Puppy Eating Everything!

[mamamia1]

My pup [13 weeks] is eating everything, especially on walks. She'll chew on everything from rocks to leaves to dirt and her very favorite thing is the tiny mussel shells off the beach. I think she is spiting out about 80% of it after she chews but this can't be good for her digestion. She is in classes now and I have been training her with NILF for about a week, which has been making a huge difference.
When she pick this stuff up, I immediately tell her OFF or LEAVE IT, and try to encourage her to drop it with a treat. Sometimes it works, sometimes not, and it never works when she has the mussel shells and I end up picking them out of her mouth.
I feed her 1-1/2 to 2 cups of Canidae and she looks great, so I really don't think it's a hunger thing at all.
Any other ideas how to stop this, or is it just a matter of patience and continuing with what I'm doing?

[lengel]

Sounds like you're dealing with teething issues to a certain extent. Give her chunks of ice on a regular basis and see if this helps with the urge to chew on hard stuff. Ice should soothe her gums and might keep her comfortable for a little while. Otherwise, you're doing the right things.

[brunie's mom]

This is all perfectly normal puppy behavior.
The "leave it" command should be used as a warning...for when you see them eying an object or looking at an item. The "drop it" command should be used when they already have something in their mouth. Keep your pockets stuffed with good treats...and show the puppy the good treat...put it near their nose...give the "drop it" command and most times the puppy will drop what they have in their mouth to get the treat. You have to do this numerous times...and always have a treat to trade for an item . Lots of praise too.

Keep puppy on leash while out walking and don't let her slow down to sniff too much if there is an object on the ground that may interest her.

Gina

[mamamia1]

Originally Posted by brunie's mom

Keep puppy on leash while out walking and don't let her slow down to sniff too much if there is an object on the ground that may interest her.

I keep her on leash for training, but I really do think it's important for her to have some really good "DOG TIME" off leash.

I'm glad to hear this is normal behaviour for her age. I'll keep working on it. THANKS! :)

[moondog]

You can play the "Take It/Leave It" game with her to help her learn what you mean when you say "Leave It". She will catch on quick to this game and I would make a point to play it each day for awhile, and occasionally thereafter to reinforce the lesson.

Teaching "Leave It": Have your puppy on leash and a bunch of small treats. Drop a treat on the ground and say "Take it", drop another in a different place and say "Take it"...repeat with 5-6 treats, saying "Take it" each time....then drop one by your foot, cover it with your foot so the puppy can't get it, and say "Leave it". The puppy will try to get it, but won't be able to. Wait, and the puppy will look up at you (in confusion, LOL) and at that precise moment, you say "GOOD Leave it!!!" and reward with a treat from your hand. Do NOT let the puppy get the treat under your foot, pick it up and start the game again. Repeat 2-3 times, a couple times a day, and when your puppy has caught on, practice using other things, such as toys, or rocks, or sticks or leaves....the only difference is you will reward with a safe item (treat or ball or ?). If you practice this faithfully, your puppy will learn to look at your eyes when you say "Leave It". ALWAYS reward when your puppy gives you the behavior you want.

If you teach this to her, it will in time translate to her whether she is on leash time or on puppy free play time.

[mamamia1]

Thanks Moondog! That sounds like a great teaching game.

I've started teaching "Leave it" by hold a treat close to her snout so she can smell and attempt oto get it but can;t actually get it. Then I tell her to leave it. As soon as she stands off and leaves it. I praise and give her the treat.

It sounds like your method would help a little more in the real world. "The world of yummy mussel shells." Hmmm... maybe I should bring a pocket of those shells home and practice the leave it with those, and reward with treats.

[Nishasmom]

Nisha was like a vacume when she was little. She was so sly, she never even stopped to pick anything up! I would just look down and notice her mouth a little odd shaped; she just held random objects in her mouth!

I would recommend giving her something to carry on walks; a ball, a rope toy, whatever! This way she wont "find" her own things .

[lgslgs]

Originally Posted by mamamia1

I keep her on leash for training, but I really do think it's important for her to have some really good "DOG TIME" off leash.

I'm glad to hear this is normal behaviour for her age. I'll keep working on it. THANKS! :)

I assume you have her off leash in an area where you can guarantee her safety, right?



As for picking up everything, we do our off leash work in a fenced, wooded area where our goats and cow browse - so there are all sort of tasty animal poop temptations just begging to be sampled. We also have open coal seams and apparently that stuff is fun to crunch and chew on.

We find that keeping a pocketful of dog food kibble and doing recalls as soon as someone gets focused on a prohibited taste treat has been a big help. I'm not sure dog food is actually tastier than cow pie, but getting a little treat right from the owner's hand is a big deal.

We also train that certain super tempting areas are just totally off limits - so no climbing on or digging in the compost heap looking for treasure.


It doesn't totally stop all sampling, but it does stop treating the area as one big buffet. Gradually our guys get the message that keeping one eye on the people, following, and racing for a recall is more rewarding than hoovering around the woods.


It does mean that our free play sessions actually do have a steady background of gentle training going on the whole time, but with it being paced differently than focused training time I think our guys do find it as fun as free play. Possibly even more so because they keep getting those tidbits of human attention or treats thrown in so that we all interact as a relaxed team when we are in the big yard.

Lynda

[moondog]

Originally Posted by mamamia1

It sounds like your method would help a little more in the real world. "The world of yummy mussel shells." Hmmm... maybe I should bring a pocket of those shells home and practice the leave it with those, and reward with treats.

It will help more in "real world" training. Make sure you start off as I described, using treats only, until she really "gets it". When you graduate to using one of the shells, you will only be using it as the "leave it" item (under your foot), not as a "take it" item. Use treats or toys (something she CAN have) as the "take it" items, then drop a shell under your foot for the "leave it" part - and do not let her get it. You can also use a tug game as a reward when she looks at you when told to "leave it", but I'd start off with treats at first until she really gets the exercise.

[Nishasmom]

Originally Posted by mamamia1

It sounds like your method would help a little more in the real world. "The world of yummy mussel shells." Hmmm... maybe I should bring a pocket of those shells home and practice the leave it with those, and reward with treats.

I agree with Mooddog; eventually it will transfer over to other things! You won't even really "train" it that way, she will just get it one day! Thats when you know she is really growing up, (sniff, sniff).

Keep practicing with food, then toys, drop chicken on the floor "accidentally" while cooking. I practiced leave it with everything; the trick is make sure she never "gets it" without permission. Our trainer told us to take the food right out of her mouth if she tries to quickly "snatch" it.

[mamamia1]

Originally Posted by lgslgs

I assume you have her off leash in an area where you can guarantee her safety, right?

We have a pretty extensive private beach well away from cars and such, very safe. It's easy to see other people/dogs coming from a long way away, so I put her leash on right away. Even though it's "dog time" there's alway opportunity for training. I always praise and treat for a good recall and also when she stops everything and check to see what I'm doing.

[maxcat]

I don't have any advice other than what was already give, but I just wanted to let you know that it gets better. We did everything you are doing and all of the other training suggested here and it eventually took. Our puppy is now 6 months old and will sometimes try and get away with not leaving/dropping something, but for the most part he knows what he is supposed to do and he does it on command.

You will feel like it is never going to work, but it does! We even had some resource guarding issues, not with food, but with items he found that he thought were extra special. But with training and time, they mature.

Another thing you may already be doing and I highly suggest is regular obedience. At around 3.5 to 4 months old we began doing steady training every morning and night with heel, sit, down, stay, come and leave it. We were having him in a down/stay position and would throw pieces of food down that he had to leave and wait until we said he could eat. I will say that helped let our puppy, Heiko, know who was boss. We of course had the help of a great trainer to make sure we were doing everything properly and now at 6 months he does all of those commands with ease.

Obviously at such a young age, sessions should be kept brief and fun. Good luck!!