stick eating a big problem

[nickycnc]

Has anyone got any advice on how I can stop Darcy spending 90% of her walk time eating sticks. It has always been a problem for me but so far she hasn't caused herself any harm, however she is starting to choke occassionally and I feel that I really need to knock this on the head.

On the whole she isn't a disobedient dog. I did manage for a short time to teach her swap (give me what you have in exchange for a treat) however she now knows that if I can get close enough I will take it from her so this is now a problem as she runs off when i get close and the treat has less value than the stick (and I've tried with what I consider high value treats). If I ignore her she will just keep eating till all the stick has gone and she's gagging (why are dogs so stupid sometimes ).

Someone advised me to try with a vibration collar which I am incredibly reluctant to try but desperate to try every other avenue in the hope I can find a solution asap before she really hurts herself or worse, chokes to death.

[september]

could you swap it for something high value that she can chew and carry? Roxy went through a period of walking with her nose in the gutter picking up everything and anything so I got her a small bone shaped kong (tennis ball material and colour) thats small enough for her to have in her mouth.  I kept it in my pocket only taking it on walks. As soon as she spotted something I offered it to her and then she would happily carry it for the rest of the walk.

If you can't swap then what about giving her something to carry from the start then maybe she wouldn't pick the sticks up?

How old is she? Roxy grew out of her scavenging habits, she is 2 now!

[nickycnc]

Hi September,
She's not the best carrier unfortunately, she's more a nose to the ground type. I did try her with tripe sticks on a trainers rec but once she's eaten them its back to sticks .
She's 2 in November. I do try and play with her with balls and fetch etc but she quickly loses interest and goes back to the sticks....

[Helen]

muzzle?

[Karma]

I would agree with Livercake - if it's at the point of endangering her health, I would muzzle her.
This would give you the opportunity to develop a rock solid "leave it" command (by starting with low value items at home and gradually working up) as well as breaking the habit she has got into....

I would also experiment with a variety of toys... Honey behaves very differently with her frisbee than she does with a tennis ball, likewise with a squeaky toy...

What about a ball on a rope.... that is less likely to become boring as you can have a game of tug when she brings it back, rather than just playing fetch...    If she likes a game of tug, this could become the reward for leaving a stick...

[Helen]

thanks for expanding Karma - was about to come back and explain my reasoning for suggesting a muzzle but you've filled in the gaps better than I could   

[Pudding]

muzzle?

i too think you should put a muzzle on if it is that much of a problem