sniffing other dog scent

is its possible to try and stop your german shepard bitch which is 16 month old sniffing every lampost or area were other dog have been and soiled
any help would be appreaited

[super D]

You could teach a solid "leave" command, until she realises that on walks you want to walk and not spend time sniffing.
With mine I would give the command just before they went to sniff, worked for me xxx

trouble is ok on lead its when of lead

[zetstaff]

Why would you want to stop her sniffing + being what she is, a dog ?

xxx

[super D]

Originally Posted by vivaro013

trouble is ok on lead its when of lead

Oh i see, I let mine sniff off lead, after training they get to sniff, pee, play etc , reinforce you leave on lead and in the house etc, then they wil have a solid leave off lead too xx

[Bonniesmummy]

I dont mind the sniffing, its only natural from them to sniff other dogs wee If we are walking on lead and she takes too long over a sniff I tell her 'lets go' and we walk on, seems to work fine for us

[Stuart]

By picking up scent, dogs wee or otherwise,..the dog is only `reading the newspaper` for want of a better discription,.. in a past life, his life may have depended on it, it is just a natural habit, an instint,.. that I doubt you will ever stop,... and I cant understand why you would want to, especialy off lead.

You can control it if you need to get going, with a leave command [ or simular ], but cut out the instintive behaivour completly, ....I doubt it

[pamella]

i wonder at what age they start to do this?Marley is 6 months now and rarely does his toilet out of the garden?
any advice as to how to encourage him would be appreciated please?

[zetstaff]

Originally Posted by pamella

i wonder at what age they start to do this?Marley is 6 months now and rarely does his toilet out of the garden?
any advice as to how to encourage him would be appreciated please?

Awww bless

It took ages for both mine to wee + poo on their walk, Boris would make it home cross legged + then go in the garden

If he does anything on his walk really praise him, bit like general toilet training, he'll soon get the hang of it xx

[Jude]

I agree with Stuart here - part of the pleasure a dog gets from walking is being able to be a dog - i.e. sniff and read the signs.

Young dogs will only relieve themselves where they feel comfortable and it is not natural for a young dog to leave signs (that predators could find), hence the waiting to get back onto home territory before going. Once they get more confident they will not be so worried. At 16 months Kira will still only go in familiar places that we have been to before on a regular basis (unless she is absolutely desperate).