Amazing Progress and Some Wanted Advice

Good news and bad news. Good news: Loki will now look at me whenever we see a person. He doesn't try to jump at them AT ALL. We've walked past old people, little kids, women pushing prams with babies in, and they walk so close to him that they're almost touching him, and he won't even attempt to jump at them. This is progress I thought that I'd never see, to be perfectly honest. He's still a nightmare walking past dogs, but when from a distance he's improved, so I'm hoping we can keep at this to the point where he's better when close to dogs.

Bad news: Loki found and ate another bone. I don't know where these bones keep coming from, but apparently people like to eat ribs and chicken drumsticks in the middle of a field in the middle of the night in October. Problem is he wouldn't drop it. Not even with treat-bribery. I don't know how to work on it cos he drops everything else just fine. Not to mention I was scared of forcibly removing it from him in case it made him try to gulp it down and choke. So I didn't know what to do. Any advice on how to get him to drop something that he just won't drop? Seems like there's no solution to that :\

I can completely sympathise with the 'bone issue', Percy is managing to find them on a daily basis in some areas we walk, I had the same conversation with my OH about why on earth people would be out eating meat like this and dropping the bones....very strange people around

I can't get Percy to drop them either, if I'm quick enough I can get him to leave them, but once there in his mouth he isn't gonna spit them back out, I've taught him "leave it" and "drop" which work well On everything else...I have to resort to using my hands to get them out, which is disgusting and like you have said could quite possibly just make him swallow them faster (he hasn't yet, but I'm sure he will soon)

Well done Loki on the watch command and not jumping up, clever little man x

Moo used to be exactly the same, the only thing that worked for me was a strong and I mean strong&stern leave.

I think the turning point for me was when we went to Norfolk and she was sniffing round the beach very purposefully did a little dig and found a huge dead jelly fish. I screamed at her to drop it, managed to grab her stuck my hand in her mouth, but too late!

I was straight on the phone to the vets at home, who offered to find out if it was poisonous for a small fee of £30!! Nice!!

Fortunately we met another dog walker who said she would be fine but may have the runs (and believe me she did!)

After this, and it did kinda scare me, I was just 3 steps ahead of her all the time and very very strict. I can safely say now, if I say leave, she will leave but it took a bit of time Xx

Great news on not jumping up anymore, another bridge I had to cross with Moo, you'll get there with Loki, takes time and for me, being very firm Xx

Thanks yeah, I mean, I'm starting to think bones are the highest value items for him. So it seems like, unless I carry around a giant bone with me whenever we go out, he won't drop it. Hm...tough one. They make life difficult sometimes, don't they? Have to have 10 eyes just to make sure he doesn't eat a bone

You need to work on a completely reactive "Leave" - it has to become automatic!

If leave doesn't work, tell him to 'stay' & grab his muzzle from the top - lift his lips away from his mouth with your thumb & second finger at the point of the upper canines, then use your other hand to lower the bottom jaw & take out the bone or whatever he has & shouldn't have! Keep saying "Leave" all the time & once you have the offending item in your hand you can praise him. I know that technically he hasn't 'left' it, but it ends the confrontation on a good note.

Caryll wrote:You need to work on a completely reactive "Leave" - it has to become automatic!

If leave doesn't work, tell him to 'stay' & grab his muzzle from the top - lift his lips away from his mouth with your thumb & second finger at the point of the upper canines, then use your other hand to lower the bottom jaw & take out the bone or whatever he has & shouldn't have! Keep saying "Leave" all the time & once you have the offending item in your hand you can praise him. I know that technically he hasn't 'left' it, but it ends the confrontation on a good note.

This is what we do, although Suki still has a slip up now and then.

Caryll wrote:You need to work on a completely reactive "Leave" - it has to become automatic!

If leave doesn't work, tell him to 'stay' & grab his muzzle from the top - lift his lips away from his mouth with your thumb & second finger at the point of the upper canines, then use your other hand to lower the bottom jaw & take out the bone or whatever he has & shouldn't have! Keep saying "Leave" all the time & once you have the offending item in your hand you can praise him. I know that technically he hasn't 'left' it, but it ends the confrontation on a good note.

The problem is that he leaves/drops everything else, just not bones. So to get him to leave bones, I'll have to teach him by giving him a bone, but because it's a bone, he won't drop it. Confusing . Think I'll get a raw bone for him and practice with that, but I wouldn't want to get him back to being possessive when he's been doing so well. Gonna be hard work with this one