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

The dog is the best friend of man and quite an intelligent animal. The behavior of dogs is in many ways similar to human behavior, which allows you to train them using certain techniques. Difficulties may arise due to the fact that dogs have well-developed natural instincts that allow their species to survive for thousands of years. It is not easy to wean instincts.

Search reflex - what is it?

The instincts of dogs manifest themselves in the form of unconditioned reflexes - forms of behavior that are present from birth and are characteristic of all members of this species. In dogs, there are several unconditioned reflexes: food, parental, search, protective, approximate. The search reflex causes the dog to pick up food from the floor or rush to the trash cans. It is closely related to the food reflex, therefore, having found something edible,the dog will immediately decide to taste it.

It is necessary to take into account: it doesn’t matter to the animal whether it is hungry, the dog simply gives in to instinct. It does not matter the pedigree and life history of the dog. 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 sniffer dogs are more prone to instinctive searches than other breeds.

Rock effect

The dogs, which for centuries have been turned up for hunting, have developed a search reflex stronger than their fellows, for example:

• Terriers;
• The hounds;
• Retrievers;
• Likes;
• Setters;
• Spaniels;
• Dachshunds;
• Griffons;
• Bracchi;
• Greyhounds

There are dogs that give birth specifically for the search. These are dogs of those breeds that are in the service of law enforcement officers and participate in prospecting work:

• Sheepdogs;
• Chow chow;
• Rottweilers;
• Bulldogs;
• Dobermans.

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

Is it possible to overcome instinct

A dog cannot overcome instinct on its own, but you can help it develop an opposite conditional on the basis of an unconditioned reflex. What does it mean? Eating found food on the street should be associated with negative emotions in a dog: anger, fear, disgust. To achieve this effect, you can use the training.

There are several commands that will wean a dog to eat on the street:

1. "Fu" or "Throw." The team must force the animal to move away from the object that it wanted to pick up.
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 a 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: “Foo” - when the dog tries to take it in his mouth. Show that she should move away from this item on command. After the lesson is learned at home, go to training in the street in a similar pattern. Punish a pet when it does not execute the command.

The command "Give" means encouragement after the correct execution. Treat your dog your favorite treat when it performs a command.

Simple rules for raising a dog

If training a dog is not possible or it simply does not give in to training, you can restrict yourself to simple rules that will help wean the pet to pick up food on the street. It is worth showing that food from the floor is bad. This can be done in the following ways:

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

Put the mustard into your favorite dog treat and place it on the floor. Do this several times, but beware: some animals like it spicy. This method will not harm your pet.

After practicing skills at home, start training during a walk:

1. When the dog finds something and is going to eat it, throw a foam ball at it, scare it with a loud sound or pull the leash.Do this every time, it will allow you to work out a conditioned reflex.
2. Do not let the dog eat on the street, even if it is treated to a neighbor, relative or friend. The pet should get used to eating food 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 it and scold for bad behavior.
4. Take your pet games in the fresh air, he simply will not have time to search for food.

To teach a dog certain rules of behavior is not so difficult, 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 you systematically prohibit a dog from eating on the street, it will lose the search reflex and will not endanger its health.

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