The First Week
For the week prior to registration closing for the Training Academy there were numerous pre-course videos giving us some basics to get started, theory to help us understand how our dogs brain works, how and why the games and strategies work. Some stuff I knew, read about it somewhere else etc. whilst other stuff was a complete revelation. Like everything new some ideas were met with excitement and others with reservations.
First up, Ditching the Bowl! The science behind it makes perfect sense. Dogs naturally value things that they have to work for more than stuff that is freely available. In the wild wolves, or any other animal for that matter, put a high value on food. Food can be scarce, it has to be worked for. For our own convenience, and perhaps partly because we transfer some of our human emotions and values to our dogs, we put their food in a bowl and put it in front of them with a great feeling of satisfaction twice a day and we walk away feeling like we are the very best humans for out dogs. My hubby is always complaining that the dog gets treated better, and FED better, than he is! Certainly Lucky Dog often seemed to be able to take it or leave it! On reflection there have been times when he has been so wanting to go for a walk, or senses that we are going for a car ride he would walk away from the bowl and eat it upon his return.
So you think the decision to ditch the bowl would be easy right? Wrong! All those little doubts that you get when faced with a different choice crept in. What if he's hungry? He's a creature of habit, if I don't put his food down at the times I normally put food down will he worry for it and become a total pain in the butt? Even if I measure it out to ensure that he gets his full quota will I be able to find enough reward opportunities/have time do enough 'training' to make sure he eats it all? Oh and supplements! What about those? Someone on the Facebook Page suggested stuffing a kong with it. Problem solved again! I could see that he had eaten it all by checking the inside, no mess, added bonus he took it on his bed and laid quietly enjoying it while I had my coffee!
As for not getting through his quota ... after his morning walk with lots of rewarding for eye contact, coming to heel/checking in without being asked, a bit of magic hand game, half the breakfast bowl gone! Mid morning, ten minutes outside playing the 'attention noise' game and the orientation game and the other half was duly dispatched with! Did he pester come five o'clock? Nope! The only thing he asked for was his bed time biscuit. Our bedtime routine has always been - outside for the toilet, back in for a biscuit to take on his bed, then in to us for ten minutes or so snuggled whilst we read then Lights Out and off he goes back to his own bed! That hasn't changed ... and I really don't want it to.
Did ditching the bowl make a difference to training? Honestly? I'm really not sure. Lucky is, and always has been, VERY food motivated. He has never been known to pass up a treat. NEVER! However, by using his entire food allowance for the day as rewards instead of eating it out of a bowl and then being fed Lord knows how many more calories in treat rewards he should remain at a steady weight at least. Having said that I do find that whereas he would often leave his breakfast untouched, sometimes until hubby got home from work at three thirty, he was eager to eat the kibble when used as rewards or scattered on the floor/deck/grass. So I would conclude from that that even though he has a high food drive naturally his boring kibble just went up a notch in value for sure!
First up, Ditching the Bowl! The science behind it makes perfect sense. Dogs naturally value things that they have to work for more than stuff that is freely available. In the wild wolves, or any other animal for that matter, put a high value on food. Food can be scarce, it has to be worked for. For our own convenience, and perhaps partly because we transfer some of our human emotions and values to our dogs, we put their food in a bowl and put it in front of them with a great feeling of satisfaction twice a day and we walk away feeling like we are the very best humans for out dogs. My hubby is always complaining that the dog gets treated better, and FED better, than he is! Certainly Lucky Dog often seemed to be able to take it or leave it! On reflection there have been times when he has been so wanting to go for a walk, or senses that we are going for a car ride he would walk away from the bowl and eat it upon his return.
So you think the decision to ditch the bowl would be easy right? Wrong! All those little doubts that you get when faced with a different choice crept in. What if he's hungry? He's a creature of habit, if I don't put his food down at the times I normally put food down will he worry for it and become a total pain in the butt? Even if I measure it out to ensure that he gets his full quota will I be able to find enough reward opportunities/have time do enough 'training' to make sure he eats it all? Oh and supplements! What about those? Someone on the Facebook Page suggested stuffing a kong with it. Problem solved again! I could see that he had eaten it all by checking the inside, no mess, added bonus he took it on his bed and laid quietly enjoying it while I had my coffee!
As for not getting through his quota ... after his morning walk with lots of rewarding for eye contact, coming to heel/checking in without being asked, a bit of magic hand game, half the breakfast bowl gone! Mid morning, ten minutes outside playing the 'attention noise' game and the orientation game and the other half was duly dispatched with! Did he pester come five o'clock? Nope! The only thing he asked for was his bed time biscuit. Our bedtime routine has always been - outside for the toilet, back in for a biscuit to take on his bed, then in to us for ten minutes or so snuggled whilst we read then Lights Out and off he goes back to his own bed! That hasn't changed ... and I really don't want it to.
Did ditching the bowl make a difference to training? Honestly? I'm really not sure. Lucky is, and always has been, VERY food motivated. He has never been known to pass up a treat. NEVER! However, by using his entire food allowance for the day as rewards instead of eating it out of a bowl and then being fed Lord knows how many more calories in treat rewards he should remain at a steady weight at least. Having said that I do find that whereas he would often leave his breakfast untouched, sometimes until hubby got home from work at three thirty, he was eager to eat the kibble when used as rewards or scattered on the floor/deck/grass. So I would conclude from that that even though he has a high food drive naturally his boring kibble just went up a notch in value for sure!
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