Cures for a food obsession

[Caro]

Had a chat with the obedience club secretary last night about Deska's test and the food problem. She also had probs with the food bowl in the arena and her dog competes! She suggested doing obedience training with a bowl of food sitting nearby and once he has learnt to ignore it (if ever) to take a food bowl to other settings and practice obedience and focusing, then progress to leaving food on the ground. So I am going to go back to classes and try to do them with a food bowl nearby (and too bad for the other dogs in the class).

Maybe if I can get him to ignore food he might one day ignore cars and bikes. At any rate, I must put the dog run back up in case someone throws something over the fence. The authorities are not sure if the poison was dropped in yards or eaten on walks and are suggesting dogs be kept inside all day. But that is really difficult - they may never catch the crazy.

 

[romeosangiovese]

I just tried working with Romeo with a handful of treats very obviously scattered on the floor. Romeo kept looking at it but would still work tho' when we neared the pile of treats, it was as if there is an invisible electric fence around it! He absolutely won't go near it! It's as if he knows his tolerance level (about half a metre all around the treats) coz when I did coax him past that boundary he went straight for the treat! Hilarious.