Training Against Eating Dangerous Things
Training to protect deaf and blind dogs from eating harmful things - (Pica)
This discussion can help dog owners to train their dogs to protect them from eating bad stuff.
Our friends recently lost a puppy who on a beach ate a piece of sharp metal from a fast-food can. Another nearly died after swallowing a wee Terrier’s mini-soccer ball. Training can almost entirely eliminate the risks.
Pica is the tendency to eat (swallow-ingest) dangerous - inedible things. Some objects are poisonous; others are sharp and can puncture a dog’s mouth and internal organs. Some others can obstruct the dog’s intestines painfully and fatally. Still other objects although quite harmless are extremely disgusting to the dog’s humans, such as animal poop. A few of the objects that required surgery were balls, pieces of sticks, socks, underwear-pantyhose, stones, small toys, bones, hair ties and ribbons. Surgery costs in the US ranges from $500 to $2000, depending on the severity of the surgery. Although pica can be due to a medical deficiency or related condition, that is much rarer than owner-triggered pica.
Pups to about six months of age explore the world with their nose and mouths[1]. Of course they also use their eyes, etc – but a pup new to the world doesn’t know what’s edible and what’s not just by smelling it or looking at it. They’ll take a thing in their mouth, roll it around, and maybe chomp on it a bit, testing whether it’s some as yet undiscovered kind of food. It’s important to allow pups to do this, carefully watching that they do spit out inedible and dangerous things[2] (as they usually will if you just give them a few seconds to decide 'this ain't edible'). You generally don’t need to take found things away from your pup unless they do smell of food, when the smell might deceive the pup into thinking the inedible thing actually is food.
A pup whose owner is overly protective, who takes everything the pup wants to explore out of his mouth -- oooo, what if he swallows that pebble? oooo, what if he swallows a splinter of wood from that stick he’s chomping on? oooo, a found milk carton, how filthy!-- will often quickly develop serious pica. The pup learns to instantly swallow whatever it has if the owners so much as looks at the pup near it, or – in a blind dog – if she detects her owner approaching. I've seen this again and again and again. Older pups / young dogs fleeing with a found roll of masking tape, an umbrella sheath, the most incredible things, and managing to hastily swallow the entire thing while staying out of the owner's reach. These dogs will explore and spit out inedible trash in a park unless their owner looks at them or approaches – upon which they instantly swallow whatever it is they have (piece of paper, plastic cup or spoon, etc), which they'd otherwise have spit out.
Taking things away from dogs isn't as simple as it might seem. We can create the feared life-threatening situation by our good intentions, a self-fulfilling prophesy -- if we don't know how to do and train for it. All this is aside from a dog who chooses to instead stay and growl or even bite (which is in a different way can be life-threatening for a dog).
In preparation for when you someday do have to take something away from your pup (or even your adult dog), it’s good to train in advance. Start when the pup is playing with something safe and non-edible. Approach with friendly signals (e.g., squeaking at the dog, for Blind and Deaf making signals such as floor vibrations so the dog knows you’re coming), give her a treat or two without touching the thing she has, then retreat. As step two, when the dog starts looking up with happy anticipation at your approach, you can move to step two: say ‘oooo, let me look at that’ (or a hand or touch signal which you’ll be training to mean the same), take the thing she has, give the dog a treat, then instantly return whatever the dog had. Step three comes when the dog happily watches you accept or pick up her object, knowing she’ll get a treat then get the thing back: now you can begin approaching while the dog has a chewy or something else she thinks has edible value. Don’t touch or take her object! Just approach as the dog is chewing, give a treat, walk away. When the dog is completely relaxed with this, you can ask to look at the thing, give a treat, then give the thing back.
Dogs build social relations on trust, not on ‘dominance’. It’s crucially important in any dog’s life to learn to TRUST you even when she has a most highly valued thing. So anti-pica training is basically a series of trust-building exercises.
If you have a deaf and/or blind dog, it’s good to first train the dog that startle is a good thing. Get her used to the fact that your sudden touch means a treat is coming, or that something else he likes is going to happen – a walk, dinner, whatever. Start gently by stamping as you approach, or not nudging the dog but rather moving a few of his hairs with a toe or a finger. When he jumps to alert, wow, there’s a piece of chicken nearby just for him. When the dog starts to look happy with a gentle wake-up or startle, you can start to practice touching or nudging the dog suddenly but gently, then later more abruptly. The build-up to real life, that he needn’t be worried just because someone bumps or pokes him.
Back to anti-pica training. The Positive Trainer myth out there is that you should be able to take anything away from a dog if only you trade it for a treat. They mean this well, but it's a misunderstanding. The moment will always come when a dog doesn’t want to trade what it has for a (by comparison) crummy dog treat. It's important to remember that anti-pica training is not a trade exercise -- it's a RETURN THE THING exercise. If you do this once or twice a day with safe things (later once or twice a week), the rare occasion when you don't give a dangerous thing back won't ruin the dog's trust in you.
For people who live in scandalously littered cities, a bit more info. I even go so far as to inspect bread or a chicken bone a dog has found on the street – then I give the bread back in bite-size pieces or pick any meat off the chicken bone and give them that non-dangerous part back. Last night I helped my own pup lick out a littered McDonalds milkshake cup by holding it for her so it wouldn’t roll away. After that, she was satisfied to leave it behind and walk further. She now brings me things she needs help taking apart for the tasty bit.
My experience is that pups and newly rescued dogs are: a) fascinated as they explore their new world to find there's food all over the place (many cities being a bit too much like a village dump where the domestic dog evolved), and b) always hungry because they’re growing so fast. Once the big growth spurt is over, around 6 - 7 months, they mostly lose interest in street trash. It's old news and they aren't so hungry anymore. So (a superstition exploded) letting a dog do this as a pup does not mean s/he'll be a trash eater the rest of her/his life.
For deaf / blind dogs, don’t forget to first do the startle = sign of good things training. The dog will learn that startle is a good and safe thing even when s/he has some big prize. It wouldn't surprise me if deaf and blind dogs (in particular pups) do very well nosing out yummy stuff outdoors. It would surprise me if they were more inclined than any other dog to eat the clearly inedible things (stones, plastic and such, unless it smelled of food).
Last note: It’s normal for a dog to sometimes eat a few bites of sand or dirt – this isn’t pica unless a dog does it obsessively. It’s also normal for dogs to eat grass, especially the young and tender blades. Grass nibbling isn’t pica nor always a sign of stomach upset. Young, tender grass simply tastes good – and it has good nutritional value, including high value proteins. Even a human can survive on grass in the wilderness for quite awhile if there’s no other food around.
Alexandra Semyonova
The Hague, January 2011
Author of ‘The 100 Silliest Things People Say About Dogs’, a seriously myth-busting book about us and dogs, excerpts available at: http://www.nonlineardogs.com and of ‘The Social Organization of the Domestic Dog’, to be found at: http://www.nonlineardogs.com/socialorganisation.html
[1] Not just puppies. We once watched three baby squirrels as they visited the ground under their tree for the first time. Every new object was nibble-tasted, including a pebble in the grass.
[2] Occasional unexplainable mistakes happen, as for example our 6 year old Border Collie who nibbled off the patches from soccer balls and spit the sharp edged bits in the grass, once decided to swallow a single whole patch that must have seemed to her smooth enough. We watched her intently for any signs of distress until three days later the patch reappeared painfully in her poop. Preparation H relieved her discomfort. We had made arrangements to rush her to the hospital at any sign.
This discussion can help dog owners to train their dogs to protect them from eating bad stuff.
Our friends recently lost a puppy who on a beach ate a piece of sharp metal from a fast-food can. Another nearly died after swallowing a wee Terrier’s mini-soccer ball. Training can almost entirely eliminate the risks.
Pica is the tendency to eat (swallow-ingest) dangerous - inedible things. Some objects are poisonous; others are sharp and can puncture a dog’s mouth and internal organs. Some others can obstruct the dog’s intestines painfully and fatally. Still other objects although quite harmless are extremely disgusting to the dog’s humans, such as animal poop. A few of the objects that required surgery were balls, pieces of sticks, socks, underwear-pantyhose, stones, small toys, bones, hair ties and ribbons. Surgery costs in the US ranges from $500 to $2000, depending on the severity of the surgery. Although pica can be due to a medical deficiency or related condition, that is much rarer than owner-triggered pica.
Pups to about six months of age explore the world with their nose and mouths[1]. Of course they also use their eyes, etc – but a pup new to the world doesn’t know what’s edible and what’s not just by smelling it or looking at it. They’ll take a thing in their mouth, roll it around, and maybe chomp on it a bit, testing whether it’s some as yet undiscovered kind of food. It’s important to allow pups to do this, carefully watching that they do spit out inedible and dangerous things[2] (as they usually will if you just give them a few seconds to decide 'this ain't edible'). You generally don’t need to take found things away from your pup unless they do smell of food, when the smell might deceive the pup into thinking the inedible thing actually is food.
A pup whose owner is overly protective, who takes everything the pup wants to explore out of his mouth -- oooo, what if he swallows that pebble? oooo, what if he swallows a splinter of wood from that stick he’s chomping on? oooo, a found milk carton, how filthy!-- will often quickly develop serious pica. The pup learns to instantly swallow whatever it has if the owners so much as looks at the pup near it, or – in a blind dog – if she detects her owner approaching. I've seen this again and again and again. Older pups / young dogs fleeing with a found roll of masking tape, an umbrella sheath, the most incredible things, and managing to hastily swallow the entire thing while staying out of the owner's reach. These dogs will explore and spit out inedible trash in a park unless their owner looks at them or approaches – upon which they instantly swallow whatever it is they have (piece of paper, plastic cup or spoon, etc), which they'd otherwise have spit out.
Taking things away from dogs isn't as simple as it might seem. We can create the feared life-threatening situation by our good intentions, a self-fulfilling prophesy -- if we don't know how to do and train for it. All this is aside from a dog who chooses to instead stay and growl or even bite (which is in a different way can be life-threatening for a dog).
In preparation for when you someday do have to take something away from your pup (or even your adult dog), it’s good to train in advance. Start when the pup is playing with something safe and non-edible. Approach with friendly signals (e.g., squeaking at the dog, for Blind and Deaf making signals such as floor vibrations so the dog knows you’re coming), give her a treat or two without touching the thing she has, then retreat. As step two, when the dog starts looking up with happy anticipation at your approach, you can move to step two: say ‘oooo, let me look at that’ (or a hand or touch signal which you’ll be training to mean the same), take the thing she has, give the dog a treat, then instantly return whatever the dog had. Step three comes when the dog happily watches you accept or pick up her object, knowing she’ll get a treat then get the thing back: now you can begin approaching while the dog has a chewy or something else she thinks has edible value. Don’t touch or take her object! Just approach as the dog is chewing, give a treat, walk away. When the dog is completely relaxed with this, you can ask to look at the thing, give a treat, then give the thing back.
Dogs build social relations on trust, not on ‘dominance’. It’s crucially important in any dog’s life to learn to TRUST you even when she has a most highly valued thing. So anti-pica training is basically a series of trust-building exercises.
If you have a deaf and/or blind dog, it’s good to first train the dog that startle is a good thing. Get her used to the fact that your sudden touch means a treat is coming, or that something else he likes is going to happen – a walk, dinner, whatever. Start gently by stamping as you approach, or not nudging the dog but rather moving a few of his hairs with a toe or a finger. When he jumps to alert, wow, there’s a piece of chicken nearby just for him. When the dog starts to look happy with a gentle wake-up or startle, you can start to practice touching or nudging the dog suddenly but gently, then later more abruptly. The build-up to real life, that he needn’t be worried just because someone bumps or pokes him.
Back to anti-pica training. The Positive Trainer myth out there is that you should be able to take anything away from a dog if only you trade it for a treat. They mean this well, but it's a misunderstanding. The moment will always come when a dog doesn’t want to trade what it has for a (by comparison) crummy dog treat. It's important to remember that anti-pica training is not a trade exercise -- it's a RETURN THE THING exercise. If you do this once or twice a day with safe things (later once or twice a week), the rare occasion when you don't give a dangerous thing back won't ruin the dog's trust in you.
For people who live in scandalously littered cities, a bit more info. I even go so far as to inspect bread or a chicken bone a dog has found on the street – then I give the bread back in bite-size pieces or pick any meat off the chicken bone and give them that non-dangerous part back. Last night I helped my own pup lick out a littered McDonalds milkshake cup by holding it for her so it wouldn’t roll away. After that, she was satisfied to leave it behind and walk further. She now brings me things she needs help taking apart for the tasty bit.
My experience is that pups and newly rescued dogs are: a) fascinated as they explore their new world to find there's food all over the place (many cities being a bit too much like a village dump where the domestic dog evolved), and b) always hungry because they’re growing so fast. Once the big growth spurt is over, around 6 - 7 months, they mostly lose interest in street trash. It's old news and they aren't so hungry anymore. So (a superstition exploded) letting a dog do this as a pup does not mean s/he'll be a trash eater the rest of her/his life.
For deaf / blind dogs, don’t forget to first do the startle = sign of good things training. The dog will learn that startle is a good and safe thing even when s/he has some big prize. It wouldn't surprise me if deaf and blind dogs (in particular pups) do very well nosing out yummy stuff outdoors. It would surprise me if they were more inclined than any other dog to eat the clearly inedible things (stones, plastic and such, unless it smelled of food).
Last note: It’s normal for a dog to sometimes eat a few bites of sand or dirt – this isn’t pica unless a dog does it obsessively. It’s also normal for dogs to eat grass, especially the young and tender blades. Grass nibbling isn’t pica nor always a sign of stomach upset. Young, tender grass simply tastes good – and it has good nutritional value, including high value proteins. Even a human can survive on grass in the wilderness for quite awhile if there’s no other food around.
Alexandra Semyonova
The Hague, January 2011
Author of ‘The 100 Silliest Things People Say About Dogs’, a seriously myth-busting book about us and dogs, excerpts available at: http://www.nonlineardogs.com and of ‘The Social Organization of the Domestic Dog’, to be found at: http://www.nonlineardogs.com/socialorganisation.html
[1] Not just puppies. We once watched three baby squirrels as they visited the ground under their tree for the first time. Every new object was nibble-tasted, including a pebble in the grass.
[2] Occasional unexplainable mistakes happen, as for example our 6 year old Border Collie who nibbled off the patches from soccer balls and spit the sharp edged bits in the grass, once decided to swallow a single whole patch that must have seemed to her smooth enough. We watched her intently for any signs of distress until three days later the patch reappeared painfully in her poop. Preparation H relieved her discomfort. We had made arrangements to rush her to the hospital at any sign.