A.J. will eat almost anything. I’ve tried to teach him not to just grab anything that hits the ground. This works in the house. If we’re in the kitchen and I drop something, he’ll wait a moment and make sure it’s okay with me before he picks it up and eats it. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work when we’re out on a walk. I spend a good portion of time on every walk saying “Leave it!” or “Drop!” Both of these commands work at home. On a walk, they both seem to mean “Grab it and swallow, quick!” (This, of course, leads to all sorts of lovely consequences.)

There are a couple of things we’ve dropped in the kitchen that A.J. hasn’t been at all interested in. One is cherry tomatoes. He’ll pick one up then spit it out, pick it up and spit it out, but he doesn’t believe it’s food and won’t eat it. The other is lettuce. Same thing, he’ll pick it up and spit it out, but it’s not food, he’s not eating it.

The other day we were walking along and I saw something on the sidewalk that A.J. started to lunge for. I pulled him back saying “Leave it!” Then I realized the thing on the ground was lettuce. Knowing he doesn’t eat lettuce I said, “Oh, okay,” and continued walking. A.J. pounced on the lettuce and ate it.

Apparently even lettuce tastes good when it’s been out rotting on the sidewalk.