Oh my god. I'm starting to fucking HATE walking this dog. He eats off the ground the entire time we're walking.

I want to thank everyone for their input. I also want to clarify one more thing, that is, i train my puppy very regularly. We train every day. Now i'd just give myself a slap for focusing on silly tricks rather than a good training foundation. He is a good learner. I've just got to control myself better and not rant on reddit every time i get frustrated. So no, this dog isn't some kind of wild, completely untrained animal. I did write this after having a harder day, and the fact that he was offleash (and got the opportunity to do stuff he isn't supposed to) when he shouldn't have been in the first place didn't help it. I'm a percectionist in many things, so i can get caught up on details and then get also frustrated about these, pouring oil into the fire. A good thing is, I now know that my dog shouldn't be offleash until we've learned what we need. But i wanted to assure you that we are working. And that even though we're far from perfect, i would say we're on the right track. Just gotta not try and train when I'm angry. His responsiveness has worsened outside recently, but we will keep working.

Please read at least edit 3 in addition to the original post. I was very annoyed after a hard day while writing this. The edits clarify some stuff.

Why does this dog (a 9 month old sheltie) have to eat EVERYTHING?! I used to enjoy our walks in the forest. Today, he managed to eat THREE pieces of crap. Everyone says you should give your dog offleash time, but HOW CAN I? He eats EVERYTHING. I take my eyes off him for 3 seconds, he's got something in his mouth ALREADY. HE DOES NOT LISTEN. OH GOD, I TRIED TO CALL HIM OFF THE FIRST SHIT 2 TIMES, I WAS LIKE HALF A METER AWAY FROM HIM, HE CONTINUES TO EAT IT. I'm starting to hate this. We've been working on leave it for MONTHS. And STILL it's not consistent. And now it's like he COMPLETELY FORGOT what it means. I know i need to calm down, but i JUST wanted to enjoy a nice walk with him. I no longer know what to do. Some people say let them dog, other people say you have to micromanage until they're consistent. I want him to be free. When he's not offleash, i feel like he's not getting the exercise and enrichment he should. That he doesn't get to be a proper dog. But this makes me SO furious. I'm so tired and disappointed...

EDIT: My dog is always on a long line, and he is muzzle trained. Anytime he's been offleash, it's been with a long line, and only in areas he's reliable with his recall. He's recently gotten a lot better with not eating stuff off the ground, these past few days though... yeah. Thank you everyone for your input. We'll be putting the muzzle back on + I'll lead him on a leash/long line from now on everywhere. I think i didn't clarify before, but he usually has 9/10, i'd like to believe 10/10 times recall. Looks like he's not ready for this kind of freedom though. We'll keep working.

EDIT 2: It's dog poop left here by other dog owners who don't pick it up. Also, just wanted to say, i never wanted to be seen as an irresponsible dog owner, there are no other dogs, or animals around in the forest I'm sure of that, that's why I let him go with a long line recently. I do see my mistake though and want to thank you for the reality check. I dunno what happened to me. I used to know this stuff... I just wanted to apologize for being a jerk, and hope, that this didn't drastically reduce your view of me 😪

EDIT 3: In case you haven't read the other edits. He is muzzle trained, but we recently stopped using the muzzle on walks when he got better, we are working on stuff like recall every day. Anytime he's been offleash, it has been on long line. We're putting the muzzle back on, and we're going back to on leash. Thank you for correcting me. And i mean this genuinely. I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to my puppy. He means the world to me. Looking back, i don't know what i'd been doing...