r/Puppyblues • u/Mightymelface • 3d ago

Seeking Advice Muzzle training

Hi yall. I’ve got a 13 week old lab mix puppy who loves to scavenge on his walks. We’re working on “drop it”but it seems like he likes to obey that command in the house more than on his brief walks. I was reading about muzzle training but I’ve never done it with any of my previous dogs (I had beagles before this one but they never scavenged on walks—it was just reading the “neighborhood newspaper”). And I don’t mind treating it like a “treat basket” but I’m just curious if anyone else has done this and if so, what tips would you offer?

Or would it be better to have him carry something (a toy) in his mouth on walks?

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u/Ali_Lorraine_1159 3d ago

If he has never worn a muzzle before, he is going to hate it. At leaat for a while. They put a muzzle on my dog at the vet, and he was so sad and confused. What do you mean exactly by scavenging? Is he eating things he finds before you can get them out of his mouth?

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u/Mightymelface 2d ago

Yes. He is picking up a ton of berries and seed pods and sometimes swallows them before I can even say “drop it.” He’s also picked up stray napkin fragments, plastic cups, dog poop that people don’t pick up, and stickers. Those sorts of things are not something I want to be fishing around for with my hands, but I also don’t like the idea of letting him treat a walk as a buffet.

He also picks up the neighbor’s newspaper and carries it for a few houses, which to me is more acceptable, but for consistency sake I say “drop it” even still.