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02-24-2009, 11:01 PM | #1 |
YT Addict Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Nevada
Posts: 454
| To End the Puppy-Vacuum OK, I'm wondering if the day will ever come when Nikko (6mo old) stops putting EVERYTHING into his mouth, and if there is a good way to assist in making it stop. He's gotten a lot better, but it's not good enough yet. The real reason I ask is that someday I want him to be able to hang out in the shop with us while we work. The shop however, constantly has a million leather scraps on the floor, no matter how often we clean it.... we braid leather for a living, and we constantly have to trim scraps, bevel strands, etc. so there's no way to completely eliminate the scraps. The leather is also always "lubricated" for braiding with a mixture of animal fat and soap... which I was hoping would taste bad, but apparently it manages instead to make leather even more enticing than it would be on its own. Right now, Nikko has stopped trying to actually ingest dumb things like rocks or bits of cardboard, but he'll still swallow pieces of leather, given the chance. Is it possible that this will end at some point? Is there something we can do to convince him that eating leather is bad? We've tried spraying some pieces with bitter apple spray, and he does ignore them if we do that, but given the opportunity to go after any other leather, he'll happily eat anything that doesn't have bitter apple on it. We also scold him/say "drop-it" when we catch him with a piece, which he usually does, but he just keeps going back for more. Will our workshop have to be permanently off-limits to him? Or is there hope that if we keep making him "drop-it" and wait for him to mature out of the puppy-vacuum stage more, he will someday get to hang out with us in there? Any other suggestions? Thanks, Lauren & Nikko |
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02-24-2009, 11:23 PM | #2 |
Thor's Human Donating Member | Hi there! My guess is that he'll grow out of it, but here is a training suggestion: Try to make him associate the leather with something unpleasant. He can probably tell which pieces have bitter apple on them and which don't, and when you use the leave it command, he is obeying you rather than avoiding the leather per se. I would try some training sessions *just* to avoid leather. Try putting him on the floor with a bunch of leather pieces, while you and your husband sit on opposite ends of the room, each with a can of pennies. When he checks out the leather, one of you shakes your can. You can also try throwing him scraps of leather, and then shaking the can. The point is to actually scare him a bit and convince him that leather is bad in and of itself. I'm not sure this will work with the scrap size you're talking about, but another trick is to put a piece of leather on the edge of a coffee table, tied to a loaded can with a piece of thread. When he grabs the leather, the can falls and scares him. This has the benefit of making a scary noise "on its own", hopefully convincing him to avoid leather altogether, not just when you are around. Normally I wouldn't suggest aversive training, but I assume eating leather could be really bad for him, and worth making him a little scared of it.
__________________ If you love something, set it free. Unless it's an angry tiger. |
02-25-2009, 12:12 AM | #3 |
YT Addict Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Nevada
Posts: 454
| Quicksilver, those are great suggestions! You always have super advice. Yes, the leather is bad for him to swallow, or even chew on. Most of it is vegetable tanned, I'm sure with plenty of not-so-nice chemicals, and some of it is alum tanned which includes lots of salt. And this is all to say nothing of the financial damage he could do to us if he happened to get ahold of any finished products. We have yet to try a penny-can for any training, so we'll see how that works. I especially love your idea involving putting the leather on the edge of a coffee table. LOL, I just hope the penny-can noise is horrible enough - Nikko sees everything in his world as a toy, and is scared so far by almost nothing. Even rocks are still toys that need to be tossed around and chewed on, but at least now he's realized they're not actually food. You give me great hope though when you say he may hopefully actually grow out of it at some point as well. Does anyone else remember what age your puppy was when they stopped being a puppy-vacuum? Lauren & Nikko |
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