# Drop it!.......please?



## Mazzapoo (Jul 28, 2013)

I've posted previously about Poppy's dreadful scavenging habit (our fields are crammed with tasty rotting morsels apparently). Yesterday she came back with a giant dead rabbit and wouldn't give it up (unsurprisingly). What to do? I managed after a while to get the lead on (she avoids me when she's got something good - giving herself a radius of a few metres). Well eventually I put my hand in a poo bag and just pulled on the bunny corpse until Poppy started to lose her grip - prolapsing big ears in the process - totally disgusting. When she let go I praised her like mad and gave her treats but I probably mismanaged the situation by making it into a tug of war.........Today I took her fave squeaky ball on our walk, thinking I'd be able to do some work on recall and drop at the same time (hope springs eternal but I should have taken two...) and then she went and ate a pheasant wing to compound my misery.

Any ideas? I'm concerned she might get something hazardous and I'll just be standing there helplessly watching her eat it  Her recall is still not what it was, our most successful command is down but she will sit and wait very well (practise a lot of this at kerbs and doors). Should I be massively practising the drop with two toys, only done a bit of that really. Will I ever be able to compete with a lump of stinky rotten animal part? (That's rhetorical Mr Walnut).


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## lady amanda (Nov 26, 2010)

you are brave is all I can say, I would have probably cried.


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## Mazzapoo (Jul 28, 2013)

I did when I got home! I've got a bit of a cold and just didn't have the mental reserves to deal with dead animals and rebellion!


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## Datun Walnut (Oct 15, 2013)

Mazzapoo said:


> Will I ever be able to compete with a lump of stinky rotten animal part? (That's rhetorical Mr Walnut).


I don't care if it _is_ rhetorical - I'm still going to answer it

Your ability to compete with stinky rotten animal parts has never been in question. 

Were you not Decomposed Play Bunny of the month a few years ago?


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## dio.ren (Jan 18, 2013)

I would of cried and puked This guy is great he is one of my favorite trainers explains things very clearly! This is the leave it method he has other videos too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asVQYYSWPJc


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## Datun Walnut (Oct 15, 2013)

There was the gas-bloated stomach of some poor creature being paraded by Poppy a few months ago. As she ran past me, I very nearly did puke. The smell was absolutley disgusting.


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## Tinman (Apr 23, 2013)

Hahahaha poppy is my hero!! If it stinks and it's dead and she finds it, it's hers.... 
Fair play to her, R&R went through a stage of picking the same dead mole up daily on our walks. I though Ralph was going to swallow it! 
Ralph doesn't even care if they're dead - he'll have a go at taking out sheep ( very very naughty!) 
I throw a ball for Ralph to distract him from the odd trapped lamb, lying down playing dead sheep, or sock in his chops etc.
As for ruby, I dropped my scarf walking across the lawn yesterday (chanel!!! .... The only piece I own!!) & when I looked Back she was parading around the lawn and dragging it with her, I freaked and shouted "treats" and rattled the tin - that did the trick,
Trading up is usually the answer - but how do you trade up from such a prized possession of a stinky, rotting bloating rabbit??? With a game of tug of war and prolapsed ears!  What could possibly top that??? X


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## Tinman (Apr 23, 2013)

Ps - you could also try feeding her dog food? So she doesn't have to scavenge on the carrion left behind that even the foxes don't want!


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## DB1 (Jan 20, 2012)

Dudley is brilliant at all the 'leave it' stuff when he knows its a training session, will happily leave treats on his paws until i tell him 'take it' but if he finds treasure that is a totally different story!! I don't think I would get near him with a skanky old dead bunny either!! It is a worry as I am scared he will pick up something dangerous that he just won't give up.


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## Marzi (Sep 17, 2012)

I like the chap in the video Renee suggested, but I wonder if he has ever had to contend with a dog who has discovered some of the yucky stuff ours manage to discover on a daily basis.
Marie posted a video link one time which involved several kilos of diced cooked chicken, if I remember correctly. The theory was when dog has something in its mouth rather than shouting profanities at it, trying to grab it and physically wrestle said disgusting thing from its jaws you instead ignore the dog, open the tub full of chicken grab a handful and scatter it on the ground. Your dog should decide lots of chicken is better than manky decaying rabbit and so drop it so it's mouth is free to eat yummy chicken. If this happens you quietly say "leave it" and scatter a bit more chicken further from dead thing. While pooch is munching chicken bag dead thing or attach lead to dog to prevent it going back to yucky thing.
This approach definitely works. Dot actively seeks out yucky things and brings them to me as she knows I have better stuff. These days only a boring bit of kibble, but the habit was formed early.
yelling, chasing or chucking something at your dog doesn't work.
Dot found a rabbit foetus yesterday - pink, hairless and dead. Yuck, yuck yuck. Neither Inzi or Kiki were remotely interested... Dot rolled on it before bringing it to me


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## Mazzapoo (Jul 28, 2013)

dio.ren said:


> I would of cried and puked This guy is great he is one of my favorite trainers explains things very clearly! This is the leave it method he has other videos too!
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asVQYYSWPJc


Thanks for that Renee, I'll check him out xxx


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## Mazzapoo (Jul 28, 2013)

Tinman said:


> Hahahaha poppy is my hero!! If it stinks and it's dead and she finds it, it's hers....
> Fair play to her, R&R went through a stage of picking the same dead mole up daily on our walks. I though Ralph was going to swallow it!
> Ralph doesn't even care if they're dead - he'll have a go at taking out sheep ( very very naughty!)
> I throw a ball for Ralph to distract him from the odd trapped lamb, lying down playing dead sheep, or sock in his chops etc.
> ...


Thank you Tracey for your heart felt sympathy and kind words..... 

Yes, our washing line is now a new exciting adventure game which she was too small too reach last summer, today she pulled the lovely snowy white sheets off with a manic wild-eyed glee....repeatedly ......and then destroyed two of my lovely muslin facecloths and several pot towels before topping off the day by digging the bamboo stick out of a clematis pot (plant still attached) and bringing several pieces of ornamental slate into the living room, throwing them on the floor very loudly and barking at them. All while I quietly sobbed into my tea. Hello wall.

PS it wasn't the ears that prolapsed


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## Mazzapoo (Jul 28, 2013)

Tinman said:


> Ps - you could also try feeding her dog food? So she doesn't have to scavenge on the carrion left behind that even the foxes don't want!


Yeah, Why am I bothering with holistic grain free organic human grade etc etc...frankly I might as well just feed her Butchers to be honest, it'd save a bomb


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## Mazzapoo (Jul 28, 2013)

Marzi said:


> I like the chap in the video Renee suggested, but I wonder if he has ever had to contend with a dog who has discovered some of the yucky stuff ours manage to discover on a daily basis.
> Marie posted a video link one time which involved several kilos of diced cooked chicken, if I remember correctly. The theory was when dog has something in its mouth rather than shouting profanities at it, trying to grab it and physically wrestle said disgusting thing from its jaws you instead ignore the dog, open the tub full of chicken grab a handful and scatter it on the ground. Your dog should decide lots of chicken is better than manky decaying rabbit and so drop it so it's mouth is free to eat yummy chicken. If this happens you quietly say "leave it" and scatter a bit more chicken further from dead thing. While pooch is munching chicken bag dead thing or attach lead to dog to prevent it going back to yucky thing.
> This approach definitely works. Dot actively seeks out yucky things and brings them to me as she knows I have better stuff. These days only a boring bit of kibble, but the habit was formed early.
> yelling, chasing or chucking something at your dog doesn't work.
> Dot found a rabbit foetus yesterday - pink, hairless and dead. Yuck, yuck yuck. Neither Inzi or Kiki were remotely interested... Dot rolled on it before bringing it to me


Thanks Marzi, interestingly I've sort of naturally discovered that way at home - if she has something I want, rather than involve my hands (which she may see as something coming to 'take away' the precious thing) I drop the treat near me and she circles me whining but usually eventually decides to take the bait. I might need to start taking a small suitcase on my walks eh?! 

And yes Dawn, like Dudley, Poppy can do the 'leave it' in the house with treats but the great outdoors is a whole different kettle of balls or is it a game of fish, I dunno


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## DB1 (Jan 20, 2012)

Marzi that sounds a good training method but do you have to find a stinking carcass to use to train with or every day carry a large amount of cooked chicken with you just in case?!! Dudley has only found something like this once (dead bird) but I know he wouldn't leave a dead rabbit, I just don't have the opportunity to train for it.


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## fairlie (Sep 7, 2013)

If I carried a tub of chicken to use every time we found carrion Rufus would quickly learn to seek it out every walk, like a cadaver dog.  I met a woman once who had to keep a muzzle on her dog to keep it from picking up every gross thing it found, used condoms anyone?


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## Tinman (Apr 23, 2013)

fairlie said:


> If I carried a tub of chicken to use every time we found carrion Rufus would quickly learn to seek it out every walk, like a cadaver dog.  I met a woman once who had to keep a muzzle on her dog to keep it from picking up every gross thing it found, used condoms anyone?


Urgh - used condoms?? 
I think you may be walking in dogging sites - and it's not for dog walking!!!! 
Do you have this term in Canada - dogging??


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## tessybear (May 1, 2011)

Haha that reminds me of a work colleague whose dog fished out a used condom from her teenage son's bin!


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## fairlie (Sep 7, 2013)

tessybear said:


> Haha that reminds me of a work colleague whose dog fished out a used condom from her teenage son's bin!


That would have been my catalyst for handing him a suitcase, already packed, and an envelope with directions to the YMCA, enough money for a weeks stay and a good luck in life note. The boy, not the dog that is.

Tracey yes we know what dogging is here, the term is not in comman use though, at least in my circles.


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## Tinman (Apr 23, 2013)

tessybear said:


> Haha that reminds me of a work colleague whose dog fished out a used condom from her teenage son's bin!


At least he had the decency to put it in the bin!


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