Extreme scavenging

Hollysdad

Hollysdad

Administrator
Staff member
Location
Monmouthshire, Wales
Holly's scavenging is getting out of control. It's getting to a point where her scavenging is giving her a permanent upset stomach, often windy, regularly loose, and occasionally sick. It's worrying because we simply don't know what she's eating.

We've tried lots of things over the years but nothing seems to work. We've got into the habit of keeping Holly on lead in all the high poop areas at the start of walks and only let her off when we're in quiet parts of the forest. Every time she sniffs at something 'interesting' I try to tempt her away with a treat. If she's too far away I run to her and pull her off.

Today this meant keeping her on lead for about a mile, mainly because of all the rubbish left around the sculpture trail over half term. When I eventually got clear of the area and let her off she dashed off into the undergrowth and ate something. It took here a while but she came out looking quite pleased with herself. I had to put her back on the lead. Heading back to the car park she lunged on the lead and picked up a big mouthful of poop. Nothing would induce her to drop it.

I'm reaching a point where our walks are becoming less enjoyable because of the constant need for vigilance. She'd love to be off lead trotting around and sniffing things, but we can't trust her.

We're thinking of trying out a muzzle when she's off-lead. It might prevent her from scavenging. What do people think?
 
Shaz82

Shaz82

Location
Essex, U.K.
If only everyone would pick up after themselves and their dogs! There would still be other animal poop around though but not quite so bad.

There is a retriever where we walk that is muzzled because of exactly that problem, he just eats everything and makes himself ill. The poor chap is always apologising though in case people think the dog is aggressive. He isn't though and the muzzle doesn't seem to bother him, he is very playful and friendly. That might be the way to go but maybe someone else will post with help on stopping scavenging. I could do with some as Maisy keeps finding human poo in our morning park .. don't ask!
 
Plum's mum

Plum's mum

Location
East Sussex
That’s so difficult for you @Hollysdad, how frustrating for you and Holly to have on lead walks because of other people’s rubbish.

Today at the park Plum gobbled something up in a flash. Later, whilst I was talking to a friend on the pavement, Plum vomited twice, outside the friend’s house 😱. In one pile of vomit was an unrecognisable lump which I’m sure was the cause of the vomit.

My mum had a friend who had to muzzle her dog because it kept eating mushrooms and getting sick.

Hope you find a suitable resolution.
 
Mabel’smummy

Mabel’smummy

Location
Coventry
Oh dear, poor you and Holly. Mabel ate half a pizza today before I realised what she was up too. It makes you realise how dirty the UK can be once you own a food obsessed dog. My friend has decided to muzzle his dog after so much illness and ignore the odd comment. Walks are now much more enjoyable for him.
 
Granca

Granca

It’s a frustrating trying to pre-empt scavenging and I haven’t found the answer yet, despite training cues, treats, etc. Wispa had a bout of being sick in the night two or three times last week, probably because she had eaten something in the garden when she was let out before bed. A while ago I tried putting a muzzle on her so she could be with me while I was gardening, but Tuppence pulled it off! Tuppence is equally bad at scavenging and swallows things whole when she knows she shouldn’t have them. We had a near miss with her choking on an apple once.

I’ve had suggestions such as using a squeaky toy to distract her, but a labrador hell-bent on scavenging something that's only attractive to a labrador isn’t easy to distract!

I hope you find a solution for Holly. It’s miserable having to limit her freedom.
 
Charlie

Charlie

Location
Argyll & Bute, Scotland
What a problem for you and Holly. Maybe the muzzle will give you some much needed relaxing walks, time to train and maybe this problem will subside. Worth a try as all else hasn't worked. I hope you find a resolution quickly. xx
 
SteffiS

SteffiS

Location
Norfolk
This is Ripple to a tee :(, I’ve tried all sorts of things but there seems to be no one solution for us.
Ripple seems to spend his entire walk desperately hunting for poo or dead things, I changed his diet to include raw in the hope that this would help but I don’t think it’s made any difference.
The muzzle (Ancol plastic) I gave up on, as, despite training it at home and being successful with him wearing it indoors, outside Ripple refused to walk a step with it on, rolled on the ground, scratched at his face and was thoroughly upset.

The trouble with having Ripple off lead now is that he knows I don’t want him eating stuff so he will keep skipping away and won’t come back if he thinks there is something around to eat, there appears to be no reward I can offer him that is better than something disgusting he has found. Mostly I’ve resorted to using a long line so I can keep him in check, but I can’t use this if I’m walking the two dogs together so then Ripple is on a short lead. Most days I either walk the dogs separately or there are two of us. Unfortunately OH is far less vigilant than me so when he’s home we get far more bouts of Ripple being sick or having an upset stomach. I don’t like OH walking Toffee as he won’t let him off the lead but does let him pull, which I don’t.

I’m absolutely paranoid about Toffee picking up Ripple's bad habits, so I do really prefer to walk the dogs separately if I can.
 
snowbunny

snowbunny

Location
Andorra and Spain
Hollysdad said:
Does anyone have any experience of muzzles? Are there any makes that people would recommend?
Click to expand...
Yep, I have a BUMAS one for Shadow. It was easy enough to train him to wear it; I just took it slowly and make it a "put your nose in the muzzle" game, which I played both indoors and outside. Once I was at the stage of clipping it up, I would leave it on for a couple of seconds (again both indoors and on walks) and then take it off again. Gradually increased the time. Once we hit a minute, he was fine in it for longer periods.

I love that the BUMAS ones are as colourful as you like, customised to fit, and with plenty of adjustment, too. They are expensive, but very well made and worth it.
 
SwampDonkey

SwampDonkey

SteffiS said:
This is Ripple to a tee :(, I’ve tried all sorts of things but there seems to be no one solution for us.
Ripple seems to spend his entire walk desperately hunting for poo or dead things, I changed his diet to include raw in the hope that this would help but I don’t think it’s made any difference.
The muzzle (Ancol plastic) I gave up on, as, despite training it at home and being successful with him wearing it indoors, outside Ripple refused to walk a step with it on, rolled on the ground, scratched at his face and was thoroughly upset.

The trouble with having Ripple off lead now is that he knows I don’t want him eating stuff so he will keep skipping away and won’t come back if he thinks there is something around to eat, there appears to be no reward I can offer him that is better than something disgusting he has found. Mostly I’ve resorted to using a long line so I can keep him in check, but I can’t use this if I’m walking the two dogs together so then Ripple is on a short lead. Most days I either walk the dogs separately or there are two of us. Unfortunately OH is far less vigilant than me so when he’s home we get far more bouts of Ripple being sick or having an upset stomach. I don’t like OH walking Toffee as he won’t let him off the lead but does let him pull, which I don’t.

I’m absolutely paranoid about Toffee picking up Ripple's bad habits, so I do really prefer to walk the dogs separately if I can.
Click to expand...
I walked Rory separately for a while and he rarely goes after poo or rolls in it. He's not like Moo at all. I do feel its was nature and learnt self rewarding with Moo she was very different to the boys in temperament.
 
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