April 19, 2011
My dog eats stuff on the beach when I let him run free, what would you do?
Full Question:
I need help teaching my wirehair pointer not to eat "food" encountered on his runs. He runs free on the ocean beaches. He is a beautiful dog with excellent manners thanks to your help and suggestions. The beach abounds with crustaceans, dungeness crab parts, partially eaten razor clams. He slyly mouths something, I yell "no" and he walks up to me chewing on the item and I extract the remains from his mouth. His vet thinks a recent bout of diarrhea was due to his appetizer consumption and he needs to quit it. I have an ecollar which he wears and is rarely used. Should I set him up with food and use a low correction?? It is a joyful thing to watch him run beside the ocean. He will do anything I want him to do except stop dining on shellfish. What would you do??
With much thanks and admiration!
Alexis
Cindy's Answer:
I teach all of my dogs to "leave it" from the time they are small puppies. I actually use the word "yuck."
Here's a video that may help, and with a dog that is ecollar savvy, I'd use that for my correction (at an appropriate level) instead of a leash correction. With any dog older than 4-5 months I use the ecollar for this.
I always use a trade for a treat from me at the beginning of this training, and very quickly when the dog figures out the stuff on the ground gets him a treat from me he'll start to discriminate and look to me when he finds the "goodies." You need to be diligent though and be ready to monitor this every time you take him out on the beach. Eating stuff off the ground is self reinforcing so it is typically something you have to remind dogs of in some fashion for the long haul. In my environment, it's deer poop... If I don't say yuck when I notice my dogs paying attention to something in the grass they eat it and then roll in it... blech.
Here's a video that may help, and with a dog that is ecollar savvy, I'd use that for my correction (at an appropriate level) instead of a leash correction. With any dog older than 4-5 months I use the ecollar for this.
I always use a trade for a treat from me at the beginning of this training, and very quickly when the dog figures out the stuff on the ground gets him a treat from me he'll start to discriminate and look to me when he finds the "goodies." You need to be diligent though and be ready to monitor this every time you take him out on the beach. Eating stuff off the ground is self reinforcing so it is typically something you have to remind dogs of in some fashion for the long haul. In my environment, it's deer poop... If I don't say yuck when I notice my dogs paying attention to something in the grass they eat it and then roll in it... blech.
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