Barney the street cleaner

[Barney]

Hello
Is this an all to familiar problem:

I have a 7 mnth old .. and when we're out for walks his nose is permanently too the ground and he's on a mission to wipe the streets clean from ANYTHING that stands in his way :?  - so within the first five mins of out the door i have pulled out : stones/wrappers/twigs/old hankies/unidentified disgusting objects .. and basically anything else...  :shock:  So our walks consist of mostly us stopping and starting - its quite hard to walk normally.

Is this normal.. is there an answer? More than anything i know that if he does swallow the odd snail ..(which he has) he will be sick or have bad tummy (which he has)...

Worried & frustrated mummy.
thanks                    

[PennyB]

That's about right for a cocker. If/when you decide to teach him to walk to heel (or at least walk!) you may need to start focusing him on you—as while his head's down he's in his own little world and probably pulling!

My two eat everything when out on their walks but so far no probs.                    

[Magic Star]

I' m lucky, Indie doesn't tend to pick things up on her walks (probably cos shes a fussydrawers!) although she does bring snails, in out of the garden :?                    

[Katherine]

Barnaby does exactly the same thing, and eats snail shells aswell, but we have found that the more they go out, the more used to their surroundings they get which means they do it less and less. Barnaby is quite good now. When he first went out he used to jump up at people all the time, now he never does!                    

[Magic Star]

I'm afraid that theory doesn't work with Indie and her snails :?  She brings them in all the time, I have even found empty shells under my bed :shock:  :evil:  gawd only knows where the slimy bit went :roll:  Yukkiiieeeeee                    

[Tori]

Yep definately a cocker thing

It's that gundog instict

Do try to be careful with what they pick up though, sadly my aunt lost her cocker 3 yrs ago after she eat something whilst being walked
I know they can be very quick though so it isn't easy and t the end of the day things like taht happening is a rareity                    

[Katherine]

Barnaby will eat anything and everything! In the kitchen, when something is dropped on the floor he will hoover it up instantly, even bitter things like green peppers! :roll:

I have even found empty shells under my bed

Not like Barnaby, he likes to crunch them up!                    

[Jan/Billy]

Yep Billy is exactly the  same!!! He usually goes for half eaten packets of crisps that have fallen out of the bin in the park :oops: I think it must be a cocker/puppy thing. Last week i took him round the local fields and before i could stop him he had a dead rat in his mouth uuurgh. :cry:
Billy will carry things in his mouth for a short while and then drop them on the floor, he is getting better though, I amhoping he willgrowout ofit. I usually leave him unless it is something i think may cause him some harm ie a stone                    

[Busters Dad]

Do you know what ?, this is where sites like this can be so useful and reasuring.  

I thought that Buster was the only dog in the world that had to be watched constantly in case he picked up and ate something/anything undesireable.

He has got better with time and patience, now he will drop an object if I ask him to. Food is a different thing altogether though. Snaffled food is down the hatch before I get the chance to call " drop ".

Oh well, the joys of Cocker ownership.    

Mike.                    

[annemie]

Our Joris did the same  :shock:  But then we gave him something to carrie in his mouth. It worked very good.   .

Now I just have to say NO and he walks on.                      

[Katherine]

We get barnaby to carry his ball in a bag sometimes but if he sees something interesting on the ground he'll drop the ball and go for it