Another frustrating day....I was doing loose-leash walking practice with Astro, he was doing great (focused on me even when a snarly little white dog came yowling by!), and I let him "out" on the line for a sniff/reward. Whereupon he devours a giant chunk of DRYWALL on the sidewalk. I ordered him to drop it, but it was basically already halfway down his throat so he couldn't/wouldn't. I tried to fish it out of his mouth but he'd swallowed it, and in my complete rage, I gave him a collar pop. For literally NOTHING - the drywall was already swallowed, it wasn't a useful correction, it was just pure, unadulterated frustration, taken out on poor Astro.
I just hate myself right now. I feel like I'm failing. It doesn't matter how much "leave it" and "drop it" we master (and he is SO GOOD about it if it's something he can spit out/I catch him before he actually makes contact), there's always some new thing in his gullet. He has loose stool now and I have no idea what it's from - could be from any number of things because of what he picks up on walks. Which makes me feel like a terrible owner.
I'm seriously considering just ordering a traffic/2-3 foot leash and being done with it. But he'd never get to really sniff around, in an already very confined life, and that breaks my heart. But I don't know what else to do, I'm basically on a hairtrigger now when it comes to walks; I spend the whole time feverishly making sure he's not going to swallow that chocolate bar on the ground, that broken glass from a beer bottle, that splintered wood, that cooked chicken wing....worst of all, it's making me make his resource guarding worse, because every so often I react so poorly/angrily and try to snatch things away from him, rather than trade with him. I don't know why I get angry with him for being a dog and following his nose, I think I'm just so overwhelmed by the entire process (and if I were to vent to anyone in real life, they'd tell me he's spoiled anyway for getting positive-centered training and that challenging him is a good thing). ERRRRRRRRRRGH