No-one likes to see a Labrador wearing a muzzle. But owning a Labrador that has a passion for consuming everything, including trash, can be a real pain.
(paid link)His favourite menu will often include carrion, human waste, and other delectable substances.
It is no fun at all having to try and wrestle a rotting seagull from the jaws of your pet.
And some dogs seem to be able to find one every time you set foot on the beach.
Devouring the contents of discarded nappies is another canine favourite.
Labradors have an astounding sense of smell.
And until seagulls start dying conveniently out to sea, and all Mums start taking their rubbish home, Â we are probably stuck with it.
How to stop your Labrador eating rubbish
You have a couple of options for overcoming or at least managing,  this ‘charming’ habit.
- Physical prevention
- Training
Physically preventing a Lab eating rubbish
Essentially physical prevention means either keeping your dog on a short lead, or putting your dog in a muzzle.
Unless you are a passionate long distance runner, Â it is going to be difficult to keep a dog well exercised on a lead.
Which leaves the muzzle.
Some people have a lot of success with using a basket muzzle like this one ‘Basket Cage Dog Muzzle Size 4’(paid link)Â to prevent dogs eating rubbish.
But a lot of people are reluctant to try it.
They worry that the muzzle is uncomfortable, Â and they worry that people will think that their dog is aggressive. Â However, it doesn’t in all honesty matter what people think. Â A dog I know that treats every grim pile of rubbish as a ‘buffet’, nearly died from scoffing toadstools last year.
A few funny looks from strangers is a fair price to pay for her safety. Â A muzzle might just transform your walks.
Some people do find that a muzzle is not the answer for them.  With very sloppy items, the dog just presses his face into the mess until it forces its way through the sides.   A muzzle tends to be more helpful with solid objects than with gooey messes. (Don’t you just love dogs)
Training a Labrador to stop eating rubbish
People often ask “How can I train my dog not to pick up rubbish”. Â But of course that requires a dog that can ‘define’ what is rubbish and what is not. Â Not a straightforward concept for an animal that regards vomit as an appropriate dessert.
Which leaves you with your ‘recall’.
Teaching a dog to recall away from something he regards as delicious takes time.  You need to teach the dog a new concept.
The concept of moving away from something he wants in order to get it. Â Or at least in order to get something of equivalent value.
It is natural for a dog to move towards what he wants.  It is completely unnatural for the dog to move towards you when you are calling him if the thing he wants is in the opposite direction.
So you need to teach this concept in stages.
Teaching a dog to come away from rubbish
You can teach your dog to come away from some tempting food that he knows is on a raised surface for example, by taking the dog to the food and giving him a piece after he has obeyed the recall signal.
Make sure you can call him away from ‘high value’Â food like warm roast beef or chicken.
This kind of training takes time and patience, but it a really helpful skill.
Moving training outdoors
Once you can call your dog away from a plate of lovely roast chicken, take your skill outdoors.
You will need to set up ‘fake’ training scenarios in which you  ‘plant’ tasty items in an outdoor location and practice your new concept with the dog on a training line.
You can put a stick or some other marker next to your ‘plant’Â so that you can judge when the dog is close enough.
As soon as he smells the food and tries to approach, you will need to recall him.
Use the long line to prevent him getting the food, but don’t ‘reel’ him in.
You want him to learn to make that decision for himself, or he won’t be able to do it when he is off lead.
Continue to use the training line until he is recalling really well, away from tasty items that you have left out for training purposes.
How about you?
Have you found a muzzle helpful for preventing your dog from swallowing rubbish? Â Share your views in the comments box below.
Another particularly nasty habit in Labradors can be eating poop. We take a look at dealing this this issue in our article Eating Poop and what you can do about it.
More information on Labradors
(paid link)Check out our Labrador Training section for more help and advice on managing a Labrador with grubby habits.
(paid link)You can find out more about how to keep your Labrador as fit and healthy as possible in the Health section of our website.
If you’d like all of our best Labrador information together in one place, then get your copy of The Labrador Handbook today.
The Labrador Handbook looks at all aspects owning a Labrador, through daily care, to health and training at each stage of their life.
The Labrador Handbook is available(paid link) worldwide.
The Labrador Site Founder
Pippa Mattinson is the best selling author of The Happy Puppy Handbook, the Labrador Handbook, Choosing The Perfect Puppy, and Total Recall.
She is also the founder of the Gundog Trust and the Dogsnet Online Training ProgramÂ
Pippa's online training courses were launched in 2019 and you can find the latest course dates on the Dogsnet website
And I thought my lab was the only one who got himself into deep trouble. Has eaten plastic milk bottle pieces and rope toy, the combination of which created a kind of pulley inside, caused perforation of intestines. Had string gut due to linear foreign body ingestion. Then got abscess in abdomen so another surgery. It’s a month on but his gut is not in the best of health otherwise he’s pretty much recovered. Had a whopping bill of which 3/4 th was covered by insurance not to mention the tears and stress he’s put us through. Was on the basket muzzle on walks but this happened at home in our backyard. Home is now as sterile as we can manage and outdoors he on the muzzle 24/7. Not taking any chances!!!!
My 7-month old yellow lab loves ripping paper and plastic trash to bits when we are out on walks. She LOVES rabbit poo, but, thankfully, just sniffs dog poo and does not touch it (thank goodness!). On most occasions I am able to restrain her with the leash, but often, especially after windy garbage-collection days, it feels like the sidewalk is a minefield! I use the “Leave it” command or “No” and reward her with a small treat every time she obeys (which is not often 🙂 ). I might consider a muzzle soon; I am concerned about her safety as spring is approaching and things like mushrooms etc. start to bloom. I often take her through a wooded area near our house where she is able to run around free, but I don’t know what she could find that could hurt her on those occasions.
By reading all these comments I think a muzzle might be the answer for my nearly 2 year old lab. I’ve managed so far getting some very nasty things out of his mouth ie glass, nails, deadly puffer fish, and the usual just disgusting putrid dead possums, birds etc but the other day down by the water I rescued a sea bird with three fish hooks in it and I suddenly thought if Billy got hold of that bird he would be in a very bad way with the hooks so I’ll be trying a muzzle, just not sure which one would be the best. I’ve had labs before and never had this problem, but have learnt that there’s the british and the American lab. british bred for showing and American lab bred for hunting and Billy’s the American so might be a clue there.
I have a labradoodle who is 4yrs old and to date he has had 3 surgeries removing objects, rubber toy, half tennis ball and more recently a piece of stick which perforated his intestines. He eats anything that’s around left on the floor in the park etc we have to be so careful at home, the only toys he has are nylon bones as these are the only things we’ve found to be indestructible. Hence he now has a muzzle on when off the lead although neither I or him is happy about it but I love my dog which is why we muzzle him. He is so obviously much more Labrador than poodle
Yes I use a soft basket muzzle for his safety. It’s by proguardpets.com. Bucky is 13 and a half and is my sweet baby boy. He got violently ill from mushrooms and recently licked up gravel and pebbles. I was so angry with myself because I took the muzzle off and then didn’t see he was licking the ground. He started throwing up that night and wound up at the vet facing surgery after an xray. Thankfully, an ultrasound showed he was passing a wad gravel. That was the good news. The ultrasound also showed he most likely has freakin liver c. But perhaps that was a godsend since he is now on liver support, Denamarin. Two people have told me he eats stuff because he is lacking minerals in his diet. I highly doubt that. He’s a knucklehead!!!
We have just acquired a 1yr old lab who has eaten everything from a pheasant to cushion stuffing, my croc! She didn’t do this before. So I have just bought a muzzle to try and help the situation as I can see a huge vet bill coming soon!! Will let you know
My Labrador is eight months and has so far consumed two socks and everything else he sees. The socks have cost me a lot of money one occasion was after hours. Is it possible to stop him.
My 6 month old black lab, Milo, was playing happily with another dog and when her owner threw her ball to get her to leave, Milo ate it! I couldn’t believe it-i knew he’d an appetite for chewing gum and disgarded tissues but this completely shocked me. I tried to get the ball back – I used treats, recall I could not get near him and he ate it in seconds. One expensive surgery later (and a lot of worrying/anxiety!) Milo is back to walking and almost eating normally but I muzzle him when he is off the lead. I’ve only had one person assume he is aggressive and to be honest I don’t care what other people think. I (nor Milo!) don’t ever want to have to go through that again! We’ve also been doing more recall work to strengthen that.
My 11 month old Yellow lab had to have major surgery yesterday after swallowing a sock which the got blocked in his intestine which nearly killed him.
Lucky for us that we managed to get him to the vet in time and that we had ample insurance to cover the cost of the operation which amounted to more than 3 thousand pounds.
So from now on, my beautiful boy will get a muzzle to stop him from picking anything up when outside.
I don`t care what anyone thinks or says as long as it keeps him alive and safe.
So sorry to hear that your dog had to have an op. Very glad he has survived and that you had insurance. 🙂
I have a 6 month old black lab. She eats everything in the path of our walks. She used to avoid cigarretts (sorry i cant spell).. but lately she picks them up and before I get from the end of the leash to her mouth its already down her throat. I know that makes me sound like a bad pet parent but its lke she plans her walks. I swear she remembers where things r from previous walks and heads straight for them on our walks. Our whole walk is me saying NO! NO! NO!… Is this normal?
Yes, it’s normal my dog does something similar. You might want to try a basket muzzle. The muzzle will prevent eating garbage and allow you to focus on the task at hand, walking!
My dog definitely remembers where food was laying the day or even multiple days before. And if at the start of the walk he spots something and he’s still on the leash at that point, the moment i let him off he’ll run back – hundreds of meters – to get the food. I’m also considering a muzzle.
Rocco wears a basket muzzle however he’s learnt to step on sticks to get them through the muzzle, he’s leaves everything else alone now but sticks. We are doing more training to stop this.
I have a 1 years old Lab who’s the smartest animal i’ve ever seen. He’s trained to do almost anything including eating on command. Unfortunately he eats on command just the food that was given which of course doesn’t include rubbish. In order to prevent him from eating anything he smells we must anticipate. It became a kind of obsession for us to check the floor and be ready to say “No!”. He obeys but he won’t miss a chance to “cheat” us. The amazing thing is that he didn’t get sick yet. Another good thing is that he does it almost only during the short walks. While playing, retrieving, hiking or jogging he won’t miss to much time eating rubbish.
Hallo.
My lab’s name is Simba and he is a rubbish eater. He is 10 already and we have gone through many phases in our unsuccessful journey towards rubbish-free life acting upon the suggestions also listed here on this article. Let me write part of our story down so new lab owners may find some wisdom in our mistakes.
As you might suspect, it all began with an innocent looking dead rat retrieval on our first trip to deep woods as a 4-month old puppy. Then there were secret compost-eating contests in our friends’ yard. There has been occasional dead bird show-offs on the beach and throughout his life there has been problem with feces of homeless people in the bushes of our daily city walks. This is all unpleasant and often leaves him with inflammatory ear fungus proliferation. But the real life-threatening problem is with fish and chicken bones probably just pulled out of trash and dropped there by birds. 3 years ago he had to go to surgery to be the contents of his stomach emptied. And there is heightened risk with each year adding to his life of overcoming such a surgery now.
2 days ago again, we had a “situation”…
He is a very well trained dog. We have great bond and he never disappoints me in critical situations. He obeys my sharp recall commands and he recognizes the stress in my voice on those rare occasions.
The problem is: dogs are smart! Simba has learned that he cannot eat the delicious side-meals of his when I am on his control. So he has to act quickly when the opportunity comes when I don’t object with that – weather on his own or when I fail to notice his question.
When we were on our walk in the park 2 days ago he was on my long retractable walking leash as usual. He was sniffing and snuffing and marking and going through rest of the “dog-facebook-newswall” messages when he sensed a delightful smell nearby. I was preoccupied with his plastic bag and saw I didn’t return the glance when he was checking what I thought of the smell. And then long half second later the source of the delightful smell was down his throat…
There was nothing for me to get out of his mouth and there was nothing for me to teach him at that point. The night was sleepless for both of us. He tried to vomit several times but this time it was too big to come out this way, so he just vomited stomach fluids. He seems to be his happy self again for now. So I hope it either digested or went out the other way. But I’m afraid there comes a point when we are not so lucky.
Non of this of-coarse is Simba’s fault. It is my choices about his training standards. The error of mine was to do as suggested by the article – to rely on recall means YOU have to be able to recognize the potential danger inside that half-second window. Which is for us humans, relying on our sight, is not a realistic goal to succeed 100% of the time. Even when you succeed in training a dog like my Simba who is always checking with you first.
If I had another lab, I would probably try to train my dog to ONLY eat when food is given by me or my trustee. This creates dependence and may result in lack of initiative in a dog. And that was my reason to avoid this, making my choices for Simba. After all what is the point of having a lab that is not full of life?! But to train your dog to NOT EAT anything without your approval, even when left alone, is the only way to ensure that his meals are no threat to his life. As breeding dogs has made relying on their senses false-positive on some not so rare occasions.
If there is anybody out there who has tried the eat-ONLY-on-command training on labs, please share your experience with us! It would mean a lot to know what kind of impact this kind of dependence has on dogs behavior. And if it is at all plausible for instance in the case of castrated male labs, or where is the limit – how long are they able to starve (i.e. something really bad happens to the owner and is he unable to get to the dog for a medical reason) before dog’s survival instincts take over.
Or perhaps it is just a destiny of a lab owner to make peace with the inevitability, that this kind on situations are bound to happen… and put the muzzle on…
Best regards,
Terko
I have a 10 month old lab, which I have trained to do most things but just recently she has taken to eating/crunching stones up. I can get her to leave item’s, reward for good behaviour, recall no problem but she will not stop picking up stones and none of my previous labs have ever done this. Any suggestions or ideas appreciated?
We’ve had our lab cross for 3 years now and it’s just so hard on a walk as he eats foxes & dogs poo and chewing gum. We had a muzzle from the start (he is a rescue), but we didn’t use it for very long. I’ve just started to use it again this week and he’s been an angel, took to it like a duck to water, only managing to get it off once as it was too loose. I’ve just had someone ask me if he’s started to nip and I told him it’s just his eating habits. I don’t care if people think he’s dangerous, hopefully it will stop other dog owners letting their dogs just run up to mine without warning and walking him’s been much more pleasurable. I would like to get a less obvious muzzle but I’m not too bothered.
Another £100 vet bill as the result of my lovely lab scavenging. We live by the sea so there is always a dead fish to find. I’m reluctant to muzzle but hours of training just are not working so a muzzle it’s going to have to be!
2 of my three labs suffered a dreadful toxic effect within three days of each other. After some detective worked it proved to be MOULDY walnut shells. We come across the shells everywhere as mice carry them away from trees. It is an expensive recovery as the toxin is similar the snail poison.
I am afraid I will have to resort to muzzles.
Training works in and around the home but not when they are in the big outdoors!
We have a gorgeous 6 month old lab who just loves eating our Terriers poo and any others he can find!! It’s disgusting and he now has terrible diarrhoea – he also eats grass and bits and pieces but it is difficult to keep an eye on this esp with young children!! I have taken him to the vet as he can’t control his bowels at night time – so we are off to get a muzzle! I will be back online to tell you the results! Apparently mustard powder on the rubbish/poo is a big turnoff?!
I have a 5 year old choccy Lab. It is true, a Labrador IS a life support system for a stomach. Mine eats everything including excrement…yeeeuk
I can’t stand it any more, especially after 2 vomitting sessions in the past fortnight (some of us still use this word!); so after reading comments here I am going to get her a muzzle
I had a similar problem with my lab/ret eating poo of various types many visits to the vets later I bought a basket muzzle which has worked people do ask if he is vicious but I just tell them it prevents him picking up rubbish. If the walk goes well I remove the muzzle but if he starts to become interested in rubbish I put the muzzle back on.
hi my black lab is nearly 8 months i have taught her to leave and drop but she ate two crisps packet on her walk and now she has a soft muzzle and i now feel bad am i doing the right thing help plz
My labrador, Bronte, has now had three serious bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea. Vets have tested her for just about every gastric disorder they could think of. I suspected rabbit droppings were to blame and the latest episode proved me right – I caught her under a tree where the bunnies hang out, scoffing their poo pellets! Sure enough, the V & D returned and she had to be hospitalised because of dehydration. Rabbit poo often contains giardia, and that’s what causes the stomach upset. Normally well behaved, recall is completely forgotten at the mere trace of rabbits. So that Bronte can exercise freely and I can relax on our walks I now use a basket muzzle. She doesn’t like it but has accepted it and no longer tries to paw it off. Up to now it has done the trick. It comes off as soon as she is back on the lead… and I am not worried what people think. It does not hurt or harm her in any way and protects her health. Before I used it for exercising, I spent about a week getting her used to it, making a game out of it and treating her, getting her to come towards the muzzle (with a piece of sausage in the bottom) rather than attempting to thrust it over her nose. Hope this helps.
I have had luck with a collar that sprays citronella, Darcey will eat anything, has been in the vets countless times once in intensive care for a whole weekend. Has really driven me mad have never had a dog that did this sort of thing. Now when I put he collar on her I do not need to spray as she knows why it has been put on her and behaves.
Hi I have a 5 month old Labrador, who will also eat everything in sight, its like I cant watch him enough. He doesn’t eat poop or rubbish though I am very lucky about that, but he does have a tasting to grass, leaves, twigs, ants , flys….But the grass in particular doesn’t make him vomit, it gives him serious diarreah which can last from days to a week or so. So I have been thinking about getting him a muzzle for only when he goes out side by himself, that way I don’t have to watch him every second he is outside just to make sure he s not eating any grass, and to alos be able to sit outside and enjoy myself with him without always having to scold him for eating stuff…..
I have a chocolate lab that I rescued about two years ago. He eats his own poo, the cats, the horses any rubbish he can find. He also finds dead animals when I walk him, mostly rabbits, on the cliffs where I live in Cornwall.
I have started to use a basket muzzle which he mostly doesn’t mind, however it doesn’t prevent him from getting ‘stuck in’ if it is less than solid!
I would certainly not bother about what other people think, if it works.
Thanks for sharing your experience Graham, it is a horrible problem.
My wife is blind and has the worlds best Guide Dog Labrador Retriever cross Ember. However he has developed a liking for horse and other (un) “savouries”. Training him to stop is almost impossible as my wife cannot see sufficiently well to spot him “in the act”. Solution (we thought) has been to fit him with a plastic basket muzzle. However being smart he has quickly worked out how to remove the muzzle by hooking his paws into it and flipping it over his head. This is despite adjusting the straps and fitting temporary additional straps. We’ve also tried a nylon mesh muzzle – but don’t really like this as it restricts his ability to pant. We need to find a dog proof muzzle. If anyone has a Ember proof solution we’d be very grateful.
My clever girl brings whatever it is with her munching on-route. So instead she’s learnt leave, which works just as well with dropped hot roast potatoes, the Sunday joint or whatever else happens to hit the floor. The sequence is drop it (because she’s usually grabbed it before I’ve spotted it), leave and here and then heel up until we’re past whatever is the temptation, although particularly ‘tasty titbits’ might well lure her back for a second go!