[dagwall]

So the last two mornings almost exactly at 6am I've been woken by the unsettling sound of a dog about to puke. Both times nothing actually produced and we went back to bed, until 40 minutes later this morning the sounds come again and this time the offending item was ejected. A corn cob, this dog is going to either get himself killed or cost me lots of money one of these days.

I'm pretty sure he got the corn cob Saturday morning in the park behind my house. Often in the morning on weekends a few of us run into each other, walk in the woods, and then maybe have a little off-leash play time in the field. Usually my biggest concern is Jubel getting into some deer/rabbit poo. But every now and then he'll run up the the pavilion where people picnic and fail to properly utilize the multitude of trash cans.

I'm going to have to cut out his off-leash play time I think because the possible bones, corn cobs, etc he COULD swallow over there just aren't worth it. That is the same area he found the bones I did pry out of his mouth at the cost of a bit finger as he bit down to keep the bones I was taking away. 95% of the time he's fine to just play and good recall, but if he thinks there is food to be found he's not listening.

 

[Tofu_pup]

Have you tried letting him drag a long line? Or would that end up too tangled in brush/trees?

 

[Amaryllis]

I SO feel your pain. Kabota will eat ANYTHING he can fit in his mouth. I can't even identify half of what he tries to scrape off the ground during walks. It is disturbing. About the only thing he won't eat is poop, and thank anything you can think of for that.

Yes, it makes him easier to train in that he'll do anything for a piece of cooked chicken, but I'm sure we're going to have a few fun trips to vet during his life. My old dog ate an entire teddy bear once. The whole thing, in his stomach, in on piece. He nearly died. So I know what the future holds at some point.

 

[Shell]

While maybe on the extreme action, if you really want to be able to let him have the off-leash time but cannot find an area safe from dangerous food objects like that, you might try a muzzle. The basket, open kind (not the leather kind) where the dog can pant and drink but can't get his mouth to the ground to eat stuff. People are going to think you are muzzling him because he's aggressive, so you'd have that to contend with, but maybe for when he's alone.

 

[dagwall]

When I DO let him go he is dragging his 6' leash, I could get a much longer one for that purpose I guess. It would work well where we let the dogs play, an open field between to little league sized ball fields. And no it wouldn't be better IN the fenced ball fields as dogs are not supposed to be in there (posted signs) and the few times Jubel has been in there off-leash the first thing he does is run to and out the 'dug out' fencing. He'll just lap around and run in through the other 'dug out' but he can't seem to resist 'escaping' through the openings.

About two weeks ago while the dogs were play some fetch one of the other dogs was standing on his leash when he tried to sprint off after the ball. He did a barrel roll in the air from the abrupt stop about a foot from his lunge. He was perfectly fine, got back up and still got to the ball first haha. But it looked painful from my end. Not sure if that'd be more or less likely on a long line...

I love that he'll do anything I can get him to understand for a treat but the high food drive on top of being smart causes trouble. He'll remember where he found some 'food' for a long time and checks back there any chance he gets. I used to think I was safe from the poop eating with him but around fall he discovered the 'joy' of deer poop. Thankfully it's only deer/rabbit poop so far.

 

[Abbylynn]

I hear you loud and clear! I just had a big vet bill and still do not know what was ingested ? It never came out! Not to mention I thought Leeo was going to die ... probably food bloat like someone mentioned .... x-rays showed a bunch of "Stuff" ... as my vet called it. When Benny was here ... he ate everything he could get his mouth on. One day he was barfing up plastic bread ties and pieces of rubber toys that I have no idea where they came from either ... had to have been before I got him here? These dogs are either going to kill themselves or our pocket books. You have to watch these " Food Hounds " like a hawk! :/

I would vote for no more off leash and go with the long line. At least you can reel him in!

 

[KBLover]

I SO feel your pain. Kabota will eat ANYTHING he can fit in his mouth. I can't even identify half of what he tries to scrape off the ground during walks. It is disturbing. About the only thing he won't eat is poop, and thank anything you can think of for that.

I hear that. Wally is the same way. Any time I see him sniffing with intense interest in a spot - I make absolutely sure he's just sniffing the ground and not trying to scope out some half eaten sandwich with ants all over it or something.

Leave it was something we worked on about 100 times (literally) every week once I saw him nearly snatch a moldy piece of bread. Of the few times I get firm with him in verbal correction, this is one of them.

Of course, if people wouldn't leave half eaten food on the ground...

 

[chipinmom]

Ugh! You guys are depressing me! lol
I was sooo hoping that this was just a puppy thing and that Bentley would grow out of it. I swear, he eats EVERYTHING that will fit in his mouth. I was just saying this morning, while pulling a rock out of his mouth, that if (more like when) he ever needs an xray, I'm afraid of what we will see in there! lol

 

[dagwall]

Leave it training has helped a lot on our walks and I see things as we approach he'll listen but if he's run off to an area he KNOWS he frequently has found 'good stuff' leave it just isn't going to cut it.

As for little Bentley, I've heard some dogs grow out of it but I wouldn't count on that. Start working on a leave it if you haven't already and drop it as well. Jubel was just over 2 when I got him and he's always been this way but with better self control now with the training I've done with him in the just under 2 years I've had him. Still doesn't stop all accidents from happening though. I'm just very happy he did manage to bring the corn cob back up on his own rather than it making it into his intestines and getting stuck. He's been eating, drinking, pooping like normal since Saturday when he must have gotten the corn cob so it's just been bouncing around in his stomach.

 

[hamandeggs]

Leave it does help, and I also think it depends where you live. I live in an area with a lot of bars and restaurants and it is not easy to keep my dog from "enjoying" the pizza cheese and chicken bones on the ground every weekend morning. Like, really? Who throws pizza cheese on the ground? We have not mastered "leave it" when it comes to pizza cheese.

 

[dagwall]

Leave it does help, and I also think it depends where you live. I live in an area with a lot of bars and restaurants and it is not easy to keep my dog from "enjoying" the pizza cheese and chicken bones on the ground every weekend morning. Like, really? Who throws pizza cheese on the ground? We have not mastered "leave it" when it comes to pizza cheese.

haha well at least the pizza cheese won't hurt your dog unless they have allergies or a sensitive stomach, something Jubel does NOT have at all, but chicken bones are dangerous.

 

[hamandeggs]

No, it's just disgusting!

The absolute worst was this though: right after we got her last summer, like the next day, my husband and I each took her for a walk. Our house backs up on an alley, and we each independently walked through this alley...where there was a dead rat...which Biscuit managed to grab both times independently. So both my husband and I have had the very special experience of pulling a dessicated dead rat out of our dog's mouth. This was before we had trained her at all...leave it became a priority after that! It turns out that when you live in a neighborhood with lots of chicken and pizza on the ground, you also live in a neighborhood with lots of really fat dead rats.

 

[Amaryllis]

Leave it is . . . slow going. Drop it is going okay, but I may just be teaching him to eat it really fast before I notice he has it in his mouth.

We have a lot of feral cats and skunks in my neighborhood and every week, they pull apart everybody's trash, leaving all kinds of treats all over the place, chicken bones, pizza crusts, moldy sandwiches, stale bagels, anything people throw away. Trying to convince Kabota not to partake in the buffet is not easy.

 

[dagwall]

Somewhat surprisingly to me Jubel's drop it drastically improved starting the day he bit down on my finger while I was digging sharp pointy bones out of his mouth. I had my finger hooked behind them in his mouth so he couldn't swallow them, I adjusted my finger, he adjusted his teeth. I think he thought the bone was between his teeth at that point and not my finger, he increased the pressure, I say "OUCH!" and he instantly let go a gave me the sad dog look. Since that day he's been so much better with drop it, he really does seem to know when he has actually hurt me and is very careful to not do it again. Haha of course head-butts that occur when we wrestle don't seem to count there, I've had a couple fat lips from that type of fun. I love my boy.

 

[chipinmom]

Leave it is . . . slow going. Drop it is going okay, but I may just be teaching him to eat it really fast before I notice he has it in his mouth.

THIS! lol

Bentley is pretty good with both leave it and drop it.. UNLESS it's something that he finds very tasty and worth getting in trouble for (apparently this includes rocks, sticks, leaves, fur, paper etc..). In that case the game is swallow as fast as I can before mom can get her fingers in my mouth lol