Help!! Puppy keeps trying to eat snails!!

bright_side

My almost 11 week old pup seems to be constantly on the hunt for snails and she can find them a lot easier than I seem to be able to!!

I only read a couple of days ago how bad they can be for dogs, had no idea prior to that, so have done a little research and now I'm scared she'll find one and eat it before I realise!

Am I right in understanding that Advocate is the answer to protect her?

I wormed her last week with Drontal puppy.

Any help greatly appreciated.

louzi

Snails can lead to lungworm. I'm not sure what prevents lungworm off the top of my head.

I would teach her a strong leave command. I taught my puppy by playing tug of war. Would get him very excited and get him to pull back. Make your hand go limp and say 'leave'. As soon as it drops out of their mouth treat and reward by playing tug of war some more.

Another way to do it is to put something tasty on the floor such as a treat. Make sure your puppy notices it and command it to leave. As soon as they sit and show no interest give them a higher reward treat (sausage, ham, chicken etc.). NEVER give them the treat off the floor.

If you see her sniffing around a snail tell her to leave and reward when she does. Got my puppy out of eating poo!

MrsAtobe

Advocate (although a spot on flea treatment) treats lungworm, a normal wormer doesn't. I had to check with my vet, as my new dog likes to eat slugs :eek:

pawsies

I would redirect her behaviour onto something else.

Or you could play a game of 'Snail Watch' keep her on leash and every time she sees a snail you give her lots of praise and favourite treat. This should eventually progress into her looking at you when she sees a snail which means you can remove it and your plants can breathe a sigh of relief!!

In fact I may train my dog to do this. The first snail detection dog, as a corgi she looks like a slug anyway so it would be even more funny