Hello, I've had a few instances recently where my puppy has been sick late at night or first thing in the morning. Obviously, as any first time, anxious dog owner would- I took her to the vets...three times... only to be told "she's fine, she's just a labrador and has probably eaten something". The last time we visited our vets we were lucky to have a very lovely man who had a free appointment following ours so had a good old chat with us. We deduced by the end of the conversation that it is possible that my pup is eating the odd leaf that is blown over the wall from next doors Ivy plant. Does anyone have any tried and tested ways that might help me to stop my labrador being quite so labradorish in our small courtyard back garden? She does love to munch on...well anything really and it would be nice not to have to follow her round the whole time in case (she's 7months and generally very well behaved) :-/ Just to note, the vet is not concerned about this- Id just rather save my little one the tummy ache.
It is a problem . I remember the paranoia I felt when I realised that some of the plants in my garden could cause tummy upsets or even worse . Have a good look at the Dogs Trust website, they have a comprehensive list of possible offending flowers , shrubs and plants . As for leaves blowing over from a neighbours , could you possibly ask if they could cut their ivy back a little so as to avoid the issue ? if not then its going to have to be a case of leaf collecting for you ! Try some distraction techniques to teach her to Leave on command, offering her a treat for her possession before she has chance to devour it Its an incredibly useful cue to teach, especially if you have a puppy/dog who is a natural hoover
I do love the title of your thread! So apt! I do a lot of off-leash walking with my boy (on the mountain and beach) and he will pick up all sorts of food, and then later I will see his eyes look gooey or he'll be itchy and I will wonder what I fed him that is causing that reaction, and then think I should perhaps cut out this or that from his diet. And finally I will remember he had run ahead of me on our walk and was probably devouring someone's old bread or discarded muffin. Thankfully nothing has caused any problems except the odd runny tummy. Unfortunately my boy's favourite delicacy is human poo!!!!! (Homeless people) Thankfully he listens to the Leave It command, but only for this, because he knows I really mean it. Puppies are very inquisitive. Snowie shredded my delicious monster in our courtyard and pulled out many of my plants -- just for fun. He also weeded the lawn of most of its grass. If she's left alone in your courtyard, perhaps you can give her something to chew to occupy her, or make her a sandpit in a plastic tub where you bury treats for her to dig up. Thankfully they grow up and stop wanting to put everything in their mouths -- like children.
She is quite good with the leave it command but it only works up until the moment she opens her mouth, at that point she is committed and bribery must ensue. Unfortunately both events require me to be with her in the garden. Perhaps that is the solution for now, until she stops leaf lifting. She will stop won't she? It's interesting, she used to be a complete rubbish magnet in the park (I swear she was on a mission to clean up Devon) but she is generally petty good now. Perhaps because she has balls to chase, dogs to meet and people to adore her- in the garden she is probably a bit bored. I love the idea of a sandpit for her but worry about rewarding any digging behaviour :-/ Thanks for info re dogs trust, I'll look into that. Never a dull moment with a labra-dyson (the ultimate cordless vacuum)
I agree with @kateincornwall , seems to be the only options to me. Training a good "Leave" is highly recommended and helps to prevent the pick up all sorts of "interesting" stuff on the ground. You can also train a "Swap" for items she's already picked up - she gives you the contraband and you give her a treat, it's works really well where do you can't do a "Leave". Like you I wouldn't provide anything in the garden that encourages digging, managed this long without digging exploits @MF Why would you not mean "Leave it" in all situations? It isn't meant to be an optional choice for our dogs
I never left my really small labs alone in the garden for this reason. It was hard but once they got through this eat everything fixation things got better. All mine were taught to leave it or swap but they are still sneaky and sometimes they get hold of stuff you don't even see. Some are definately worse than others though. I had real problems with Rory which I put down to his early tummy problems. He must have been very hungry and in pain a lot of the time. This had a knock on affect with his behaviour and he was on steriods too. His first few months were terrrible and his weight got so low it became dangerous, we were very worried about him. We got him well in the end and he's never been ill since. At one stage I was raking the garden daily and taking everything out of his mouth or getting him to leave it. My vet wanted me to muzzle him but I was worried about the effect it would have on his behaviour. He's obsesed with things that squeek so I got him a squeeky ball and only let him have it when we were out. He would squeek it all the time and not eat anything, if the squeeking stopped he was eating something so i could distract him with the squeeky again. I did this for months and gradually the need to eat everthing went away as his tummy improved and that puppy urge left him. We had very noisy walks but the no squeek means danger thing worked I didn't have to use a muzzle and he now well happy and a good weight. He still has his squeeky ball but is less obsessed now it was a great training tool and got him through this dificult period in his life. I have had sick dogs before but he was the only one i ever though I might loose its affected our relationship in some ways as he is really ruined and a total mummies boy .In a good way obviously he is just became very precious to me at a very young age
When Molly was 6 - 12 months old she had one stomach upset after another and I seemed to be continuously at the vets. We have a small garden packed with plants and although we did cut down / dig up as much ivy as possible , it's just one of those plants that springs up as soon as you turn your back! In the end, I only let Molly out when I was out there to keep an eye on her. The good news is that she grew out of the plant munching, the tummy upsets stopped and now she spends time each evening in the garden alone (by choice), so with luck your pup will also be fine in time.
Leave it, and drop (or give) are two very different things. So you could try training give or drop for non food items. Training give or drop for things that the dog considers as food is very different again but a leaf doesn't really fall into the 'food' category, even with puppy munching habits. (Just because a dog will drop or give a leaf does not mean the dog will give or drop a hotdog ).
You are absolutely right! I suppose I choose my battles, and eating human poo is one I intend to win, so I have no qualms being firm and, if needed, fierce in my tone. I don't believe a Leave It needs to be fierce, but as JulieT says, try telling a dog with a hotdog (or human poo!) in his mouth to leave it using the sweetest of tones! What I usually do is ask Snowie to show me what is in his mouth and most times I will let him take it back and chew or eat it; he knows showing me something doesn't mean giving it up, so he doesn't resist showing me what he's got. I usually say, Let me see, and he will drop it and let me pick it up to inspect it while waiting patiently to get it back.
One day, when I have far too much time on my hands and am feeling remarkably patient, I am going to attempt to train hold and drop of a hotdog, a la Nando Brown. I think I already know how that's going to go. But you have to dream big, don't you?
Ah, no. I didn't say that. I wouldn't use a fierce tone to intimidate a dog into doing something I hadn't trained him to do - well, I might under stress if I wasn't thinking straight, but I wouldn't do it deliberately. If my dog had something potentially harmful in his mouth, and he viewed it as food, then I'd try my emergency recall, my magic word, throw all the food I carried with him as a swap etc. and if really necessary I'd gently hold each side of his mouth and remove the item (my dog would let me do this, even with real meat etc. but obviously it's not something I'd do very often!).
I do use the "sweetest of tones" when I ask my dog to leave something. It is far more effective than sounding stressed (which I have tried, though being stressed). I've found that, the more urgency (frustration/anger/intimidation) you put into your voice, the more likely the dog is to gobble up what it's holding even more quickly. Using a happy "leave it" and, my backup "what's this?!" is far more successful. If I know it's something too tempting to leave and I've already failed in them getting to it (yes, that's my failure), then I ignore it and let them get on with it, as long as it's not harmful. This includes Willow and her human poo fetish. It's disgusting to me, but it's not harmful. If I make a big deal of it, she's going to respond accordingly, either being sneakier about it, or rushing it down, both of which are counterproductive when it comes to training. I don't want her to end up being sneaky, just in case there's something that I have to take from her because it's dangerous.
"What's this?" Is an amazing trick, tatti goes for it every time we didn't even train it- she just knows you are excited by something and wants in We've never really sussed the 'drop' command. It works with balls and toys but I think perhaps we skipped the proofing stage to use it with other objects. With food she has great self control, I've trained her to leave anything I drop on the kitchen floor (even scrummy chicken) without commanding it, until I either pick it up or tell her she can have it. I can even leave the room and it will be there when I get back, surrounded by drool but it will be there. But those darn leaves... And stones... Actually anything in the garden... I think I need to spend some time on this, I've been neglecting my trainjng duties recently :-/ So, if I work on 'drop' and perhaps up the supervision in the garden, we might be in a happier place. Can I just add- where do you all visit that human poo is even a problem? I can honestly say (and I've lived and been to in some dodgy areas) that I have never seen human poo outside of a bathroom.
Hehe, living in the mountains, with walks that last hours with no toilet breaks, you can understand people needing to "go" sometimes. I wish they'd bury it, but sadly our ground is solid rock in most places, so that's not possible. Still, they could put rocks on top. Sometimes, it's really quite close to the village, though. That annoys me. Honestly, could you now wait ten more minutes?!
I learn so much from all of you! I didn't realise it, but I also use that "What's this?" (or other such excited question) to stop Snowie in his tracks and see what I'm doing, where I'm going. Reading your posts gives me insight into what I do naturally. But now being conscious of it, I can employ those tricks intentionally when needed. As for human poo: unfortunately I live in a country where there is a huge disparity between rich and poor, with many homeless people in our cities with no easy access to toilets. So our city beaches and mountain are littered with human poo (it is revolting). I know the trouble spots and avoid them, but sometimes I'm taken by surprise.
