Chowder's Notepad

Highly food motivated

1. Carrots. As soon as you begin to peel a carrot, HRH will appear by your feet. It doesn't matter what he was doing. He knows the sound of that peeler doing it's thing. And he wants in on the action. We've got him trained now to lay down at the edge of the kitchen floor when he hears the carrot peeler. He know's he'll get a little something for his obedience.
2. Olive oil. I was filling my oil bottle and made a M-E-S-S of myself. I had it all over the counter, my hands, and a little in the bottle. HRH was watching and licking his chops like crazy. So I thought "Why not. We give him vegetable oil on occasion. It supposed to be good for his skin & coat. Olive are vegetables..." So once I finished filling the bottle, I called him over and presented my hands. Yep. He licked it all up. You would have thought he'd never eaten before. You would have though it was steak.
3. Gravy. Last night we made a roast. I made gravy from the marrinade & juices. We had extra gravy, so HC decided he needed a special treat with his dried food. HRH damn near licked a hole through his bowl. Again, like he'd never eaten before.

Yeah he's spoiled. But you know what? When I take him to dog park to get his run on, I see many dogs and their level of obedience varies wildly. For all his unrullyness, HRH is a pretty obedient dog. Most times I can call him and he'll stop what he's doing and come as commanded. There are plenty of dogs at dog park that are oblivious to commands.

True. It's taken nearly a year and a half of almost daily work to get him to this point but it's been worth it. He listens and understands what we want of him. And yes, the promise of a potential treat doesn't hurt either!

Labels: HRH

posted by ChowderHead @ 2/01/2007 08:05:00 PM