I currently live in China and have a 5 months old husky (Waya). He eats twice a day and I always make sure he's well fed before taking him out for a walk. But ever since taking him home with me a month ago i've noticed that even after a big meal, he still constantly sniffs around and tries to picks up random things to eat, like used tissue, chicken bones, broken plastic bags, sand, mud.... (streets in china are quite dirty). I try my best to take it out of his mouth and say "NO" but he still does it. Today i think he successfully ate what looked like a small piece of rubber... But he seems to be healthy, and playful. although sometimes his poop can be a bit mushy.

I took him to the vets and they said he's fine but that he might be lacking calcium. I've had him taking this calcium powdered formula from Taiwan for about a month now, no change... and the vets here are no help either.

does anyone know what i should do??

Howdy,

Welcome to the forums,


How do you conduct your normal feeding ritual? Even a young puppy can be taught not to eat just anything off the floor, just because it is there doesn't mean it belong to them.

Search these forums for NILIF training. That should help cement your role in your pups life.

Then during feeding times start teaching LEAVE IT.

Hold the bowl just above your puppy's head so they kind of have to look up but can smell the food. Request a SIT. the positioning of the bowl should actually help with a sit as they are already looking up and most of the time will just sit on their own.

Once sitting say LEAVE IT and place the food bowl down.

If they approach or tries to eat say NO and request they SIT down again. You can even block your pup with your hand (allowing the pup to still see the food and smell the food).

It should take some time at first but sooner of later they should get it... Just because the food is on the floor doesn't mean it's mine. With every feeding it should get better and better until they understand.

When they calm down and are looking at you instead of the food release them to eat with a command, We use OK.




From there you can work on LEAVE IT with anything you put on the ground. have two treats in your hand of different value to your pup.

Place the low value treat on the ground and keep the better tasting treat in your hand. Let your puppy smell your hand with the high value treat.

Move the low value treat towards them while they are sitting and say LEAVE IT.

Block or correct as need be until they get it.

If they leave it alone you pick up the low value treat, praise, and give the high value treat.


This should start to reinforce that when you say Leave It they should listen as they are either getting a Treat or getting fed, and after a while they just do it where ever.... even if they see something yummy on the street.

Keep at it and it should go away over time.

Hope it helps and best of luck to you,
~Chris~

Chris gave you some great info, but i can be the person on your side as my girl picks up EVERYTHING on the street even though we follow all the waits and leave its at home and she does great with it. if something is not that great on a walk and i yell for her to drop it or leave it she does, but if its something great she hears nothing i say i know this sounds harsh and with all the things laying around on your walks maybe doing a cage muzzle on the pup when out walking might be your best option so he cant put anything in his mouth.... good luck and try and see where the training gets you.

Anna likes to do the same, she also pretends she has hearing problems. So I usually tell her leave it and keep on walking just dragging her along telling her to leave it. She has gotten better now if she would stop it completely that would be great.

thank you so much for the advice!! I will definitely try it asap. I've looked up on the NILIF training and it is definitely something i have to work on, but it's quite hard not to give in as he's so amazingly cute!! but i understand now the importance of him seeing me as the 'alpha' so i will work hard on that. I have thought about getting a muzzle before but decided against it, but i guess it would be my last resort if all else fails (hopefully not).

I bought my puppy from a Chinese breeder, and she told me that a husky's digestive system is naturally quite poor. So i've not got any treats for him since I don't recognize any brands here except for Pedigree, but they've only got the milk bones and Waya doesn't care much for them. I've never owned dogs before so i'm not familiar with the brands. What kind of treats would you recommend? maybe i can order some off the internet.

Welcome to the forum. My 5 month old does the same thing. 3 days ago, he ate something before I could stop him and he threw up 3 times because of it but he is fine now. You just have to watch him real close. As for food, we feed ours grain free food and mix in raw at times. It keeps his stomach calm real good. No more loss stools or upset tummies.

I personally use Nature's Recipe "Training Treats" for teaching Dragon different things. He has learned to sit, shake and jump up with them and we also reinforce his outdoor potty time with them and he LOVES them. I got them at Petsmart so maybe you can order them from their website? try this link:

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2750327&f=PAD%2FpsNotAvailInUS%2FNo

My dog also does this every time. Weve been teaching her leave it, so far she hasnt really pick up on it. Well some days are better than others. Im hoping with time she will leave it.

Our 8month old simba does this constantly, on a bad week he eats a handful of stuff and ends up vomitting it all out. He seems to be calming down a bit though. We tried a couple different diets, Originally we were on Orijen, then we switched to an iams digestive specific diet and now he's on royal canin large breed a 50/50 mix between puppy and adult in addition to a vitamin supplement once a day.
The vet thought he just wasn't getting full enough and the adult food would help with that while the puppy food will give him the essential nutrients he needs.
I'd say this final combo we've been on for about 4-5 days and so far so good, he hasn't completely stopped but he's definitely decreased. I've also seen that practicing the leave it at home a couple times before the walk also helps him outside on the walk.

My dog does this all the time. Mostly with tissue paper type of things. He eats our toilet paper whenever we forget to close the bathroom door. Knock on wood...he seems to have a stomach of steel and never has any vomitting or bathroom issues! We practice the Leave It Drop It commands all the time, but when he has something special, like a nasty old tissue off the ground, even the best treats aren't enough to make him give it up!

As for treats, we started our puppy on string cheese, carrots and cheerios. Until you find the brands that you are comfortable with, maybe this would work in the meatime.