I bought my first Mal a couple weeks ago and things are going pretty good. Only serious issue is he wants to eat everything, rocks, cigarette butts, , plastic, dirt, plants, he grabbed a mouth full of oleander leaves off a bush tonight. Is there anything more that I can do to stop him from trying to eat every object he sees than telling him no and giving him a correction on the leash? A regular collar did nothing but the prong collar cuts out about half of it. He is getting smart and sitting and falling over with his head away from me and then he grabs a rock. Don't want to end up with a bowel obstruction from a rock or have him eat a penny like he tried yesterday.
BTW he is 10 weeks old and gets a full one cup measuring cup in the morning and evening. He also has a toy full of food he gets food from during the day plus training treats.
Teach him to trade. Make it the best.thing.ever. to bring stuff to you and always have treats on you to trade him. When my now 10 m/o was a baby, I'd throw a party every time he grabbed something I didn't want him to have. He'd run over to see what I had and give me/spit out whatever he had because mine was cooler. It won't completely solve to the but it will help keep him from ingesting stuff and will greatly help with the "leave it" command. My dog has developed a default of bringing me whatever he picks up and also has a really nice "leave it" since I always have something better.
I need to do this with my own pup. Corrections generally just result in the sneakiness you described.
I will have to give this a try next. He is smart and very fast, sometimes I can't believe how fast he gets a rock into his mouth and tries to swallow it. Even when pooping he is trying to eat the ground.
Mara, that is great advice. Turn an attention seeking behavior into a training moment, since the dog is trying for engagement anyway by picking up stuff and running. Just great advice.
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