I have a question re: puppy training. My dog Cody is 4-1/2 months old, we have had him since he was 3 months old. Ever since we have had him he has tried to eat rocks when we take him out on his leash in the back yard. I have to hold his head up with the leash or as soon as his little paws touch dirt and he sees a rock he takes it into his mouth and it is really hard to get them out. Sometimes he will spit them out when we say yuk, but our problem is we want to break him of this habit all together as it would be dangerous if he swallowed one, and we would love to let him run off the leash for play time after training, but he heads of rocks right away, even when we play retrieve the ball, he will try and pick up rocks.
We are presently teaching him yuk- so he will spit them out,
we have sprayed them with bitter apple, and he really enjoyed the taste! we tell him no, and he obeys for a second and then goes right back to it. Any advice?
I have thought about training him to ignore rocks with the ecollar, but he is so little yet, I don't know if that would be good or not, but it is so dangerous for him to try and eat rocks, which he tries to do, not just pick them up.
Thanks in advance for your advise.

There are two ways to go about this problem.

The first way is the difficult way, to try and train a dog *not* to eat rocks. This will require 100% observation of the dog in that situation for a long period of time, and that's going to be hard to do.

Really hard.

The next way is the easy way. Clean up the area of rock. You manage the situation instead of trying to train away the behavior.
See? Easy as pie.

A lot of pet owners want to train their dog in what should be a management problem, not a training problem. Don't make that mistake and set yourself up for a lot of extra work.

I agree that is the easiest way, we want to clearn our area up but we have over 1/2 an acre and our land is full of rocks, even below the top soil of our ground. But I can try another clean up for our yard. (We live in an area where most of the ground is covered with rocks, and our neighbors have lots of rock in their yards as well.)
Thank you for your advise.

You could also block off the cleared area, enlarging as you clear.

Dear Connie: Good suggestion. We have got to do something, I spend all my time tryin to get the rock out of his mouth and/or saying yuk and having to try and hold his head up with the leash. Some days it just takes the fun out of walking him. (He is just learning how to walk without pulling on a leash.)
Thank you again for your suggestions.
GOd bless you all