Problems with our dead animal hungry cocker spaniel cross!

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rowy

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We have a 7 month old cocker spaniel cross poodle. She is basically exactly like a cocker spaniel other than having a curly non shedding coat.
She can smell a dead animal from long way a way, she grabs it and then u cannot get it off her at all! No matter if u tempt her with food or try and get her attention, she just continually runs away. and usually, if u dont get it in time, she starts eating it.

Do any of you have any tips on how to train this out of her? we have bought a whistle in order to get her attention and have trained her to come to it and she gets a food reward but she much prefers these dead animals to any sort of food.
thanks
 
We have been doing this at training class give your dog a toy and when they drop it say give and treat. Darcy caught on very quick and I was very proud of her.

Out for a walk one day she was some distance from me and picked up a rabbits head I ran towards her saying give and she walked towards me crunching as she came. By the time we met up she swallowed and I was able to see two rabbits ears disappearing.:eek:

Ive no doubt if it was a toy she would have dropped it but she is a very greedy dog and she was not going to give that tasty morsel up.:(
 
its so horrible isnt it!
So far ours has found 2 lamb legs, obviously born not quite formed as very small. and numerous rabbit body parts including a head, spine and lots of half rabbits! wish the fox would eat all the remains instead of leaving it for Rory!
 
I have this problem with my minature poodle. He is a total bugger about it, we live on a stud and he seems to remember exactly where all the dead rabbit carcasses are! A word of warning, he had terrible constipation last week which the vets put down to him scoffing contraband dead rabbits so be careful. If I walk him with his ball to distract him it is not a problem but then he 'forgets' to wee or poo as he is so ball obsessed so we have to walk on the lead around the stud if I want him to do his business and then I can release him and play with his ball.
 
Have you thought of feeding her raw, mine rarely bother with old carcasses as they have plenty of fresh ones on their diet, they will eat rabbits they catch but I just don't feed them that day! One finished off a half dead pigeon the other day, he showed some interest and plucked a bit of it but he just couldn't be bothered, he would rather wait for the plucked version!
 
Haha a related tale from today...

Feeling lazy rather than walk my dog to the woods i chucked him on the front seat of the van with me (tut tut no doggy seatbelt) as its only 2 minutes away.
Seconds before we got there he started heaving, I was praying he'd hold it in and tried to distract him but no, with one final monumental yak out slithered an entire decomposing big baby rat thing, covered in entrails and dog vomit. I screamed and just had to keep driving with it sitting there on the seat next to me lol, filling the van with its lovely aroma.

At this point I was wretching, pulled in at the woods, I flung myself out of the van and ran to lean over a fallen tree trunk as I tried to control my stomach/ possibly throw up... and came face to face with a decomposing badger - flies, maggots, stench and all. Another 10 minutes of struggling not to chuck, wretching, coughing, eyes watering, pacing the lot lol. And after all that had to clean out the van, so had it all over again. I hate having such a weak stomach!

We then had our walk interrupted by a herd of very lively limousins which i didn't realise were there & wasn't brave enough to tackle so had to walk back the way we came after about 10 minutes. Fantastic walk lol :D

I watched him closely for signs of poisoning but he's fine, it does make me worry though.
 
I'm sorry gugglebum, had to laugh at that, as the rat re appeared hopefully no risk of poison. Can't offer any advice to the OP Evie just swallows dead things whole if I try and get them off her, very occasionally throwing her ball for her will distract her, but more often than not she eats first then goes for the ball.:(
 
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