Hello All, I have a 6 month old puppy and live in an very urban area with lots of people, distractions and a lot of garbage, food, and crap on the ground outdoors. I know Labs love putting everything in their mouths, but is there a way to stop a puppy from putting EVERYTHING HE CROSSES in his mouth? (walking with his nose up) Thanks
Hi Johnny. You possibly need to clicker train a "look at me" which is going to be hard work but we'llworth it. You need to make it much more iinteresting to look at you rather than the garbage.
If you're talking about when he's on lead, then you just need to train him that he doesn't get to sniff when on lead, and walking to heel means walking with his head up. This can be achieved in the same manner as a regular loose-lead walk. You just stop as soon as he tries to put his head down, and don't move again until he loosens the lead. You need to have him on a short lead for this, but you must keep it without any tension on it while he's walking, and be very careful not to jerk it when he does try to put his head down. All you're doing is preventing him from getting to the smell/food etc. However, I'd also say you have to look at your situation and say whether you're being fair to your dog not letting him smell things. Sniffing is an important thing for a dog to be able to do for his mental wellbeing. Does he have plenty of off-lead opportunities to sniff, and is being on lead just a means of getting to these places? If the majority of his walks are on lead, then I would say it's not fair and not good for him to deny him his sniffs.
off lead opportunities are only available to him when I bring him outside of the city, so these opportunties happen only on weekends. The majority of the time he is on the lead because it isnt safe for him at this time. Too many distractions, too many cars. Also, I dont want to prevent him from sniffing around either.
