Nelly is 6 months today! Oh how time flies! Nelly is demolishing every dead thing she finds which in my her case is a lot. The fields are riddled with dead animals and its gross. I know she's an animal, I know it's what they would be eating in the wild and thankfully she doesn't seem to be showing any ill signs after eating them. I just want her to drop it when I tell her to drop it. She drops everything I ask her to drop unless it's something she really wants like a dead rabbit. Any ideas? A gundog owner close to me said make sure I carry something more valuable than the thing she's eating. I always go out on walks with sausages in my pocket but she isn't interested in them enough anymore. What food will she go crazy for do you think?
Try something ultra smelly , like sardines and yes , it will be messy but might work ! I used to buy those hotdog sausages back in the day , as they do smell strong . Is she ball orientated ? If so , carry one , even one with a squeak in it , anything to grab her attention .Good luck , you are not alone !
I'd say that it's best to treat the dead things as distractions, and keep her focussed on you so she doesn't pick them up in the first place. It's actually really difficult to get a dog to stop eating something that it views as food once it already has that thing in its mouth. It is much easier to train the dog not to pick up something it views as food in the first place, but that depends on the dog being training to do something else instead. If a dog is on free time, and comes across something it views as food, then unless you can say 'leave it' before the dog picks up something it views as food its very tricky. It's the difference between training 'leave it' with a sausage on the floor (quite straightforward) and 'pick up that sausage, don't eat it, and then put the sausage back down when I tell you to do so' (extremely difficult).
What @JulieT says makes sense to me. Once Plum has something in her mouth it's impossible to get her to drop (when it's food on a walk or another animal's poo!) but if I notice something ahead of her and keep her focused on me with words and treats, she is far more likely to leave it. She is much better now at 7 months than she was at 5 months, even 6 months. Even if she has her nose on something she will often leave it if I ask, but once the mouth is on it, no hope!
Yes I can see the difference. I'll try to be more on the ball (I thought I was on the ball but obviously not enough) thankyou x
