Den måndag 10 juni 2002 kl. 00:51:08 UTC+2 skrev Baldy Cotton:

Someone famous whose name I don't recall wrote:

Yesterday I took the dog for a walk around the neighborhood and noticed that the dog has a very
stubborn habit of gulping down almost anything along the way that he can find.

I own a Brit, (Petey, aka Jean Pierre Chien) and that was normal behavior with Petey also.
But I trained him out of it.

He walks with his nose nearly touching the ground and gulps
down things before anyone can stop him.

Only "before" if you're not paying attention.

The dog is both fast and sneaky and will also growl if we try to
pull his head up and away from something he is trying to gobble down.

He's a Brit, and he's doing what he was bred to do. Hunt with his nose.
BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT!!!
I see that he has YOU trained so that you believe his rules are:
"I, as Alpha Dog, am allowed to eat anything I want off the ground. No one can stop me as I am fast
and sneaky and growl and threaten if you try to stop me".

The growling IS a threat and is the FIRST thing that has to stop. Only one person can be top dog.
You or him. He's already decided he wants the job. You need to change his mind. Dogs don't mind
being second or third or last in command, but it's very very hard for them if they don't know the
rules. Think of it like a child who wants to play with the stove. You MUST make him stop and learn,
and it can be done without pain.

The eating from the street will keep happening until one of three things happens.
One: He will eat something poisonous and die.
Two: You become so miserable, that you just stop taking him for walks. Three: You train him to stop it.

The first two will happen automatically.

Here's how to do the third one: First, teach him to heel. VERY hard with a Brit because he was
born to be in front of you hunting for quail. But you can do it with extra persistence. Always
make him heel.

Does he sit when told? If not, you have a dog that will always be a problem,
and it is NOT the dogs fault. Take him to a class or hire a trainer to help or at least get a good
training book. Ask local friends who have trained dogs.

Walk him on a short leash. Every time he goes to grab something, snap back at the leash. Don't try
to break his neck, but let him know that it's very uncomfortable to reach for garbage on the ground.
Don't let him get it. And keep walking. Always make him heel.

If he still picks something up off the ground, whether it's a stick or a candy wrapper or a piece of
poop, grab his mouth and hold it shut until he cries. No pain needed. The message you want to
teach him is that anything on the ground he picks up stays in his mouth until he can stand it no
longer. When he puts it down, praise him for doing so and walk away. Always make him heel.

I live in a safe neighborhood, but my Brit ALWAYS heels. It's all he knows by now. I can just
drape the leash (and we ALWAYS use a leash) over my shoulder, and he won't walk away from me.

Imagine how nice walks will be for you and him when he's trained. You won't have a dog with poop on
his lips and he won't have an owner yanking and pulling and yelling and being miserable.

Another thing that's very cool is that Brits are so smart that after a while, I realized he would
happily respond to hand signals to sit, lay down, gimme paw, and heel. When we play in the yard, I
can get him to go in one direction or the other just by pointing.

I hope I've emphasized how very very important it is to train your dog. You'll both be so much
happier.

I know this thread is old, but training your dog is the only long-term solution, OP.

I love my dog so much but it constantly did the things that irked me most. It would chew on things that it shouldn’t or jump up and down out of the blue.

Whenever I put on the leash, it would pull on it. Whenever it was out of the house, it would continue digging on the ground - I wish I could tell what it was looking for down there. The same goes for all the nasty urine.

All the things it did left me feeling depressed as if I failed it monumentally.

But since I discovered Brain Training for Dogs and applied the system offered, it now behaves the way a beautiful dog I always expect of 🐶

Here's a link to their site: http://hiddendogintelligence.club/

Good luck!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)