I have a 5 month old yellow lab and he loves woodchips. Recently he got sick from eating one and we had to take him into the vet. He’s better now, but we couldn’t give him his regular food for almost two weeks. We use his food instead of training treats and the vet gave us wet food for him. So we were unable to train with food as a reward for the last few weeks. He is still not fully back on his regular food so we are doing our best to use kibble when we can for training while being mindful of his tummy.
Unfortunately I think “drop it” and “leave it” have turned into a game for him with woodchips specifically. He will grab them, and if we don’t have kibble on us, he will get the zoomies and run around with it in his mouth or start chewing the woodchip faster. But the second he sees his treat pouch he will spit out the woodchip and sit nicely.
We are unable to block him from accessing the woodchips.
We know we need to really get back into consistent training once he can have regular food again, but now that this is a game to him does anyone have helpful advice?
We do not want to use an e-collar.