The Waiting Game

Play the waiting game!

It's day 4 of our 5 days of tips about "is your dog in your face for his grub"

Get your dog in a sit stay, or a down stay positing. Place cookies in front of he or she and make them wait until your say the magic word!

Start easy with 1 cookie and your hand over it. Then take your hand away leaving the cookie vulnerable. Slowly work your way up to lots of cookies in all different places! This is going to teach your puppy some serious patience and stimulate him mentally!

Your dog will cultivate the discipline of waiting... of being patient.  This is  skill that will help keep him calm in excitable moments.

Interrupt meal time!

It's day three of our 5 days of tips about "is your dog in your face for his grub".

Now we're suggesting that you should take your pup's dinner away several times during feeding (but only for a minute or two!).

In the middle of your pup's meal, gently take the bowl of food away. Put it somewhere safe, walk away and pretend like nothing happened! After a minute or two, put it back and let your dog carry on. What you need to do as an owner is make sure your dog understands that you control all the resources in the house (food is an easy one to identify).  Repeating this action reinforces nature’s perspective that one animal is in charge in this pack.  This exercise will help make your dog easy going about meal time.  It’s also a good trick if your dog inhales his food!

Put your hand in his food!!!

Yesterday we posted the first article in a series of 5... Is your dog in your face around food?

Now that your dog is waiting patiently for treats!

Let’s see if we can make mealtime more relaxed.

Next time you go to feed your dog stick your hand right into their dinner!

This might sound weird but this is a great way to keep bad food aggression habits at bay. It's theorized that in nature, animals are naturally wired to eat when they find food. Some might protect it and scarf down as much as they can because they don’t know when their next meal is.  Do these characteristics sound like your dog?  If yes, read on....

So, next time your puppy, or dog is eating pet him or her, touch their face, paws, and ears and literally stick your hand into their bowl! This will not only slow their meal time down, but it will let them know that their food isn't in danger and they can relax while eating it. Remember, start slow. Don’t just start right off the bat with your whole hand, start with the touching and petting and slowly move up to putting your hand in the bowl.