Dog Troubles
Lately we have been having problems with our dog that are not related to his health, at least I don't think so.
He's been just incredibly terrible about begging.
The trick is, we don't give him people food, ever. His one exception to the rule is Popcorn, and anyone that has seen my dog around a bag of popcorn knows that he knows this, and sees why we don't give him any other people food. He's terrible! Even with popcorn we don't share that much any more, he only gets a few pieces if that.
Lately he's been real bad, though. He'll go browsing in the kitchen, when he knows he's not allowed in there. He'll come right up to you while you're eating and try to stick his nose in your food. If he's chased away from the kitchen or from someone's food, he goes over to his own food bowl and eats that instead.
We decided yesterday that Reo's eating his own food is probably one of two things: either he's pretending it's the food he WANTS to be eating, or he is using it to "reward" himself for his bad behaviors.
So yesterday started a new daily routine for our dog. One, we moved the food away from the kitchen. It used to be on the far wall in the dining area, on the linoleum. I moved it across the living room, to next to the garage door. Additionally, his food is NOT present when other household members are eating. This includes the cat. If the cat's eating his wet food, the dog doesn't get his food yet.
He seems pretty bummed out this morning that he hasn't had his food yet, but his rotten behavior has got to stop. It's just in the past two to three months that he's really been bad about this for some reason... no clue why. Hopefully he'll get over it and start behaving himself again.
He's been just incredibly terrible about begging.
The trick is, we don't give him people food, ever. His one exception to the rule is Popcorn, and anyone that has seen my dog around a bag of popcorn knows that he knows this, and sees why we don't give him any other people food. He's terrible! Even with popcorn we don't share that much any more, he only gets a few pieces if that.
Lately he's been real bad, though. He'll go browsing in the kitchen, when he knows he's not allowed in there. He'll come right up to you while you're eating and try to stick his nose in your food. If he's chased away from the kitchen or from someone's food, he goes over to his own food bowl and eats that instead.
We decided yesterday that Reo's eating his own food is probably one of two things: either he's pretending it's the food he WANTS to be eating, or he is using it to "reward" himself for his bad behaviors.
So yesterday started a new daily routine for our dog. One, we moved the food away from the kitchen. It used to be on the far wall in the dining area, on the linoleum. I moved it across the living room, to next to the garage door. Additionally, his food is NOT present when other household members are eating. This includes the cat. If the cat's eating his wet food, the dog doesn't get his food yet.
He seems pretty bummed out this morning that he hasn't had his food yet, but his rotten behavior has got to stop. It's just in the past two to three months that he's really been bad about this for some reason... no clue why. Hopefully he'll get over it and start behaving himself again.