Help with my greedy lab!

[Mygreedylab]

Adopted a golden Lab a few months ago, she’s now 17 months. Gorgeous in every way EXCEPT when it comes to dead things on the beach!

Its like she goes into this zone where she won’t listen, we might as well not exist, she’ll practically run the length of the beach to eat the fish then once she’s got it she’ll run away from us to eat it. It’s so out of character. This applies to dead birds as well. The beach is next to where we live and is the best place to walk her off lead. (Not in U.K.).

Have been working SO hard on training and been following Total Recall for weeks and it has been going so well, she’s doing so so well. Comes to us every time. I’m almost at the stage where we need to do distractions but I just know she’s going to fail that bit.

any insight - I’m wondering will this settle a bit as she gets older?

Please 😭

Keep her on the lead on the beach. Make sure her recall is 100% before you let her off the lead again. Her recall won't just improve overnight. If you can never let her off because you think she'll run off, then don't. And for some dogs, it will never improve. Some dogs just don't have good recall because of their pray drive or their inability to listen.

It's dangerous for her to eat dead animals - she could end up dead in a worst case scenario.

Could she have a cage muzzle just for the beach?

It’s not likely she’s going to get more sensible as she gets older. We’ve an exceptionally trained old lab but not with food. He eats what he shouldn’t out and about and if a child leaves the table with food left on their plate he snaffles it. He is an improvement on the last lab who snatched food from hands!

muzzle she can’t actually eat what she finds

I am a fellow Labrador owner. I’ve had three Labradors and they’re are all dustbins on legs, able to consume dead, rotting flesh and turds without penalty. It does get better with age, but as I saw my almost two year old literally comb the beach earlier I did ponder why we do it. She has got hold of medication before which lead to a vet purging visit, so the odd dead fish isn’t a big deal. I did draw the line at an enormous blown up dead seal though.

My dogs recall is generally excellent, but there is the odd exception when the thing they want to do is so bloody good that they ignore you. I’d run away from them, they soon come running after you, the filth eating greedy buggers.

Welcome to the world of lab owning. Enjoy 😉

Nope. 🤣

Mine is terrible for snaffling things. Once picked up a rotten dogfish at the beach and had all the fishermen chasing after him as not only did the fish stink I presume it would be very bad for him to eat. He’s elderly now, arthritic - will still perform a lunge for a chopped onion. DH had to spring into action and wrestle it from his mouth the other day.

With persistence you may get there but I wouldn’t count on it.

I have a very greedy dog, not a lab, but similar food mentality as labs are known for! She has great recall until she finds a dead thing. Then I just simply don't exist. Not sure what the best solution is. A muzzle on a beach might be a good idea. Or a high reward treat for leaving it? That occasionally works for me but not with recall, I have to go to her.

Does she have anything she loves more than food? Ours would take a tennis ball over food any day. But if we don't have the ball with us anything that once roamed, or not, is fair game. She will also come back preferentially for her favourite treats (sausages) so it is just a case of working out what they love the most and distracting them with that. But you will never totally stop it.

Thank you it’s somewhat comforting to know maybe with dead things we’ll never win.

sadly there is nothing she loves more than dead flesh. I could carry a dead fish around with me?

You are doomed 😁 dead things it is!

I would keep her on a lead for now, but I would also muzzle train her, for her safety as much as anything else. If she swallows a fishing hook or line, or eats something like palm oil, you could be looking at a very, very expensive vets bill.

I don't want to scare you, but dogs can and do die from eating things they shouldn't - if she won't recall and runs off then you have no idea what it is she's managing to eat.

Scavenging aside, if she won't come back when called she needs to be on a lead.