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Permalink Reply by Sarah Phillips on July 28, 2010 at 9:47pm

This is why I crate trained my dog. Apparently she stole a corn on the cob off the barbeque side table a couple days ago. She's only a 15lb dog but she has long legs and can reach many, many things.

An interesting story about this type of thing, my parents have 2 dogs, my childhood family dog, and a standard poodle they aquired before I moved out for college. Ginger (little Shih-tzu) knows how to push doors open if they are left open a teeny bit, not surprising as it's not hard to do. Sasha (big Standard Poodle) doesn't really bother with doors. Here's the funny story, Ginger has been known to open the door to the laundry room (also serves as a pantry for snack foods and such and a room that Sasha is absolutely NOT ALLOWED TO GO IN) and then sit back and watch Sasha go into the room. Of course once he goes into that room someone inevitably notices and he gets in trouble. Ginger has no reason to go in there as she can't reach anything but Sasha can reach just about EVERYTHING in that room.

Ginger has always been a wry dog though, we found out that she could get on the table and eat our dinner if one chair was left out. She did it once when someone came to the door during dinner and the whole family left to see who was there... little teeny tiny Ginger hopped up on a chair and then onto the table and proceeded to eat what she wanted from ALL of our plates. She even taught this trick to my grandma's dog when my grandma was watching Ginger while we sold our house.

Permalink Reply by Sarah Phillips on July 29, 2010 at 1:01pm

Oh that she is. Unfortunately she's like 14 years old and is senile. Really, she's been diagnosed with doggy dementia. It's sad seeing her be so scared and anxious at night that she won't sleep and going to the bathroom in the house all the time. She has meds that help her some, at least with the sleeping. She also has cataracts and low vision due to cataracts, my sister also thinks she's losing her hearing slightly.

Permalink Reply by Sarah Phillips on July 31, 2010 at 10:53am

She doesn't live with me, she lives with my parents and my little sister. I know, at teh very least, my sister will be good to her. My sister is trying to become a vet tech.

Permalink Reply by Brooke Bender on August 26, 2010 at 1:22am

I remember that Animal Planet show! It was super cute. Wasn't that the same one where the dog arranged his toys to form shapes and patterns? And the wolf guy!That was cool.

I think people do not give animals enough credit when it comes to mental capacity. Yes, we humans are very sophisticated, but dogs are no dummies either. All animals brains are different and understand different things, um, differently? They've lived with us for thousands of years, so a bit of understanding how we work must have occurred.

Permalink Reply by Gwen F. Blunt on August 10, 2010 at 4:12pm

Wow, stealing food has NEVER been an issue for my chow-shepherd mix. I don't know if it's the freaky chow in Maggie or what, but you practically have to BEG this dog to eat! She prefers to eat while lying underneath the breakfast nook bench, and if you make the mistake of putting her food somewhere inconvenient for her, she'll just give you a pointed look, leave the food untouched, and go lie down where SHE wants to eat! And this is a CHUBBY dog! Another of Maggie's favorite food tricks is to ignore her food...until her greedy lab-mix sister Fern is all done eating. Maggie LOVES having Fern as an audience, lying down a few inches away from Maggie (yet looking away politely) and hoping Maggie walks away. Of course, that's when Maggie gets the most interested in her food - when Fern wants it!

Because she appears so reluctant to eat, my dad worries about her and is often treks up to her "den" (really a dog bed in her favorite closet) to coax her out and beg her to eat a little treat! This man used to make "second breakfast" (about an hour after their regular doggie kibble breakfast) for both dogs on a regular basis - toast and oatmeal with a splash of maple syrup. And he'd make the oatmeal for the dogs even if he wasn't making it for himself!! Oh, those dogs have Grampa wrapped around their little paws!

Even biscuits and special dog treats are taken somewhat grudgingly by Miss Maggie. She'll sit for a biscuit but then will barely open her mouth to take the treat, forcing you to kind of push the biscuit in between her teeth so it won't just fall back out. And after we've had to shove the biscuit in her mouth, she always gives a look that says "That's not very good manners, you know," and walks away to find just the right spot to curl up with her treat. Oooooh, she's a crazy, freaky, contradictory dog!! And I love her and her quirks to pieces!!

**Fern (the lab mix), is a total food hound. She never steals food, but is always underfoot when we're cooking and under the table at dinnertime, just waiting to gobble up whatever falls. She sticks to Grampa like glue because he tends to drop the most food. In fact, she just eats off his napkin in his lap most times! (And Grampa's not even that old or senile - just a messy eater, much to Fern's delight!)

Permalink Reply by Gwen F. Blunt on August 13, 2010 at 6:09pm

Sounds like Toby's preferred eating place happened to be carpeting...and his human didn't realize that it's bad table (uh, carpet?) manners to eat off a dusty floor! Toby sounds like he was a hoot. My girls will once in a while take a mouthful of food to the carpet in the living room to eat, but they never care about recent vacuuming. I guess their manners aren't as refined as Toby's were!

Okay, explain this one to me. How can a dog get SO excited about certain foods (PB sandwiches, cookies, pasta - just to name a few) and yet still eat disGUSTING things? How can a dog who has just eaten a helping of her favorite spaghetti turn around and go out back in search of a morsel of POOP for dessert?!? WHY, oh WHY do that DO that?!? Lately Fern and Maggie have been biting at the earth in the backyard in two spots. They'll come in with dirt and bits of grass in their teeth and on their chinny-chin-chins - looking all innocent, not knowing the evidence is on their faces. I think maybe there are some insects or grubs or something gross down under the soil that they want, but I haven't yet been able to determine that for sure. But they KNOW I'm a sucker and will fork over a treat if they make the sad/hopeful face. It's so EASY for them to get a treat, yet they seem to prefer to go dig for grubs or find a tasty bit of stool! Aaarrrggghhhh!!!!!!

Permalink Reply by Gwen F. Blunt on August 17, 2010 at 7:48am

Thanks for the advice, Jean Marie. Yeah, Fern actually does know "leave it" and is all-around a slightly meek, sweet dog who minds and obeys commands about 95% of the time. For a long while the only poop she'd stalk was frozen - winter "poopsicles"! But this summer she's tried morsels of the nonfrozen stuff as well. So gross! I've tried Forbid and meat tenderizer on her food - didn't help. I clean up the yard daily at a minimum and whenever I see her actually poop. And she eats a very nutritious, healthy diet. She just likes poop! But I think I'll try to train her with the clicker.

Last week I walked out to the back yard with her to pick some flowers. She veered off to do her own thing...which, as it turned out, was picking out a nice little ball of poop for a treat. When I saw her settling down with her morsel of poop (she'd brought it to the non-potty side of the yard to eat) I said "Fern, LEAVE IT!" very sternly. And then she looked up at me, lazily blinking, with the poop between her paws - and the look on her face said "There's no need to be jealous, you know. There's enough for you, too!" I couldn't help myself! I just burst out laughing while at the same time trying to shoo her away from the poop! Oh well - I keep a doggie toothbrush and some mouthwash by the back door for these unfortunate moments.

**Maggie (chow-shepherd mix) has only once showed an interest in poop. A few years ago we were on a walk and heading home when she found a long, skinny piece of poop in the corner of someone's front yard. She slowly leaned down, pulled back her lips, and daintily picked it up by one end with her front teeth. She looked around at me as if questioning whether she was doing the right thing. I shouted "Leave it!" and she looked slightly abashed. She slowly lowered her head and very carefully deposited the poop on the sidewalk. Such a good girl! I just about pissed myself laughing at her! Maggie looked so funny with her lips drawn back when she picked it up - as if she didn't want to get dirty. (I think she was overlooking the fact that she had FECES held in her TEETH, though!!)

Permalink Reply by Sarah Phillips on August 19, 2010 at 12:18am

Do you put the stuff in both dogs food? My parents standard poodle eats poop (and is thus muzzled when he's outside unattended) but he NEVER eats his own.

Permalink Reply by Gwen F. Blunt on August 19, 2010 at 10:22am

Yeah, I did put the stuff in both dogs' food. Still didn't work. And Fern never eats dog poop outside her backyard - never at the park where there are plenty of nests of barker's eggs to choose from! So I don't know if she was eating her own or Maggie's. (Though deer scat is another issue entirely. Both dogs enthusiastically chow down if they find some at the park. They get so excited about it - like they've stumbled upon a free pile of candy!! I do stop them, but usually they've managed to eat a mouthful first. Somehow I don't find that as disgusting. Maybe because deer shit isn't as rank with them being herbivores?)

Permalink Reply by Sarah Phillips on August 19, 2010 at 12:20am

My sister bought a clicker set years ago to use on Ginger, it came with a book of easy but not average tricks to teach dogs (Ie, teach them to give kisses when asked "do you love me?") but she could never use the clicker with Ginger because the poor dog is TERRIFIED of it. My sister started clicking it and Ginger would bark then run and hide.

Permalink Reply by Sarah Phillips on August 19, 2010 at 12:16am

Usually Lulu eats her dinner in her crate but I'm dog sitting for my parents and Lulu is staying at their house with me so I feed her in a room by herself. I've been watching her eat and she's interesting to watc. She'll grab a mouthful, drop it on the floor then eat it piece by piece. Sometimes she drops it right next to her bowl to eat and other times she carries it a few steps away and eats, rarely the same place twice in a row. Once she even took out a mouthful, dropped it beside her bowl, then grabbed another mouthful and dropped it with the first, then grabbed a third and dropped it in the same place before she started eating the food.

The first time I ever fed her out of her crate, or tried to (months ago) instead of eating the food she tried to bury it around my old bedroom. That time I had to stick her in her crate to eat because I didn't want my mom to be constantly cleaning up dog food after we left after our visit.

PS. I feel I should explain why she eats in her crate all the time. I have 2 cats and one of them likes to steal food from people and doesn't seem to particularly care what the food is. I get concerned about the safety of both my dog and my cats when there is food involved because the cats are almost the same size as Lulu (little smaller, but still formidable animals) and I don't want to see Jynx try to eat Lulu's food and having someone get upset at the other. The cat's food isn't an issue because it's up out of Lulu's reach.

Permalink Reply by Sarah Phillips on August 29, 2010 at 8:19am

Lulu doesn't usually go in hers when she doesn't have to. She prefers to lie down or play where we are but when we're not home or she won't settle down at night that's when she goes in.