Dog eats everything!!

Quality

Hey all

So my 7 month old golden labrador is coming on great, I feed her Red Mills Puppy food for the larger breed, and once a week she gets a breast of chicken and raw egg.

Tbh she is not mad about the dry food and even if I only leave it out for 10 minutes, she still might not eat it until the next feed time. Sometimes I have to sit and hand feed her from her bowl!! Yes she is spoiled rotten!

So when I bring her out walking she eats everything in sight, she sniffs out cat poo from the neighbours gardens if she is off the lead outside the house and will eat other dogs poo too.

We also spend a lot of time on the beach at least once a day and she will gobble up anything and everything in site, crabs, fish, jelly fish and any shell fish, poo or rubbish in sight.

She had some pretty bad diahorea last week as well as vomiting, And I dont mind cleaning up vomit, but when it is poo that she is vomiting up it is not very nice!!:eek:

So I have reluctantly bought her a muzzle, It is a cage muzzle, so she can still exercise and breath properly.. Just wondering.. will she grow out of this behaviour? I try the leave command, but the food is down her throat the minutes she sniffs it.

I dont want to have to keep her on the lead all the time because she is an active dog and needs space to run around.

Any comments..?

edit: I have recently wormed her.

andreac

I was going to say use the leave command but i see you have already tried that. When you say leave do you reward her with something? That way she knows she will get something nice if she doesn what you ask her.

Most puppies eat everything in sight and most will grow out of it in time.
Just a note on the feeding. I would not be hand feeding her at all. You are only creating a very fussy dog. Shes well able to eat for herself and you are only setting yoursdelf up for problems by hand feeding her like that.

She wont go hungry so leave the food down for 15 mins and take it up again and do not offer anything until next mealtime. This will take a few days to set the routine so be strong and dont give in to her. Its only molly coddling her by hand feeding when shes able to eat herself.

Quality

Thanks for your reply Andrea.

You see she runs with her nose along the ground and if she sees something worth eating she just gobbles it up. so by the time I call or shout, it is half way down her throat!

She comes over to me and then I reward her, I wouldnt be able to let her off the lead without the rewards, she is clever like that, will only come for the reward!! Especially when there is a lot more exciting things happening around her.

Do you think the muzzle is cruel? Or will she eventually grow out of this habit with the help of the muzzle?

Will stop feeding her as well..:o

andreac

No problem, you are welcome.:)
Personally i dont think a muzzle is necessary, she needs to be a pup and have fun and putting a muzzle on isnt nice for them and unless for a medical reason she must not eat certain things then i wouldnt put one on.

As i said, pups eat everything and most of the time its not going to bother them. Id be more inclined to keep her on the lead so you can monitor where her head is than muzzling her, as i hate muzzles and a muzzle for me is really only needed for an aggressive dog.

yellowlabrador

It's very common for labradors to have an enzyme deficiency, called trypsin deficiency. One vet recommended a tablespoon of sunflower oil with every meal and feeding the dog a tin of chappie with tripe.
There are other dogfood brands that now add trypsin. It's worth investigating and maybe feeding a variety of dried foods, rather than just one brand.
Like a previous poster said, put the food down for 15-20 minutes and then withdraw and do not hand feed. I do give my dogs the family leftovers at night, but then again in a dogbowl and removed if not eaten straight away.
Don't muzzle him but keep him on a lead. If you can take him somewhere in open countryside, let him off and encourage him to scent out wildlife, like rabbit and such. In town, there are too many distractions. One of my labradors, goes mad in town. Every bit of paper and wrapping needs to be investigated for foodleftovers, she'll nearly drag me across the street for it. In open countryside, she's a different dog.

Quality

I live so close to the beach you see and it is great for her to be able to have a swim and run free. Its just she had really bad diahorea, and I am sure it was from something she ate on the beach. I dont want to keep her on the lead as she needs to burn off the energy on her walks.

I am just hoping that a couple of weeks on muzzle might break the habit of it.
I am not a fan of the muzzle but my kids need to be able to share the back garden with the dog. Which isnt possible when she has gastro!

seamus

I don't think a muzzle is necessary. It's a little bit overkill for a normal puppy activity. Like children, puppies will eat things as a way of experiencing the world and they will eventually grow out of it as they learn that "food goes in here" and not everything tastes good when it gets past your lips.

Just try keep an eye out for anything which might have trouble coming out at the far end.

My parents were forever finding solid non-foodstuffs in their JRT puppies' poo.

I'm no expert on nutrition, but maybe a high-fibre food and plenty of water will alleviate the mess when the inevitable bouts of tummy upset come along?

My own rescue dog is somewhere between 2.5 and 3 at this stage, but she was never walked before we got her. When she first arrived in the house, she was chewing everything to see what it was like, and when we're out on walks, she's eating anything and everything - even pulling leaves off bushes
She's slowly starting to learn to drop stuff on command though and every day she's picking up less and less from the ground.

Quality

Yep and dogs do eat everythiing!
actually my friend has a two year old cocker spaniel. lovely dog.

Well the dog wasnt well and she brought it to vet, Vet kept dog in for a couple of days as the vet assumed the dog had eaten something toxic. after 3 days no improvement.

They did an ultrasound and found two golf balls in the dogs stomach! They had to operate.

€750 vets bill:eek:.

LisaO

As previous posters have said, she is doing what comes naturally to a pup, especially a labrador! My lab is now 5 and still a total glutton. You can count the time taken to eat his dinner in seconds, not minutes! Yet he is much improved from when he was a pup.

I would be inclined to persevere with the "leave" command. Try offering really high value treats, eg, sausage, roast chicken but reserve these treats for only when she offers a correct "leave". She will soon learn to associate the word with something really tasty & hopefully be inclined to leave the more unsavoury snacks where they are!