When you are interested in taking your dog outside, you’ll discover that your dog is raring to go, and one of the reasons that he might be so interested is that there are plenty of things out there that he would like to eat! More than one pet owner has realized with dismay that their dog is happily gulping up things like fungus, trash on the ground and road kill and while your dog might be happy about it right now, the case of parasites that he can pick up are substantially less than enjoyable for either of you. If you want to take your dog outside, you’ll discover that you are going to need to think about how to keep him from eating everything that he sees on the ground.
The first thing that you need to consider is supervision and environment. If you are taking your dog into the woods and you know that he can’t be trusted not to gulp down everything that looks tasty, this means that you need to keep him on a leash or at least under close watch. Just knowing that you are watching him can tell your dog not to do anything like that. On the other hand, if your dog roams freely in your yard, simply remove from it anything that looks like he might eat it. While you can’t control everything, you will find that there are plenty of things that you can’t control and this will get rid of most of your problems.
When you want to make sure that your dog is not going to gulp down anything that he finds interesting or fascinating, you’ll discover good basic dog training is vital. Every dog needs to learn “sit” and “stay” and these commands can be instrumental when it comes to making sure that your dog will not run away from you with something he thinks is tasty in his mouth. Another thing that you can teach him is “drop it,” which will help if he is an inveterate sock stealer as well. Remember to praise your dog lavishly when he is drops something at your command. Dogs respond very well to positive reinforcement and you’ll discover that as long as you take the time to train him, this will not be something that you need to worry about.
Training your dog outside and in a number of different environments can help you learn more about his instincts and it can put you in a place where you have the opportunity to watch him and to stop him from eating things that might be dangerous for him. If he can learn to drop things and to stay away from things when he knows that school is in session, you’ll soon realize that he can greatly benefit from this instruction and that it will sink in when he knows that school is in session!
It is entirely possible to keep your dog from eating things outside, so just make sure that you pay attention!