# beagle eating rubbish on walks



## adgroom (Nov 21, 2010)

hi all.......been a while since our last post, so we must be doing things ok at the moment..lol...

Is there a way to stop / reduce a beagle eating everything when out on a walk?, Our little minx is 4 months old and picks up and eats everything on our little walks, some of you may remember us asking about leaves, well she's moved on from them now and "leaves" them alone mostly. 
We've been telling her to "leave it!" every time she gets near something she thinks will be tasty and giving a little gentle tug on her lead, but if you take your eyes off her for a second who knows what goes in there ! we really don't want to go down the route of putting a muzzle on her as suggested by the vet on her second jab when we asked about the leaf problem. 

Things that have recently been fished out of her mouth / throat are 

Postman elastic bands
Plastic
cigarette buts 

funnily enough though, no poo, snails or worms yet which we were told they love to eat ! she's not interested in them YET !


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## Dogless (Feb 26, 2010)

I have the same problem with Kilo, we use 'leave it' a lot and have turned 'drop' into a game (I'm always armed with really tasty treats or a good squeaky toy / both) on walks. Kilo is getting to the point where he will pick an item up and drop it for me before I even ask to get his reward unless it is exceptionally tasty e.g., an apple core!! If the object he has won't harm him, such as an empty bottle he had yesterday I sometimes get him to drop it, then play a game with the item with him and repeat a few times so he knows that he won't always lose everything fun that he drops.

If I chase him or get anxious and try to get something back he will swallow it on purpose, whatever it is  I have also found that dropping the treat onto the ground often gets him to leave something that he will not if you are holding the treat - I suppose he associates the hand coming towards him with the removal of his fun / tasty object!

I also constantly get him to leave and drop things around the house in the context of game playing.

You are probably doing all this anyway, but that is all I can offer from my limited puppy experience!


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## adgroom (Nov 21, 2010)

Hi Dogless, thanks for that..

We've even tried to let her carry a stick when we're out but she drops it to pick up rubbish ! 

we're thinking we might have to go down the muzzle route as the last thing we want is her eating an elastic band, plastic or something that could harm her and having a trip to the vet.


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## sarybeagle (Nov 4, 2009)

Those blinking red post bands are everywhere aren't they!!!! 

I have been down bellas throat more times than I care to remember. Fishing out chewing gum, cigarette butts, chocolate people had dropped, foil wrappers, etc etc.

This went on til about 4-6 months of age. I began getting headaches on a walk as I was constantly surveying the ground around us as well as looking ahead etc. :eek6: I started to spot the "treasure" before her and as we approached said ah ah leave and she would look to me instead and instant reward and walk past the item. It took a few days but she caught on VERY quickly.

At home leave it command has been the one we really focused on, we would put a biscuit/treat on the floor say leave it and wait for her to stop staring at it and look to me then a bit of cheese or chicken was rewarded. This helped her out and about with focusing on me rather than the naughty treasure she wanted. :thumbup: 

As bell loves training and is so happy when she gets it right we upped the leave it command. I can throw/drop food and say leave and she will sit straight down and loom at me with a huge grin on her chops, I can put 6 treats on her paws and legs before telling her to take and most recently got to put a bit of cheese on the end of her nose and she left until I said take :thumbup::thumbup: 

Hope some of my ramblings make sense and hope your little lady grows out of it soon xxx


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## adgroom (Nov 21, 2010)

Thanks for the tips, we will be trying some of those out this weekend !


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## lexie2010 (Jun 7, 2010)

yeah i went through the same with lexie (beagle bitch now 10mths old), taught her "leave it" and was always sure to treat when she did leave it, now she automatically looks for a treat when she sees something! but if i spot something that i know she will find hard to resist i stop walking, call her back to heel and then walk on with her saying "close" to keep her at my side (its the way our trainer does it) and she walks past the high value rubbish with no problem then. when she is frustrated she will try and grab every bit of rubbish she can find in a totally defiant way but in those cases i just keep her on a shorter lead and keep with the leave it and treat. she has swallowed a plastic bag, and i have fished out all kinds, her favourite at the moment is silage!! shes not a cow but eats like a pig!!!


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## Helbo (Sep 15, 2010)

Charlie is the same. You say leave it and tug the lead gently and he leaves it. 

For now you'll have to not take your eyes off your dog whilst walking. 

Eventually, the less successful they are at getting something up off the street and into their mouths, the less likely they will be to even try to do it. Charlie has been getting better and better but I still watch him closely to be safe. 

I think it's just one of those things you'll have to keep working on and live with for now. Theres no easy answer, but they will give up eventually if they get nothing good out of it. 

Besides, you're probably out walking for their sake, so theres no problem giving them 90% of your attention is there?


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## Dogless (Feb 26, 2010)

sarybeagle said:


> I began getting headaches on a walk as I was constantly surveying the ground around us as well as looking ahead etc. :eek6: I started to spot the "treasure" before her and as we approached said ah ah leave and she would look to me instead and instant reward and walk past the item. It took a few days but she caught on VERY quickly.
> 
> At home leave it command has been the one we really focused on, we would put a biscuit/treat on the floor say leave it and wait for her to stop staring at it and look to me then a bit of cheese or chicken was rewarded. This helped her out and about with focusing on me rather than the naughty treasure she wanted. :thumbup:
> 
> ^^^^Sounds like us - Kilo has caught on so fast that he leaves or drops stuff without a request then looks expectantly for a treat. I would rather treat nearly every time at present than keep trying to retrieve random objects that I am scared he will swallow!


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