I need to vent a little

Silaria said:
I know this is just a stage and it will eventually pass. Trust me, I know in my head what needs to be done but DANG IT! it's so hard to do so my head fights with my heart.

The training aspect also gets me because I don't want to give him hot dogs and cheese for training treats, things that are super yummy for him, while he won't eat his kibble. I don't want him to learn that if he holds out on his dinner he'll get something better. Hence the I may have to hand feed while training with him. Trust me, if I have to result to ANY level of hand feeding, he's going to WORK for it and not just sit beside me and be handed food. I have rally skills to teach him and agility skills to teach him. I can't stop training him because he won't eat his meals.
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all the boys who I had as puppies got kibble for training- no really good treats until they were over a year and doing well in classes:fl
 
Silaria said:
We told Rachel over the weekend that Keiran's puppy name should have been Monster instead of Rockstar. :lol:
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I believe that name was thrown around but I said you do not want to name a Ch Grizz/Ch Bindi puppy monster! Self filing prophecy and all that. I got enough grief for naming Celtic, Criminal Intent. :lol:
 
Well yesterday afternoon was another I'm not eating my dinner night. So after about 30 minutes his was removed and was dumped into a zip-lock snack bag to be used as training treats at puppy agility later that night. Class was long enough for him to eat all his food (jackpot treating on some things helped) but he had to work for it. He definitely wasn't thrilled with the reward choice but he didn't turn his nose up at it.

This morning we put his food in one of the dispenser toys we have. He pushed the ball around, dumped food on the ground and subsequently ignored it. :rolleyes2: Again, after about 30 minutes I picked up the ball, picked up the spilled food and he doesn't get to eat until dinner tonight.

Before anyone asks why 30 minutes instead of the normal 15-20, it's because that's about how long it takes me/us to either make lunch to take to work or prepare our own dinner at night. It may be a little more than reasonable but it works, especially in the mornings.

I really hope this phase passes quickly. It's going to be very difficult on me to pseudo-starve my puppy. Yes, I know he won't starve himself; it's just difficult to watch.
 
It is difficult to watch! When I went through it with Lacey it was awful. I tried feeding her everything under the sun to get her to eat, and nothing worked. She didn't eat here for almost 3 weeks. I ended up leaving it in her crate with her overnight and that's when she started eating...when the house was quiet and dark. That's what it took. After that, she started eating normally, like nothing was ever wrong. Go figure.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with leaving his food for 30 minutes. It's what works for you that's important. Hang in there!
 
Ann said:
There's absolutely nothing wrong with leaving his food for 30 minutes. It's what works for you that's important. Hang in there!
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It's easier to let him wait until dinner when I'm working at the office. Tomorrow I'm working from home and he becomes a little terror when he's hungry. We learned that lesson on Sunday at the CPE trial when we tried not feeding him after spilling his food in the trailer.

I may need to relocate him and his crate to a completely different area of the house so he can carry on and not disrupt the conference calls I need to be on. Thankfully I have a large enough home that I have that option. I'll see how he behaves then figure out what to do from there.

UGH! Edan was a very easy puppy in comparison. I'll figure it out everyone does. I am VERY grateful to have everyone here to vent to and lean on when it gets tough.
 
Gosh that is really frustrating. On one hand you want your dog to not hold out for the good stuff, but on the other hand you want to motivate him to work during agility, obedience, etc. Will he work for a toy?
 
corbinam said:
Gosh that is really frustrating. On one hand you want your dog to not hold out for the good stuff, but on the other hand you want to motivate him to work during agility, obedience, etc. Will he work for a toy?
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Frustrating is one way to describe it. :wink2:

I have a tug I've been trying to get him interested in during class since it's one with a pouch on the end you can hide treats in. (Thinking for Weave training.) He's not interested. I have other toys in his class bag I can try. Toys are harder to use for rally than agility but, like a typical Sheltie, he does like to see me happy with what he's doing so a highly enthusiastic (definitely not faked) yeah, whoo hoo, whee, or happy yes works to help keep him motivated even with lesser treats. (I learned that last night.)
 
What about a lotus ball? It works really well for Spirit, especially since I can toss it ahead to keep her moving forward and not looking back at me for her reward.
 
I'll have to take a look at that, Cara. Do treats fall out as you throw it or do they have to open it to get any treats? I'd prefer something that doesn't spill treats as it is thrown through the 2x2s.
 
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