how do i make my pittbull stop eating everything on the ground whle i walk him?

Question

I have a 4mos. old pittbull and everytime i walk him out, he would sniff the ground and would eat everything! from stones, to candy wrappers, to cigarrette butts. this would take most of our walking time just trying to take stuff out of his mouth. how can i discipline him?

Answer 1

What the first answerer said about controlling the walk is key.

Your pup is the perfect age to begin training acceptable walk behavior! So this is a good time to be asking your question.

Your dog should be allowed to sniff and "water" items on your walk route, but only when YOU allow it. Otherwise, what you do is you yourself should bring a calm but focused energy to the walk, and keep a very good pace going. Don't allow the pup to even notice the distractions on the ground. If you are striding at a quick pace and he's working to keep up with you he will be less interested in the items on the ground. If he tries to sniff something, don't make it a big deal and in fact only barely acknowledge it by saying, very authoritatively, "No, let's go" and just keep walking. Obviously you don't want to be *dragging* your poor pup down the street, but a gentle tug to get his attention focused back on the walk is fine.

The other thing you can do is, at home, start working with your dog on the "Drop it" command. Do this with his toys, and use a calm but stern voice. When your dog drops a toy for you, make it a huge, happy deal and lavish praise on him and give him a treat. Once he knows the "Drop it" command, you can use this on your walks, too.

Good luck!

Answer 2

You need to be a tougher Mom to discipline your baby! Get over thinking that it's cruel to pull the dog away from potentially dangerous things he could ingest! Do it NOW!

You have to yank him away from things before they get into his mouth. Be very wary of the path you are walking, and look out for things that pique his interest. When he tries to go for anything he should not have, yank, pull him back and say NO! very firmly. If you do this with consistency, you will train the puppy not to go for such things, and in addition to making walks more enjoyable, you will save the dog's life.

There are vicious people who will put poison and other things that can harm a dog down paths people walk their dogs. Be very wary of such potential.

If you can afford it, go and take a lesson or two from a good obedience trainer who has expertise with your breed., if not read a good obedience training book. If you haven't already done so, read a good book on your breed of dog, learn what they are best trained to do, not what they are known to do when taken advantage of, learn what issues you may have to work around. Then, train your dog to do things for you that are in the true nature of the breed. Dogs actually love to do things for their master/owner.

Honestly. if you don't get the dog under control now, he will be dragging you around when full grown, which could cause you to slip and fall and hurt yourself one day. Not very desireable, neither is having him ingest something he could choke on or be poisoned by. I have known many people who lost ther dogs in one of these two ways.

Dogs are pack animals, and if you don't train them well, they think they are the boss, because you've let them be the dominant one. You must be the dominant one, the leader of the pack, the master and your dog must know his place, both in the home and outside also. You need both discipline and reward systems so as not to spoil the dog, and end up with him being your master.

Blessings,
Rani

Answer 3

Take some cookies with you on your walk, in addition to keeping tight reign so he doesn't have his head down so much. If you see something he would like in the side walk try to go around it. Let him do his "business" walk and sniffing in a litter free area, then don't stop at all on the exercise portion of the walk. But don't mind me..my dog still eats cat poop if I'm not careful..and I'm not brave enough to pry it out.

Answer 4

You could try shouting 'NO' really loud, holding the leash closer to you so he can't get ahold of any junk, getting a spray-bottle and spraying him with water (if he dislikes it) everytime he eats a peice of garbage or tugging on the leash everytime he tries to eat something.

He might be hungry though, how much are you feeding him?

Answer 5

He's just a puppy. You can shout No! or use an obedience collar and correct him. Just jerk the collar when he starts to do something he's not supposed to. Always tell him "good dog" when he stops, even though it was you who made him stop. He doesn't know what's "good" and what's "no" unless you tell him.
Take him to obedience class soon, it's a great help and dogs love it.

Answer 6

Pull the collar up high on his neck and walk him so he can't get his head down to the ground. Take control of the walk.

Answer 7

You can start with minor disipline and work up, like tugging on the collar to make it uncomfortable, to using a squirt bottle, and last resorting, using shock collars. I don't approve of them myelf, but, that is just my personal opinion.

Answer 8

i would suggest putting a muzzle on him,you dont want him picking up something dangerous and getting really sick from it.My parents had a dog that would eat anything outside and that's what they had to do.It could save his life

Answer 9

Sometimes is hard to make pitbulls to do that because they are so strong. What you can do is buy a Training Spray and spray him the things that he bites, so he will stop to bite it.

Hopefully this helps you

Answer 10

cone him.