Strange taste buds in dogs
In previous entry titled "Why do dogs eat inedible", and "Dog proofing your house;5 golf groves,10 socks,1 stocking and 1 towel", I wrote that some dogs eat all kinds of strange stuff such as dog poop,cat poop,pebbles,rocks,socks,coins,twigs,grass,papers and list goes on.
Definition of this behavior (eating inedible) is called Pica.Especially poop eating is called coprophagy.
Why dogs eat inedible?
According to petplace.com,some dogs eats socks,rocks,coin .. because..
<1>Boredom
** Dogs need some outlet to get their energy out. Dogs that do not get much exercise mentally and physically tend to find other things to do such as eating inedible,barking,chewing etc...
<2>Stress
<3>Attention seeking
(even if you yell at your dog saying NO,it is reward for your dog. Your dog got attention )
To read the full article at petplace website, please click here.
Giving plenty of opportunity for dogs to exercise mentally/physically is good. However, exercise is not the only solution to the problem.
Sometimes, you can do things to prevent them.
Dogs learn what to do/what not to do every day through you and your family,and whether you were intentional or not, if you were feeding from table, for example, they would learn to beg.
You would need to teach your dogs what are okay to eat/chew on.
If you were walking your dogs,and they found a corn cob or cooked chicken bones or other dogs' poop or anything else that they were not supposed to munch on, if they knew the cue "Leave it", the cue comes in handy and could save their life.
*** How to teach your dogs "Leave it" cue ***
Here is a way that Palette's puppy training class trainer has taught us to teach her to ignore the stuff when she hears the cue "leave it".
1. Put a small treats in your hand,and let your dogs sniff at it
** Naturally, they would try to figure out how they can get the treats in your hand by pawing at it, nibbling at your hand, whining,barking etc.. They would try all kinds of methods they would come up with.
2. Be patient and ignore pawing,whining,barking,nibbling and as soon as they have stopped nudging your hand etc,and looked away from the treats in your hand, click the clicker and offer treats from other hand.
** You can also practice "Leave it" cue by place the treats under your foot,and once your dogs stopped pawing,whining,barking etc at your foot and look away from the treats under your foot, you can click the clicker and give treats with your hand,not the treats that is under your foot.
3. Once they got better with small treats in closed hand or under foot, you can practice it by offering the treats with open palm. When you practice with open palm with treats, you would close the hand as soon as your dog tries to approach the treats trying to get to, and say "Leave it".
** Once your dogs could ignore the treat on your open palm, you can say "Leave it" and take a second or two and click the clicker and give treats from other hand.
Gradually, make the ignoring time longer,longer.
** You can up the difficulty by letting your dog being at down position and place treats on their paw, teaching them to ignore the treat within very close range or roll the treat across the floor after giving them "leave it" cue.
Naturally, dogs love to chase after things that moves, but they can learn to ignore the treats rolling across the floor.
** Other thing the trainer has taught us is that, leash your dog first and place the treat on the floor, and walk passes by telling them "Leave it", and practice ignoring the treat on the floor. If dogs ignore the treat on the floor and walk passes by without any efforts trying to get to the treats, you click the clicker and give treats from your hand,not the treat on the floor.
If you were in the situation that your dogs grabbed inedible in their mouth and holding it, if they knew the cue "Give", the cue comes handy and it also could save their life.
*** How to teach your dogs "Give" cue ***
To teach "give" , Palette's puppy training class trainer has told us to start with low valued items to trade. Then, make sure to give items back to him and praise.
How Palette and I did with low valued item is that, I let her grab the item and just offer the small treats. Yummy treats vs not so interested toy.. She dropped the toy to grab the yummy treats, and that is when you click the clicker and label the behavior "Drop it" or "Give", and then I gave the item back to her. And repeat it again; let her grab the toy,offer treats,click clicker when she drop the item from mouth and give treats with big big praise.
This is to tell them everything you would take away would not gone forever but would come back. So, they do not need to guard them or growls at you when you reach your hand to the items. As Palette gets better understanding the meaning of the "Give" cue, I made the trade item value up gradually.
At some point,the item can become something the dogs do not want to let go even if they see treats in front of them. As human instinct, you might grab the item that are still in their mouth and you might try to take the item away with force but don't.
Do not take the object away with force, and all you need to do is to just simply be patient,say nothing, just gently holding the object and as soon as your dog release the object,you click the clicker and give treats.
This "Give" cue can be practice over and over through fetch ball /Frisbee games,and very effective way for them to learn to give up the item (ball/Frisbee) to be throw again for them to go fetch.
Let's say, your dogs stole your socks,and took off. What would you do? I can imagine that once the dog grab the sock and took off,you or your kids may go after the dog and the dog takes it as game and suddenly socks can become the toy to get attention from you. This is another example of you could reinforce the unwanted behavior without your intention.
Obvious solution with this sock case is to pick up all the socks,underwear,anything on the floor and put those to place where your dog cannot reach to nibble on.
One other thing that is important thing is that each family member should respond to the unwanted behavior the same way to send them a clear message; it is important to be consistent.
Also, you may have heard that to potty train your dogs, you would need to catch them in the act not yelling at them after hours later.
It is same things with dogs that chewed up furniture while you were out etc. Dogs cannot make connection between yelling and chewed objects or clattered mess in the house they did while you were gone.
Some dogs however, cannot just hide that he is guilty of things that his dad found out when he was out..
Denver the guilty Labrador Retriever..
If you are a blog subscriber or reading from face book,please click here to watch the video.
That being said, whether your dogs are pretty good at not eating any inedible items or not, it is always good to know what kinds of symptoms of blockage will be. That way, if symptoms persists, you could take them to the vet much sooner than later and could save their life.
What are the symptoms to look for for blockage?
According to alexadry at hubpage website, symptoms of the blockage can be different depending on the location of the blockage.
If blockage was around esophagus, dogs are more likely to lick their lips,swallow a lot regurgitate right after they were fed.
If blockage was at stomach, it cause the food to not make it through to the intestinal tract, and often times, vomiting after a few hours would happen.
If blockage was at small intestine,it means that object was stuck in the curvy area of the small intestine. If this happens, gas gets accumulated and causing the intestine to become distended,and blood supply gets cut off;causing the tissue to die. If this happen, dogs would vomit right after they got fed,and they would have abdominal pain, distended abdomen,fever,shock etc..
If the blockage was located at the very end of the small intestine, diarrhea is more likely to occur. Vomiting after 7-8 hours later from the time they were fed is also common.
To read her full article at hubpage web site, please click here.
Vet sees all kinds of inedible object stuck in dogs. People might think it funny when they hear dog ate 10 socks or a whole spoon etc..,but in reality, it is not funny and it is more serious matter and, it is very dangerous for your dogs to munch on things like that.
I came across youtube video of dogs' x-rays that had all kinds of inedible. If your dogs do not know cue "leave it" or "give", now is a good time to start teaching those cues.
Your dog ate what?
If you are a blog subscriber or reading from face book,please click here to watch the video.
I know that there is maple saplings sold on the market for dogs to chew on. It supposedly comes with instruction of how to throw the stick for dogs.
My question is, dogs can make distinguish between wood stick they should not chew on, and the sapling you would allow them to chew on?
I personally feel that letting them to chew on stick is one way to reinforcing them to chew on wood stick or wood chips they might find outside the house,and I do not think it is a good thing for them to chew on.
Also, playing fetch with stick is not the good play with your dogs,because during the fetch game with sticks, dogs could get injured with sharp splinter, or break off as they catch the stick or miss the catch and it could land on their face etc...and also, intentionally or not, the game could teach your dogs it is ok to play with sticks.
Palette loves fetch game,but when we play, we play with much more safer,softer stuff to play with such as Frisbee, ball, and squeaky toys.
Palette's favorite fetch play items..
You can watch Palette in action with fetch game in the previous entry titled "Playing game of fetch ball/Frisbee". She loves fetch game with me!
Since I have not bought the maple sapling to see how they are consumed by dogs' gnawing action, I do not know whether the maple sapling can splinter sharp or small chunk of stick comes off as they chew.
However, by giving the similar looking sticks (maple sapling) to your dogs and, chewing sticks behavior was reinforced by that, and it is possible that they could pick up the regular wood stick/wood chips outside to chew on.
Broken stick could cause medical issue for your furry friends.
For example, wood stick could splinter sharp and do damage in the dogs' body, and it could cause blockage that would require surgery too.
If your dogs loves to chew like our stumpy Corgi "Palette", it is best for you to provide much safer,long lasting chew like Deer Antlers.
Antlers have been long time favorite chew in the house with our stumpy Palette. She loves them,and enjoy gnawing them with one leg kicked out. Sometimes, she gnaw Antlers with superman style; both legs kicked out.
Palette gnawing Deer Antler with one leg kicked out..
Definition of this behavior (eating inedible) is called Pica.Especially poop eating is called coprophagy.
Why dogs eat inedible?
According to petplace.com,some dogs eats socks,rocks,coin .. because..
<1>Boredom
** Dogs need some outlet to get their energy out. Dogs that do not get much exercise mentally and physically tend to find other things to do such as eating inedible,barking,chewing etc...
<2>Stress
<3>Attention seeking
(even if you yell at your dog saying NO,it is reward for your dog. Your dog got attention )
To read the full article at petplace website, please click here.
Giving plenty of opportunity for dogs to exercise mentally/physically is good. However, exercise is not the only solution to the problem.
Sometimes, you can do things to prevent them.
Dogs learn what to do/what not to do every day through you and your family,and whether you were intentional or not, if you were feeding from table, for example, they would learn to beg.
You would need to teach your dogs what are okay to eat/chew on.
If you were walking your dogs,and they found a corn cob or cooked chicken bones or other dogs' poop or anything else that they were not supposed to munch on, if they knew the cue "Leave it", the cue comes in handy and could save their life.
*** How to teach your dogs "Leave it" cue ***
Here is a way that Palette's puppy training class trainer has taught us to teach her to ignore the stuff when she hears the cue "leave it".
1. Put a small treats in your hand,and let your dogs sniff at it
** Naturally, they would try to figure out how they can get the treats in your hand by pawing at it, nibbling at your hand, whining,barking etc.. They would try all kinds of methods they would come up with.
2. Be patient and ignore pawing,whining,barking,nibbling and as soon as they have stopped nudging your hand etc,and looked away from the treats in your hand, click the clicker and offer treats from other hand.
** You can also practice "Leave it" cue by place the treats under your foot,and once your dogs stopped pawing,whining,barking etc at your foot and look away from the treats under your foot, you can click the clicker and give treats with your hand,not the treats that is under your foot.
3. Once they got better with small treats in closed hand or under foot, you can practice it by offering the treats with open palm. When you practice with open palm with treats, you would close the hand as soon as your dog tries to approach the treats trying to get to, and say "Leave it".
** Once your dogs could ignore the treat on your open palm, you can say "Leave it" and take a second or two and click the clicker and give treats from other hand.
Gradually, make the ignoring time longer,longer.
** You can up the difficulty by letting your dog being at down position and place treats on their paw, teaching them to ignore the treat within very close range or roll the treat across the floor after giving them "leave it" cue.
Naturally, dogs love to chase after things that moves, but they can learn to ignore the treats rolling across the floor.
** Other thing the trainer has taught us is that, leash your dog first and place the treat on the floor, and walk passes by telling them "Leave it", and practice ignoring the treat on the floor. If dogs ignore the treat on the floor and walk passes by without any efforts trying to get to the treats, you click the clicker and give treats from your hand,not the treat on the floor.
If you were in the situation that your dogs grabbed inedible in their mouth and holding it, if they knew the cue "Give", the cue comes handy and it also could save their life.
*** How to teach your dogs "Give" cue ***
To teach "give" , Palette's puppy training class trainer has told us to start with low valued items to trade. Then, make sure to give items back to him and praise.
How Palette and I did with low valued item is that, I let her grab the item and just offer the small treats. Yummy treats vs not so interested toy.. She dropped the toy to grab the yummy treats, and that is when you click the clicker and label the behavior "Drop it" or "Give", and then I gave the item back to her. And repeat it again; let her grab the toy,offer treats,click clicker when she drop the item from mouth and give treats with big big praise.
This is to tell them everything you would take away would not gone forever but would come back. So, they do not need to guard them or growls at you when you reach your hand to the items. As Palette gets better understanding the meaning of the "Give" cue, I made the trade item value up gradually.
At some point,the item can become something the dogs do not want to let go even if they see treats in front of them. As human instinct, you might grab the item that are still in their mouth and you might try to take the item away with force but don't.
Do not take the object away with force, and all you need to do is to just simply be patient,say nothing, just gently holding the object and as soon as your dog release the object,you click the clicker and give treats.
This "Give" cue can be practice over and over through fetch ball /Frisbee games,and very effective way for them to learn to give up the item (ball/Frisbee) to be throw again for them to go fetch.
Let's say, your dogs stole your socks,and took off. What would you do? I can imagine that once the dog grab the sock and took off,you or your kids may go after the dog and the dog takes it as game and suddenly socks can become the toy to get attention from you. This is another example of you could reinforce the unwanted behavior without your intention.
Obvious solution with this sock case is to pick up all the socks,underwear,anything on the floor and put those to place where your dog cannot reach to nibble on.
One other thing that is important thing is that each family member should respond to the unwanted behavior the same way to send them a clear message; it is important to be consistent.
Also, you may have heard that to potty train your dogs, you would need to catch them in the act not yelling at them after hours later.
It is same things with dogs that chewed up furniture while you were out etc. Dogs cannot make connection between yelling and chewed objects or clattered mess in the house they did while you were gone.
Some dogs however, cannot just hide that he is guilty of things that his dad found out when he was out..
Denver the guilty Labrador Retriever..
If you are a blog subscriber or reading from face book,please click here to watch the video.
That being said, whether your dogs are pretty good at not eating any inedible items or not, it is always good to know what kinds of symptoms of blockage will be. That way, if symptoms persists, you could take them to the vet much sooner than later and could save their life.
What are the symptoms to look for for blockage?
According to alexadry at hubpage website, symptoms of the blockage can be different depending on the location of the blockage.
If blockage was around esophagus, dogs are more likely to lick their lips,swallow a lot regurgitate right after they were fed.
If blockage was at stomach, it cause the food to not make it through to the intestinal tract, and often times, vomiting after a few hours would happen.
If blockage was at small intestine,it means that object was stuck in the curvy area of the small intestine. If this happens, gas gets accumulated and causing the intestine to become distended,and blood supply gets cut off;causing the tissue to die. If this happen, dogs would vomit right after they got fed,and they would have abdominal pain, distended abdomen,fever,shock etc..
If the blockage was located at the very end of the small intestine, diarrhea is more likely to occur. Vomiting after 7-8 hours later from the time they were fed is also common.
To read her full article at hubpage web site, please click here.
Vet sees all kinds of inedible object stuck in dogs. People might think it funny when they hear dog ate 10 socks or a whole spoon etc..,but in reality, it is not funny and it is more serious matter and, it is very dangerous for your dogs to munch on things like that.
I came across youtube video of dogs' x-rays that had all kinds of inedible. If your dogs do not know cue "leave it" or "give", now is a good time to start teaching those cues.
Your dog ate what?
If you are a blog subscriber or reading from face book,please click here to watch the video.
I know that there is maple saplings sold on the market for dogs to chew on. It supposedly comes with instruction of how to throw the stick for dogs.
My question is, dogs can make distinguish between wood stick they should not chew on, and the sapling you would allow them to chew on?
I personally feel that letting them to chew on stick is one way to reinforcing them to chew on wood stick or wood chips they might find outside the house,and I do not think it is a good thing for them to chew on.
Also, playing fetch with stick is not the good play with your dogs,because during the fetch game with sticks, dogs could get injured with sharp splinter, or break off as they catch the stick or miss the catch and it could land on their face etc...and also, intentionally or not, the game could teach your dogs it is ok to play with sticks.
Palette loves fetch game,but when we play, we play with much more safer,softer stuff to play with such as Frisbee, ball, and squeaky toys.
Palette's favorite fetch play items..
You can watch Palette in action with fetch game in the previous entry titled "Playing game of fetch ball/Frisbee". She loves fetch game with me!
Since I have not bought the maple sapling to see how they are consumed by dogs' gnawing action, I do not know whether the maple sapling can splinter sharp or small chunk of stick comes off as they chew.
However, by giving the similar looking sticks (maple sapling) to your dogs and, chewing sticks behavior was reinforced by that, and it is possible that they could pick up the regular wood stick/wood chips outside to chew on.
Broken stick could cause medical issue for your furry friends.
For example, wood stick could splinter sharp and do damage in the dogs' body, and it could cause blockage that would require surgery too.
If your dogs loves to chew like our stumpy Corgi "Palette", it is best for you to provide much safer,long lasting chew like Deer Antlers.
Antlers have been long time favorite chew in the house with our stumpy Palette. She loves them,and enjoy gnawing them with one leg kicked out. Sometimes, she gnaw Antlers with superman style; both legs kicked out.
Palette gnawing Deer Antler with one leg kicked out..
Posted by yassy at 6/28/2011 8:15 PM 
Categories: Dog training
Tags: dogs training taste buds leave it give pica
Categories: Dog training
Tags: dogs training taste buds leave it give pica
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