How to stop puppy eating everything outside?

[WelshieBach]

Puppy is a nightmare outside, he will have about 5 minutes running around smelling everything and doing his business and then he will just start eating everything. Leafs, grass, rocks, literally anything he can find. We have gravel, loads of trees that leaves fall off daily, I go over it all daily to get rid of any major threats but he just eats everything he can find. We don't let him swallow any of it, if we get there in time, but it's not enjoyable having to constantly pull his mouth open and grab stuff out. We've tried a water pistol and that doesn't work, he just finds it fun. Getting to the point we are literally taking him outside to toilet and then he's straight back in and we need him to get used to it, but don't want him making himself ill. Help please :(

Sound sentirely normal. Mine's a year old and is just about safe in the garden.

Please stop pulling him mouth open - it will not do either of you any good in the long run.

Practice swapsies in the house with safe objects, such as a ball he "leaves" or "gives" in return for treats. Then take that skill out into the garden.

Oh and just wait for the age they play the game ''I've got something I shouldn't and I'm going to try and make you chase me around the garden for it, even though it's 10pm'.

Such fun (not)

@missbattenburg I don't have a choice if he gets something like a stone in his mouth, he won't give or swap for a treat he will just swallow it. I'd rather pull his mouth open than him swallow a stone. I just need to figure out how to deter him before he gets hold of these things. Still struggling to teach him to give and drop stuff, maybe need to stop outside time until we've mastered it.

He already does that!! He's so naughty and it's cute but exhausting at the same time. I feel like I have no authority over him!!

Sorry, I'll shut up in a minute but just wanted to call out that

a) physically manipulating the dog to do what you want (e.g. pulling its mouth open)
and
b) using things you think might be punishments (e.g. water pistol)

are the least effecive training methods.

Set the dog up so that doing the right thing is the most fun or most rewarding thing for him to do, then reward him. Much easier and quicker as a training method.

At a push, when mine was less reliable about dropping stuff I would pick something safe up and pretend it was the very best thing in the world - ignoring the puppy. I would be VERY over the top and if anyone else was there, they joined in with thinking this safe object was fan-bloody-tastic.

Puppies are too nosey to resist coming and finding out what is so brilliant.Normally dropping their stone in the process.

Thank you I will take that onboard. I'm not trying to use punishment tactics with the water pistol (it's a tiny thing not powerful in the slightest) just to make him jump and hopefully drop what he's got. I think he can tell how much I hate him putting anything from outside in his mouth and he knows I'll react so he really, really plays up with it. When he goes outside with OH he doesn't try it anywhere near as much, but I'm the one at home with him all day every day.. I just don't know how to not panic and react when I'm so worried he will end up at the vets with a bowel obstruction of stones and sticks in lots of pain, me with a massive vet bill all because he thinks it's funny!!

My dog's 7 and she stills tries that game from time to time Missbattenburg. However, I know she's not going to swallow anything she shouldn't and she will drop it eventually.

Yes, swapping for a treat was the most effective way to deal with her desire to eat small stones when she was a puppy, and anything else I wanted her to drop.

They do grow up and stop, most, of their stupid behaviour OP but I did catch my dog chewing on a piece of wood from a rose bush the other day, and yes, it did have thorns on it.

I understand the panic - mine once swallowed glass as a young puppy. He was fine but it was a horrible few hours.

The thing about punishments are that most of us are unwilling to use anything that is really a punishment for the dog (rightly so). Instead what we have are things we hope are harmelss but unpleasant. They are rarely unpleasant enough to couter balance how much fun doing the 'wrong' thing can be.

I think he can tell how much I hate him putting anything from outside in his mouth and he knows I'll react so he really, really plays up with it.

I bet this is true - it's a game to the puppy. The answer, then , is to make the most boring game in the world. With regards to small stones, I confess I used to take a calculated risk and shrug when Battendog tried it. Once he stopped getting the reaction he wanted, he stopped playing. I am pretty sure he never actually swallowed any stones.

Anyway, lots of great practise indoors with swapping toys for treats so he knows there is another way to play. If he won't do a straight swap to start with, will he drop an item to chase treats scattered across the floor? Somethings their movement seems like fun to puppies and they will chase them down?

Is the puppy actually eating the stones? I ask because it used to look like mine was and we did the swop. Then he started to take more stones because he wanted biscuits. I then watched him and he wouldn't eat them but kept them in his mouth. So to stop him deliberately getting stones for a 'swop' I wouldn't let him back in the house until he dropped it and it worked a treat .

I also picked my battles so I let him crunch leaves and pick up sticks and generally ignore him because otherwise it turned into a game.

Anything I really didn't want him to eat I would still do a swop. So next doors apple tree is dropping apples at the moment and of course my nearly 2 year old still likes to grab them so I 'swop' them for his ball.

You have to be or have something much more exciting than what the puppy has. Dogs are like toddlers. Babies put things in their mouths to learn. So do puppies. They aren't doing it to piss you off.

Focus on drop/give training. It's an on going thing.

Unfortunately, some dogs do seem to have a death wish and will go on swallowing inappropriate things all their lives.

The swapping for a treat, or toy if your dog prefers, method really is the only safe and effective way to try to deal with it.

You probably need to up your game and find a massively - to your dog - valuable treat to tempt him with.

I found my dog couldn't resist dried chicken liver treats, I used them for recall training. Most dogs will kill for them but you can't use many of them at a time because they're so rich, but I used to cut them up really small. Liver cake is another one you can try as it spreads the liver a bit more thinly.

Or cheese or ham, or anything your dog goes wild for. There must be something your dog will do anything for, find that, keep it just for the particular training you feel is most important at any given time and you should find your dog will be putty in your hands.

You need to supervise your puppy! Water pistols prising open his mouth will cause loads of issues later on. Soon he will just run away from you so that you can not open his mouth or shoot him with water - your recall will be horrendous

Make a safe area for him to be in - use a puppy pen and make sure no stones etc are in it. Obviously leaves may fly into it but you will need to be vigilant.

This phase will pass and it is better to concentrate on not letting him get to things than it is "training" him as the phase will naturally end any way.

Does he drop less interesting things? As in is drop something you’ve taught him already and it’s just outside that’s an issue?

At least if you keep fishing stuff out of his mouth he might learn to associate picking things up with a horrible experience and stop doing it!

At least if you keep fishing stuff out of his mouth he might learn to associate picking things up with a horrible experience and stop doing it!

Or he will associate the bad experience with being near WelshieBach and try to minimise how often s/he gets near him.

@Vallahalagonebutnotforgotten we tried using a puppy pen and he jumps straight out of it. We sectioned off the decking for him to get used to at first but we want him to learn to do his business on the grass, without seeing it it's hard to explain but it's impossible to puppy proof that area. Have to walk over a gravel area to get there too. We do supervise him, but he's a quick little thing and occasionally gets past us, we were advised by our vet to use a water pistol so gave it a go. Not trying to use it as way of being lazy, just trying to minimise risk while still letting him toilet train and get used to the garden, not just the decking area

Thanks all other responses. Can't remember everyone's names, he's learnt sit and has gotten good at responding to his name indoors. He doesn't want to co operate outdoors with anything.. sit, recall, drop, give.. he just about listens to me in the house.. outside nope! Don't really want to limit his garden use when he's fully vaccinated in a week and will be going out for walks.. can't puppy proof every street!

“he just about listens to me in the house.. outside nope!”

Totally normal you need to train any commands somewhere boring, then when he’s good at them, that’s when you basically start again outside (though it won’t take as long)

In the meantime it’s about making sure he can’t get things tbh, like val said you might want to think about creating a safe space... yes it’s more boring for him, but it also gives you that extra time to start to generalise commands to different environments.

What are you using as rewards? Is it something he values enough?

Vets can be rubbish at behavioural advice (not all but yours is!) . The water pistol may work short term but you will have a whole load of issues for using it. Dog running off, dog hiding and still eating stones where you can't see him or squirt him and as said before good luck with your recall it will be non existent.

There are so many things you need to be working on which will help on his general behaviour and level of concentration . Please please do not use the water pistol unless you want problems at a later date. By later date I mean tomorrow not in a few years.

He is not listening to you because he is bored and finding his own things to do eg eat stones and leaves.

I say this all the time but it is so important and will make all your training so much easier for you.

You need to get your puppy concentrating on you. Simple to do just keep the puppy on a lead indoors in the quiet and when he looks at you eye contact then you reward with a treat. I do say good when he looks at me but no command. It needs to be his choice. No luring, no pulling him into position. Do this every where in the house, when watching tv, when you are having coffee etc. I would be using at least two of his meals a day on this activity for a few days or week.

Getting technical we are working with classical conditioning which is incredible powerful. Your dog will learn that, being near you is the best thing ever and if I look at you it is even better.

On a practical level if you are out in the garden and your puppy is picking things up and sees you he will come to you for a treat. He is less likely to be picking things up as he is looking at you for a treat.

Teaching heel work he will be looking at you so will not be able to pull ahead.

Recall will be a piece of cake as he is looking at you for a treat and knows that being near you is the best place to be. On another note for recall if you do put a bowl of food down for him always says "Come" in the voice you will use for recall. Do this for the weeks he is not allowed out for walks and you will be halfway there for recall.

Puppies do need a lot of supervision and I would be limiting his garden use unless you are there with him to stimulate him.

He has learnt to jump out of the puppy pen because he is bored and not stimulated. So if you do use a pen again put him in the pen with either a kong or a licky mat to occupy him. If he can not go in a pen then he needs supervision on a long line in the garden - he is not mature enough yet to make the correct decisions out in the garden Eating stones can kill puppies.

Take him into the garden with a long line on a harness and play tuggy with him - that will tire him out and then he can relax and sleep. He should be sleeping at least 18 hours as a puppy more if a young pup.

90% of dog training is controlling the environment so that the dog gives you the correct behaviour rather than correcting the wrong behaviour.

Remember this phase will pass. Mine as a puppy was awful in the garden and we did cordon off an area but he still tried to dig the grass up to get stones.

Our dog did this and we put hours of work into training a 'drop it' and 'leave it' response with her. We did it in the house with safe toys. I can't remember exactly how we did it but it worked eventually and she is now great at dropping and leaving things on command (i only wish her recall training had worked so well!).

My summer last year was spent mainly removing stones from my puppy’s mouth. The garden table was covered in removed items by the end of each day. He needed constant supervision! He did grow out of this urge to crunch stones once he had finished teething. A deer antler helped too. This year’s battle is to stop playing with and trying to eat bees!! Good luck!