Hi
I have just come back from the park where a really scary thing happened.  Some of you who have read my earlier posts will know that I am having difficulty getting my lab to leave things alone when we are out.  She has a huge love of sticks and at every opportunity I try to take them away from her or prevent her from getting one.  Once she gets one she lies down with it and practically devours the whole thing which I am not happy about at all.
Today in the park I did not even see her grab a tiny stick, she started to cry and began pawing at her face.  I did not know what was wrong but the look of sheer panic in her eyes terrified me.  Luckily a friend of mine was walking her dog at the time also and she helped me to open my dogs mouth where we saw that a tiny stick was lodged across the roof of her mouth and of course she could not unlodge it.  It was terrible she would not open her mouth and would not keep still and she vomited from the shock, also there was some blood.  Eventually we managed to get her mouth open and my friend pulled out the stick.  I have never been so scared in my life.  I took her straight home where she drank lots of water.  She seems fine now although a little subdued and is sleeping in her bed.  I have checked her mouth and it seems to be fine but she does have a cut across the top of one of her large teeth.  I hope this cut will heal it is really more like a scratch. I will monitor her today to see how she is and if she eats anything later.
I just wanted to post this for people who let their dogs play with sticks so that they see how dangerous sticks can be no matter what size they are and I also wondered if something like this had happend to any other readers with their dogs and if they were all ok afterwards.
Best wishes
Van

I know a lot of people disagree with me but this is the very reason I practise taking things away from my dogs. You just never know when you might have to! I never tease the puppy, I just open it's mouth, take whatever's in there out, say, "Oh, that's all right love!" and give it back. Later, when she's got use to that, I'll take something and say, "Oh sorry love, you can't have that!" and do not give it back. But I only rarely take a thing away without giving it back and never until the dog has got use to giving me things.

Train it as an exercise just like any other exercise. I even do it with food! I've had dogs pick chicken wing bones, dumped with the remains of a takeaway when out walking. My dog's know I'm no threat to them and are not going to take anything which they can safely have.

Regards, John

One of my bitches, Kali, was always doing this. And no I didn't let her have sticks, and yes, she was trained to give straight away, which she always did. It is a terrifying thing to happen. I only had to take her to the vets once, when I couldn't remove the stick myself. They had to use tweezers in the end. Though the vet did say that if he couldn't remove it that last time he was going to have to knock her out. The mouth will be sore for a while, but they recover quickly. Do you have any arnica you can give, as this helps reduce any bruising. Keep an eny out just in case there was any splinters.

By the way, Kali lived until she was 12, eventually dying of cancer. We had stick problems right up to the end ;)

Just be careful because I saw a dog injured with a stick once.  He retrieved a stick from above, yelped in pain and it was only later when he went into shock that we realised serious damaged had been done.  A visit to the vet revealed a 7cm gash at the back of the throat that could only be seen under anaesthetic.  He needed some expensive surgery to put it right.

I have opened my big mouth several times when I have seen people throwing sticks for their dogs!

I hope it all turns out OK.