Training not to eat potentially poisonous food

[DukesMyDog]

How do you train your dog not to eat rat poison or maybe even poisoned food thrown by an intruder? Has anyone had any experience with this?

Id say it's a pretty important thing for a dog to know.

[Jax08]

Leave It...leave it...leave it...

Why would that be a concern for you? has someone poisoned a dog of yours?

A neighbor did that to a dog of my parents. How would you stop a dog from eating hamburger? Unless there is a smell to the poison I don't know how you would do it.

[Chris Wild]

You can train a dog to eat only under specific conditions. What those conditions are is up to you. It can be only eating out of a certain bowl or in a certain location, only eating when given permission via a verbal phrase or hand signal, etc...

Then, theoretically, he won't eat if those conditions aren't met. So he won't eat the rat poison or poisoned meat or anything else....theoretically.

I say theoretically because it takes a LOT of work to do this, a very intense proofing phase that will probably involve a rather high degree of compulsion, and most importantly absolute consistency. The most difficult part will be that consistency because every single morsel he eats must be under those conditions... so no treats, no getting crumbs off the floor, no food based training, no treats stuffed in kongs for pleasure chewing, no bully sticks or marrow bones for chewing, no tracking.... the list goes on.

And even after all that, he's still a dog and dogs like to eat. So it will never be 100% reliable.

Plus there are many potential pitfalls. If someone has to babysit the dog, or he has to be boarded at the vet or a kennel, or any number of other situations where the common triggers that he knows give him permission to eat aren't there, obviously you could have major problems. He either won't eat under those situations because he's been trained not to, or he will eat and completely undo all that training.

Really, it's a lot easier AND safer just to supervise and use common sense in prevention. Don't leave rat poison around where the dog can get it, don't leave him outside unattended all day where someone could poison him, etc...

[AbbyK9]

You can train a dog never to take any food from the ground, or anywhere other than its own food bowl, and you can train a dog never to accept food or treats from strangers. A good place to start with those is to train a "leave it" command and seriously work on it, to include any items on the ground, anything offered by a stranger, and anything outside the dog's own food bowl.

I'm sure you could teach a dog not to eat specific things, such as rat poison, based on the odor (if there is one), but that would be overly complicated as you'd have to do the same training for a number of different odors. Teaching "leave it" would be easier and more efficient.

And I think this is a valid question -

Quote:
Why would that be a concern for you? has someone poisoned a dog of yours?

[DukesMyDog]

A friend and i were discussing raw feeding which i follow and he doesnt. He mentioned his uncle's dog who got thrown some tainted meat while on watch at night. The dog died and the house was robbed while they were away...
His argument was that a dog fed kibble in its bowl would could be easily trained for this while my dog, who likes to take the rmb out of the bowl and eat it off the ground, would be a challenge....

[DukesMyDog]

Originally Posted By: Chris Wild
I say theoretically because it takes a LOT of work to do this, a very intense proofing phase that will probably involve a rather high degree of compulsion, and most importantly absolute consistency. The most difficult part will be that consistency because every single morsel he eats must be under those conditions... so no treats, no getting crumbs off the floor, no food based training, no treats stuffed in kongs for pleasure chewing, no bully sticks or marrow bones for chewing, no tracking.... the list goes on.

Oh wow, so basically ill have to change the way i live with dogs completely

Originally Posted By: Chris Wild
Really, it's a lot easier AND safer just to supervise and use common sense in prevention. Don't leave rat poison around where the dog can get it, don't leave him outside unattended all day where someone could poison him, etc...

You are right about leaving him unsupervised but what about the times when he's watching the house for us and we are sleeping or out for the night??

[Jax08]

is there anything in your house worth dying for? Do you leave your dog out at nite? I feel much safer with my dog next to me at nite. Nothing is coming thru the door that I don't know about and there is nothing in my house, materials things, that are worth my dying for so i don't expect my dog to keep watch for me.

[Myamom]

"You are right about leaving him unsupervised but what about the times when he's watching the house for us and we are sleeping or out for the night??"


He should be IN the house...nice and safe.

[Jax08]

Isn't Duke only 4 months old? You aren't really leaving him out all night to watch the house, are you?

[Jax08]

oops..sorry wrong Duke