
