My dog eats dangerous shells. How to stop her and make her drop?

There are spray-on products such as bitter apple which may deter pets from chewing on furniture, eating seashells in your backyard decor, etc. However in an outdoor setting, such sprays will likely get washed away each time it rains. If Sadie is very persistent about eating the seashells, removing them completely or relocating to a place out of her reach is the safest option. Ingested seashells, even if chewed up, could become a life -threatening gastrointestinal foreign body obstruction/result in a gastrointestinal obstruction that would require an expensive surgery to resolve (with no guarantee of complete recovery). If Sadie continues to vomit, bringing her into your vet for diagnostics and treatment is the safest option. Symptoms of a foreign body obstruction include vomiting shortly after eating, minimal defecation, abdominal pain, and lethargy.

General obedience training is where to start. Once Koi learns to come, stay, down and heel you will have better control over her behavior. To get her to drop an item I like to teach the Drop command. Do this with a toy or ball. Toss the toy, call her and ask her to Drop the toy by having a yummy treat in your hand. She'll drop the toy to get the treat and then you can praise her and give another treat. Once she learns this command you should then be able to say Drop, and she should drop the item and come looking for a treat. Be patient with the training, she's a puppy. Don't chase her when she takes something she shouldn't as this will encourage her to make a game of it. Instead say Treat and throw a treat to her if she won't come. Usually a treat is more enticing and she'll leave the item she's not supposed to have. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Koi.

IF there is a generalised increase in appetite and/or weight loss a full health check would be recommended to rule out medical causes of increasing appetite such as diabetes or poor digestion/absorption of food. Otherwise I recommend clicker training at home focusing on the words 'drop it' and I would also consider walking her with a muzzle on to prevent her from consuming anything dangerous

Hi, this is quite the annoying problem you are having. First, you are doing the correct thing when telling her to drop it or give it to you. I would reinforce this with giving her a treat after she lets go of the object she's not supposed to have. Train her to keep her attention on you while walking by giving her commands randomly such as sit or wait, and reward her with a small treat. Then she will be looking to you for rewards instead of the ground for things to chew. Good luck, I hope this helps!

It's normal for puppies to be very interested in rocks and other things that they can pick up in their mouths - this is how they explore the world, similar to the way that human toddlers want to touch everything with their hands. I would recommend teaching your puppy a reliable "drop it!" command so that you can ask him to drop anything he picks up outside that he shouldn't have. Start with a toy for practice - when he has the toy in his mouth, say "drop it!" in a cheerful tone of voice and put a treat in front of his nose. Most puppies will readily drop the toy to get the treat, praise and reward as soon as he does. With practice, he will begin to drop the toy eagerly as soon as you say "drop it!" without needing the food lure in front of his nose. Make sure that you still reward with a treat every time - we want this behavior to be very reliable! Once he's got the idea, you can start to use this command when you are outside in the yard or on a walk - if he picks up a rock or something else he shouldn't have, just say "drop it!" Praise and reward immediately as soon as he does - you will need to bring treats with you for this purpose. As he gets older, he should grow out of this behavior, so just be patient and consistent in the meantime.

If it is that big of an issue, I would look into teaching Snowball "Leave it". You can find various tutorials on YouTube that will walk you through it. Basically, it teaches Snowball that it isn't OK to just pick things up off the ground and eat them, and that she'll be rewarded for leaving it behind instead. Teaching other things such as drop/trading what's in her mouth for a reward, may also help. You should still be walking her, but you can keep an eye on her during your walks, and if you see her start to eat something, move her to another area, or remove the item from her mouth. If she's very mouthy and likes to carry toys, you can also bring a toy along on your walks for her to keep in her mouth and potentially deter on other things. If she does get into something she shouldn't and is ill, having your local vet's number on hand is always best as even the most vigilant of owners and well-trained of dogs can sometimes get into things they shouldn't.

This is a common problem for many dogs! For starters, I would recommend not letting her off-leash until you have worked on her training a bit more - you can use a long line (a long, light-weight leash up to 50 feet long) to give her some freedom at the park while still having her under control. To teach her to come, first practice at home in a very boring environment. Use very tasty treats that she doesn't get any other time - things like chicken, roast beef, or cheese work well for many dogs. Call her name, and say "come!" in an excited voice. In the beginning, you can also show her the treats if you need to. As soon as she comes to you, give her a handful of treats and lots of praise. When she can do this in the house, try it outside in your yard on-leash. Work up to practicing at the park on her long line, always making sure that you have yummy treats to reward her with. Once she's reliable, you can begin letting her off-leash for short periods, as long as she always comes back for her treat when you call her.