Mine Sweeping

[Barkers23]

Mine sweeping is a pass time popular with the youngsters at my rugby club where by at the end of a night out and short of money they wander around the club/bar picking up dead/left over drinks intent on drinking further into the night.

 

Now i guess the potential "mines" could be drinks laced with something unsavoury, chewing gums left in the bottle even the owner spotting the person doing the sweeping and not being too pleased.

 

now ive explained what the term means ive got a problem with my 6 month old pup skyler who likes to do a bit of mine sweeping herself.  ie picking up rubbish, discarded food or sweets off the road when walking.

 

now im pretty good and spotting most things on the side walk when walking and can take evasive actions to avoid the hazard but if we are walking through a field or something i like to leave her have a bit of a roam on the flexi lead and quite often she will find something and decide to pick it up and by the time i reel her in its vanished.

 

im worried she might eat something harmful further down the line.

 

is she likely to grow out of it? any tips to help stomp it out?

 

i dont want to go down the road of muzzling her as that will make it look like she is aggressive and don't

want people to think that.

 

thanks

 

 

[Andy]

Darwin is 4 1/2 and is a master "minesweeper"

or side surfer as we call it.

I've not managed to train it out of him

However a pet sized Stairgate keeps him out of the kitchen.

 

and

 

a thick chain connected to to high placed hooks 

keeps him from knocking the wheelie bin over

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

Anytime skyla would pick something up I'd hold her nose shut soon as she opened her mouth n the item fell out I said drop it , then I'd pull her away and tell her to leave it , she can now walk past chicken bones and even chocolate n leave them with just the command , I can't remember the last time I actually used drop it

[Barkers23]

Will have to give that a go I think

She ok around the house. It's pretty much puppy proofed and she can't get at any rubbish

[Chula]

Chula is terrible with this, she picks up EVERYTHING she finds. We worked very long and hard on "leave it", so now she will leave things on walks and come running up for a treat. Sometimes she'll even pick up things I know she doesn't want to eat (like a leaf) chew it twice, spit it out and then look up at me to see if her "leaving it" on her own garnered her a treat. 

 

I will say it is not as bad as it was when she was smaller. She would literally take running pounces on anything that she thought she could put in her mouth. I have also gotten very good at forcing her mouth open and sticking my hand down her throat to pull stuff out.

[Jay]

I STILL have to stick my hands down Nikko or Yukons mouth to get something!  Although be very careful because I did that one time and ended up with a dead frog in my hand

 

 

 

Chula is terrible with this, she picks up EVERYTHING she finds. We worked very long and hard on "leave it", so now she will leave things on walks and come running up for a treat. Sometimes she'll even pick up things I know she doesn't want to eat (like a leaf) chew it twice, spit it out and then look up at me to see if her "leaving it" on her own garnered her a treat. 

 

I will say it is not as bad as it was when she was smaller. She would literally take running pounces on anything that she thought she could put in her mouth. I have also gotten very good at forcing her mouth open and sticking my hand down her throat to pull stuff out.