How to wean a dog to pick up food on the street

A dog is a man’s best friend and a smart enough animal. The behavior of dogs is in many ways similar to human behavior, which allows them to be trained using certain techniques. Difficulties can arise due to the fact that dogs have perfectly developed natural instincts that allow their species to survive for millennia. Weaning to give in to instincts can be difficult.

Search reflex - what is it?

Dog instincts are manifested in the form of unconditioned reflexes - behaviors present from birth and characteristic of all representatives of this species. Dogs have several unconditioned reflexes: food, parent, search, protective, indicative. The search reflex causes the dog to pick up food from the floor or rush to the garbage cans. It is closely related to the food reflex, therefore, having found something edible, the dog will immediately decide to taste it.

It is worth considering: the animal does not care whether it is hungry, the dog simply succumbs to instinct. The pedigree and the history of the dog’s life does not matter. Even if she was born in the house of a decent breeder and did not need food from the street, or all her ancestors always lived with a person, she may have a search reflex. Instincts are always innate.

Hunting dogs and bloodhound dogs are more prone to instinctive searching than other breeds.

Breed influence

Dogs that were set up for hunting for many centuries developed a search reflex better than their counterparts, for example:

• Terriers
• Hounds;
• Retriever
• Likes;
• Setters
• Spaniels
• Dachshunds
• Griffons
• Marriages
• Greyhounds.

There are dogs that are bred specifically for search. These are dogs of those breeds that are in the service of law enforcement officers and participate in search works:

• Shepherd dogs
• Chow Chow
• Rottweilers;
• Bulldogs
• Dobermans.

When getting a dog belonging to one of the listed breeds, get ready to wean it from finding and eating food from the street.

Is it possible to overcome instinct

On its own, the dog will not be able to overcome instinct, but you can help it develop the opposite conditional on the basis of the unconditioned reflex. What does it mean? Eating found food on the street should be associated with a dog with negative emotions: anger, fear, disgust. This effect can be achieved using training.

There are several teams that will wean a dog to eat outside:

1. "Fu" or "Throw." The team must make the animal move away from the object that it wanted to take in the teeth.
2. "Give". The team makes the dog bring and give the owner what she found.

The last command is suitable for those who do not want to discourage the search reflex from the dog if it is used for hunting. Dog training can be entrusted to professionals or do it yourself.

Self-training should begin at home. Put food on the floor and command: "Fu" - when the dog tries to take it into its mouth. Show that she should move away from this item on command. After the lesson is learned at home, proceed to training on the street in a similar way. Punish the pet when he does not fulfill the command.

The “Give” command implies encouragement after proper execution. Treat your dog with your favorite treat when she runs the team.

Simple rules for raising a dog

If there is no way to train a dog or it simply cannot be trained, you can restrict yourself to simple rules that will help you to wean a pet from picking up food on the street. It is worth showing that eating from the floor is bad.You can do this in the following ways:

• Do not leave food for the dog on the floor, if the products are still there - remove them;
• Do not let the dog pick up what has fallen or drink what has spilled;
• Scold the pet for pulling the product to the floor and then eating it.

Put mustard in your dog’s favorite treat and place it on the floor. Do this several times, but be careful: some animals like spicy things. This method will not cause harm to the pet.

After practicing skills at home, proceed to education while walking:

1. When the dog finds something and is about to eat it, throw a foam ball at it, scare it with a loud sound or pull the leash. Do this every time, this will allow you to develop a conditioned reflex.
2. Do not let the dog eat on the street, even if it is treated by a neighbor, relative or friend. The pet should get used to eating exclusively at home from its own bowl.
3. Watch your pet. The dog may try to eat something on the street while you are distracted, just watch her and scold her for bad behavior.
4. Occupy your pet with games in the fresh air, he simply will not have time to search for food.

It’s not so difficult to teach a dog certain rules of behavior, you just have to do it closely. Food on the street contains a large number of microorganisms and harmful substances, it can be spoiled, poor-quality or poisoned. If a dog is systematically forbidden to eat outside, it will lose its search reflex and will not endanger its health.

Video: how to wean a dog to pick up on the street and lick the floor