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So last week Max found a duck wing on our walk. I don't know if you've ever seen a duck wing, but they are quite large. He gobbled down the whole thing as fast as he could, and then later that night I ran around after him while he puked up duck wing, cleaning it up before he could eat it for a second time. This is not the first dead thing he's eaten. 

Max is a great puppy, he has learned all the basic commands like sit/stay, drop it, leave it. At home and even on walks he does all these commands beautifully for everything except dead things. I work with him every day on drop it and leave it. I can leave a whole line of chicken on the floor, and he will walk by it, sit near it, walk over it and I can even leave the room and he will not touch it.

I can let him run off leash where we walk and he is awesome with his recall, and he stays very near me (it's a safe place to off leash). In pretty much every way he's a wonderful dog until he finds a dead thing. The problem is his nose obviously is so much better than mine, so he can sniff out dead things from quite far. Tonight he found a dead thing in two feet of snow. He seems to have a fantastic nose. He finds dead things either on the leash or off the leash it doesn't matter. He snaps them up so quickly that a lot of the time I can't stop him. 

He will drop it and leave it anything else, except a dead thing. I know that dogs are scavengers and their stomachs can tolerate a lot, but I am worried about him getting sick obviously or something getting stuck that's not fully chewed. 

So I have considered a muzzle for this reason, but I really don't want to muzzle him. Will he grow out of this? Do I just have to tolerate this? Besides obedience and drop it and leave it is there anything else anyone has heard of to stop the eating of dead things?

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BG the mask made me laugh! And Gavin was like what...it's not cold lol.

Thank you, Max and I work pretty hard at the walking, I am really proud of how well he does at most things, especially for his age I think he is fantastic.

Nicky rain is pretty horrible especially when it's cold, luckily here it doesn't rain this time of year, I've only missed two days of walking so far, and the one was a frostbite warning, and then yesterday I think it was around -23 with the windchill factor, but that coat I am wearing is amazing, well it's almost too warm because I can't wear it if it's less than -5 or I sweat. 

I don't have a lot of new advice, I was just going to suggest a high value treat like others have suggested. Maybe pieces of boiled chicken? My parents live on a big property with a barn of animals where the dogs can run around freely. If they find a dead animal, they not only eat it but roll in it and cover their bodies in the smell. Needless to say, it is disgusting. I know where you're coming from. Washing dead animal smell off of a dog is no fun. Living in a neighborhood, I don't have that problem. Crush does get into cat poop but she is pretty good at "drop it" and "leave it." It's when she goes out to potty by herself that it's hard to regulate. 

The treats don't seem to matter Breanna but thank you for the advice. I actually would rather if he would just roll in it than eat. Crush is adorable!

This conversation I can relate to.  Living at the edge of the wilderness, Yarrow finds awful things to put in her mouth.  She's doing quite well with 'Leave it' and getting better with 'Drop it'  although I have been using baked chicken breast morsels to help her to make the right decision.  I have, on occasion, had to pry something vile out of her jaws and then walked home holding my hand in the air, away from me as though it is ... well never mind the 'as though' - it IS!

Anyway, because I was worried about her getting sick, I have a product that I sprinkle on her breakfast.  It's made by Wellytales and it is called Puppy Smart Start.  It gives her more probiotics, digestive enzymes and immunity support. It also supports brain and eye development. 

Right now, as there is a deep cushion of snow on the ground it's not so bad when she gets something and I have to tackle her cowboy-on-steer style and wrestle her mouth open.  But I really can't see me attempting it when the pillow of snow has become mud and bushes. 

I also learned that those most disgusting habits we don't like in our dogs are the very habits that first made them seem like creatures to share our caves with.  Dogs kept our villages clean.  And we loved them for it.  Ugh!  My partner lived in India for a while.  He told me dogs and pigs still clean up the streets and beaches over there.

Deb now I'm imagining you wrestling a small bull for dead birds lol!

I swear, Max can find a piece of dead creature in two feet of snow, two miles away. He should be a drug dog or something.

I will look into that puppy stuff, right now I have just been giving him plain yogurt and pumpkin for his stomach. 

The muzzle just isn't going to work for me, I feel terrible when I put it on him, so I have to find some other ways to deal with this. I did just find an interesting article, and I think I am going to try some of the tips she has there if anyone wants to read it.

 http://www.petforums.co.uk/dog-training-behaviour/242097-how-stop-s...

So I am going to try these ideas and just work more on his recall and see if that will be helpful.

I will try the boiled chicken but I have been taking some pretty good treats, like stinky chicken hot dogs which he loves more than anything, and cheese so maybe I will try steak, as he really likes that too, and just make up some variety packs of chicken, cheese and steak and put them in the freezer. 

I have chopped chicken and roast beef in my freezer, ready to load up the treat bag.  I thought the exact same thing about Yarrow - she has the most outstanding sense of smell.  Aside from just hanging out atop high snow piles, Yarrow's favorite thing is playing search and rescue. She digs through the snow, throwing up powder like a snow blower, as if the avalanche survivors are running out of oxygen! She makes me laugh. If I was a skier, and 20 years younger, I'd consider joining ski patrol with her.

Thanks for sharing that link.  I'll check it out.

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Yarrow looks so adorable on her pile of snow! I would trust her to save me. Max loves to dig in the snow too. I am so afraid of what my yard is going to look like this spring/summer. Well I don't much care about that, but my dh is obsessive about his lawn haha, it's going to be interesting. 

That's one of the things that article talks about that I like, basically that some dogs have a higher instinct to scavenge so instead of trying to completely stop it, let them but on your terms, I have to get more into it, but that sounds better to me than a muzzle. 

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