How do I stop my dog from picking up rubbish?

Leave it, teaching your dog basic commands will help keep them safe throughout their life. It also helps prevent undesirable behaviours in your house and when out and about. A command like “leave” or “drop” will help in many situations, and a solid recall will ensure that they come back to you if you spot a tasty temptation in the distance. Don’t forget to keep training sessions short and fun. Find out what really motivates your dog – this could be a treat or a toy – and use this during training sessions to get the best out of your pup. Visit areas with fewer temptations, one option if your dog is an avid scavenger is to take them for a walk in an area that you know has fewer temptations. You could take them for a walk in the countryside or woods rather than in a more suburban area where there is likely to be more residue and rubbish around. Teach your dog to walk to heel and pay attention to you, ensuring your dog is well trained is essential for their safety. Learn your dog’s signals, get to recognise your dog’s behaviour before they scoff their scavenging prize, dogs may sniff or circle when they’ve found a scent that they like. Pay attention to your pooch to see if there are any identifiers that will alert you before they lunge for that discarded sandwich wrapper. Consider walking in different parks or green spaces that are less likely to be picnic destinations, take high-value treats with you and reward your dog regularly for positive behaviour, walk at a different time of day when there are likely to be less picnics around. Be eagle eyed, stay on the lookout for potential picnics and make sure your dog is on the lead before they notice it too.

Make sure your dog is fed before walks. Ensure your dog has had a meal not long before you head out the door. You can even fulfill their scavenging need by making mealtime more interesting using slow feeders, snuffle mats, or puzzle feeders. These make it more difficult for your dog to eat their food all at once. If you don’t have any of these items, you can try scattering kibble around their feeding area as another opportunity to help satisfy their needs before going on a walk. Choose a less tempting route. If possible, change up where you walk by choosing somewhere away from gardens and hedges to help remove any temptations of eating plants and sticks. If you can’t change your route, simply redirect your dog’s attention by tossing treats up ahead while you walk so that your dog targets those instead of anything else on the ground. Train your dog with “leave it” and “watch me” cues. Teaching your dog cues such as “leave it” and “watch me” can be extremely beneficial if they’re prone to scavenge on your walks. Change up how you walk. You can make walks extra fun – and distract your dog from scavenging – by bringing along a toy, a ball, walking at a quicker pace, or even continuing to practice your “leave it” and “watch me” cues.

Teach Your Dog the “Leave it” and “Drop it” Commands One of the best ways to teach a dog that they shouldn’t be snatching up random items from the street is with the “leave it” command. This is something that every dog should be taught anyway – you never know when a dog may be tempted by something dangerous. Once your dog is solid with this command, you’ll be able to say it each time your dog makes a move towards an item that they shouldn’t eat. We would also highly recommend teaching the “drop it” command too. This way, if you’re too late with your “leave it”, you’ll still be able to extract whatever it is that your dog has grabbed from their mouth before they actually swallow it. Take Note of Your Dog’s Cues There will always be times when your dog quickly darts over to something that they want to scavenge, without any warning signs. However, more often than not, their body language will give you a clue as to what they’re about to do. Keep a close eye over your dog’s behavior before they’re about to scavenge to work out what these cues are. Muzzle Training is a great quick fix for scavenging dogs, but keep in mind that you’ll need to first muzzle train your dog before actually using the muzzle when out and about. Ideally, you should only need to use your muzzle in the short term. Implement our other tips and work on training the “leave it” and “drop it” commands and your dog should soon stop scavenging, even without the muzzle on. Give Your Dog the Chance to Scavenge at Home As we mentioned, scavenging is instinctual for dogs. It’s a rewarding behavior that they very much enjoy. So, if you want them to stop scavenging on walks, you’ll need to provide them with another, safer, scavenging outlet. Choose Your Route Wisely Chances are that some of your walking routes are far more littered than others. Until you’ve managed to train your dog to stop scavenging, avoid these routes as much as possible. Instead, try to pick walking routes that are generally quite clear. This way, you’ll be taking away a lot of the scavenging temptation. Once you’ve managed to gain control of how your dog acts when on a walk, you’ll once again be able to walk anywhere.

When your puppy is outside, you need to be out there with them. If your puppy is just learning the ropes and has a tendency to grab things, you’ll need to keep them on leash so that you’re able to prevent them from picking up something they shouldn’t have. Keep the yard tidy, pick up what you can, clean up sticks, pick up garbage, rake up the bunny poo, and pick up the mulch that has made its way out of the garden and onto the lawn, etc. Every little bit that you can pick up will help. If there are definite safety concerns and you’re in a situation where you’re unable to manage the environment carefully due to shared spaces, you might want to consider using a muzzle outside as a preventative measure. You’ll need to teach your puppy a reliable response to two commands: “leave it” and “drop it”. “Leave it” means don’t touch, our goal in training is to teach our puppies that they are to leave something of interest and to move away from it. You can’t successfully “teach” this in the heat of the moment when your puppy is trying to grab the neighbour’s garbage that blew onto your front lawn. Your puppy is going to require lots and lots of repetitions of success in planned training situations where you have complete control and are able to help your puppy learn how to make appropriate choices when faced with different challenges.