Is your dog a doodie diver, patt licker, sheep poo scoffer? 🤢
Have you found that your intervention has amplified the problem so now they rapidly indulge?
I’ve seen dogs go from showing little interest to suddenly scoffing cos a human insisted they leave the stinky stuff…
Sorry, did you say leave?… As in, you really dont want me to have this… What this here?… This stuff closer to me than you… and is everywhere…?! Oh and you’re going to yell and chase me…?🤔😀 Game on!
Hero walks past sheep bones and poo, rabbit poo, wool, dog poo, investigates briefly and moves on. He is a very curious Terrier, so how?
Didnt teach a leave, i didnt even mention it.
I often find sheep carcasses in the mountains (hope there’s no big cats!)
He sometimes drags them about for about 10 seconds, has a lick, moves on. He would be well up for a game of tug, yell and chase if id invited it. no doubt! 😆🤢
What experience has taught me – – ignore the exploring if its not going to kill them.
I made sure to keep my icks to myself. From the moment he comes across gross things as a pup, I look away. I did the same with Chez my Stafford when he arrived at 20 months old. Reinforcement history matters but its also tied to the handlers reactions and the environment. New rules can be implemented.
I say to people, if you want a dog who walks past sheep shit then don’t tell them how valuable it is. Let them scoff, keep those icks behind closed lips, look away, and without your attention they may just eat less or not bother at all.
Hero sometimes has a little nibble, learns about the animal, moves on. If his gut needed more microbes he would probably indulge in more poo scoffing. But on the whole he sees all this as part of the environment, and ive never acknowledged it… Even if he licks a cow patt… Otherwise he will be all about the patts and I defo don’t want that.
So if you have a new dog, consider ignoring these natural explorative behaviours, and with established dog friendships then pre-empting and redirecting attention if you must, cos you may just save yourself correcting while gipping your way through a country walk.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1C8BEjrPmM
