I gave Merry a smack on her bottom today - most of you know that I do not believe in smacking dogs, but I am beginning to run out of ideas. Merry lived in kennels up to a month before her sixth birthday, and like most kennel-reared dogs, she does get hyper excited at feeding time. Feeding time is the THE major event in a kennelled dog's day. Though she has always leaped around while their food was being prepared, she did respond to being very firmly told to be Quiet, but lately this has started to develop into demand barking for her food - and she was being particularly noisy today. She is on an almost permanent diet to prevent her from achieving her ambition to become a Beagle Blob - this means that her food is weighed, which tends to slow the prep time a little. She had also been out for exercise in a few inches of snow, which no doubt sharpened her appetite, but the problem is there all the time to some degree. My initial method, (besides the pointed finger and Quiet), was to stop all food preparation and face the wall until 15 seconds after the barking stopped. I may have to do this half a dozen or so times each lunchtime, (she is bouncy but quiet at suppertime), which I find frustrating, and leaves poor Eddie sitting in a pool of drool. She is not learning patience, and her tone is beginning to sound more insistent than excited. Method two was to use Eddie's obedience island, (a little carpeted platform about 2" high), to put her in a Sit/Stay in the middle of the kitchen floor. This does work reasonably well, but when she gets too excited she will break the stay, and I think that this might detrain her otherwise reliable stays. Please, before this progresses any further, does anyone have any other ideas that I can try.
Carole, is there any way you can prepare her food beforehand, when she does not see you do it? Incidentally please do not feel bad about giving her a little wop on her bott - I have on [very very very] rare occasions given Tikki a little wop on her nose when she would not give me my hand back!
@CaroleC sounds like she carries a bit of dominance in her character and she's testing you to see if you'll give in...dominance does test your patience and for regarding smacking her bottom I've done it myself, as a vet told me it's the right place if your correcting your dog. I used to weigh Bruno's food 200g daily as he went to 27kg being on steroids for his prostrate trouble and he was underneath a dietician and what I did as he wanted food like Merry...I split it 100g of a dinner time and the rest at 5pm.
Have you tried preparing their food in advance, at different times during the day then put it away for later on when it is actually meal time, that way you could give it to them immediately before she starts to bark. Or Leaving them in another room when preparing food.
This monster can even detect which jar I am moving in the kitchen, when she is in the living room. In a bungalow you can't do anything in secret! I do think I make too much of their feeding routine - they have their veggie and turmeric soup, and meat with their kibble too. I'm sure that if I just stuck a dish of kibble down, I could get away with it. That is probably why she isn't as bad at suppertime - no meat, or supplements, less prep time. Shut in another room, she will scratch a door for food, but true enough, she would respond much better to Wait! than to Quiet! Definitely one to think about. Merry tries sooo hard to please, and is such a lovebug, but I must admit that she IS getting more bossy. She has barked for food or attention at one or two shows lately, and because club shows dish out sausages to the veterans, she expects them at general shows too - especially if she recognises the steward! I also wonder if having her on Propalin for a long time might be a contributory factor, it can have an affect on the nervous system, but it is the only thing that keeps her bed dry! Thanks everyone, you've put my thoughts on a new track.
I have gotten a glimpse of your personality through here Carole. You seem extremely nice. You sorta seem like the type that would let slightly annoying or naughty behavior "slide". Perhaps she is merely taking advantage of that. You know my dog is a fatty. He loves food more than anything else and it would be just as much as your girl. He would try and bombard the bowl while I poured his food and he jumped up and down uncontrollably as soon as he saw his food bag. He just gets a dish of kibble usually with the occasional bowl of chicken or some other raw meat if I can find a sale now and then. He got chicken thighs yesterday actually. He grew to be a big clumsy guy as well so jumping is a no no. I raised my dog from a puppy and so it's different than yours I know, but I don't have to smack him. I raise my voice very sternly and this does the trick. I also don't use one word. He would not respond to a QUIET! No way. But he sure does respond to a nastily (and slowly) spoken SIT DOWN AND BE QUIET RIGHT NOW OR YOU'RE NOT GETTING ANYTHING. I turn his direction and look at him, put down the food, say it... And when I pick up the food, he stays quiet. Beats smacking him.
Can't you make veggie and turmeric soup in batches then freeze it in daily portions,that might save time .
It is in a pan which holds several portions. Kept in the fridge and warmed up if cold weather. Doesn't really take much time. I'm thinking of cutting out their meat though, or maybe giving it as a treat later in the day. Today they had raw beef meatballs, but often it is just a slice of tray food. I am trialling a premium kibble at present, (at £52 a bag I hope it is good!), - Hunters, 80/20 trout, salmon and sweet potato. It could be a bit high in protein, and I really don't think they need meat as well.
Well, must say that day one was a complete success. Not one single bark! I put out the supplements, and weighed their kibble portions as soon as they had eaten their breakfast. (Hardly a breakfast really - a spoonful of yoghurt, sprinkled with a few Rice Krispies - a hangover from the days when Ed was having oatbran and probiotics). All I had to do after their walk was slosh on the Veggie stew, and sprinkle Ed's tablets on the top. Not enough time for M to get overexcited. After they have eaten Eddie always picks up the dishes for me, so I used a slice of Naturo Senior as a reward for this, (both of them). Happy dance and silence! I can't believe it was this easy - or that I couldn't work it out for myself! Of course, being Beagles, they could just be lulling me into a false sense of security ... Thanks all.
Yay - organisation = no over-excitement from Merry! I wish Tikva could be like Eddie and pick her empty bowl up for me, to save me sometimes tipping over and face-planting on the floor, but it is not really a shape that she can get hold of. The little booga will not even pick her toys up but a picker-upper comes in handy for them. No use for a non-tip SS bowl though.
Yes, mine are just U shaped S/S. They do skate around the floor though, so there are plusses and minuses. I noticed that Aldi have some rather swish gilded, hammered -effect ones in stock at the moment. They have a rubber ring glued underneath, but we tried them on the shop floor and a Beag would still be able to scoot them around. It gave me the idea that if we could find some soft rubber or silicone rings, we could possibly glue them under our existing dishes.
Barley always barks when it's time for them to be fed and when I'm putting it in their bowl. If the barking gets too much I shout at him and I say shut up, it works. But they have dried food that i soak in a bit of water. I always weigh it and they have a few pieces when i'm doing it. I don't believe in smacking them they could get aggressive if done a lot. Hope everything turns out alright @CaroleC
