. . . in the distant, early morning . . .

Milton’s Miraculous Progress

Today I needed to raise the criteria for Milton’s food aggression training. Doing what we’ve been doing is great.  I can now full on pet him, move his bowl around, put my hand in his bowl, walk away and come back, without any tension.

So he needed more of a challenge - and I don’t mean “challenging his domination” because I don’t believe in that bullshit.  I meant i needed to challenge his brain - give him something new to learn.

What could that possibly be?  Why: removing his food bowl while he ate.

Now, this isn’t something I recommend to anyone else - it was dangerous, it could have been a huge set back in our training.  But I have a good feel for his warning signs and his emotional state, as it were, so I felt comfortable doing this.

First I grabbed the bowl and moved it away from him toward me while adding more food to his bowl.  Fine.

Then I lifted the bowl and put it down while adding more food.  Fine.

Then I tried to take the bowl away - but he was almost literally attached to the bowl.  I finally figured this part out.  I picked up the bowl, then dropped it quickly and removed it.

At the same time I had a huge chunk of boiled hamburger - no rice - in my hand.  The second I got the bowl from him I immediately started giving him small bits of this pure hamburger.  Then I gave him back the bowl.

Success!

We did this 6 more times.  On the 5th and 6th time he simply turned his head and started eating from my other hand, then sat down and waited for me to return the bowl to the floor.  I did.

What am I teaching Milton with this?

I’m teaching him that I can remove the bowl, that he’s going to get a huge, yummy reward for it, and he’s going to get the bowl back.

You could see that last, italicized part click on the 5th try when he voluntarily moved his head away from the bowl to my hand when I lifted it and began to remove it.  This behavior - voluntarily removing himself from his bowl while it still has food - is exactly the behavior I want.

Now, in an ideal world I would be feeding him kibble for this exercise, and I would be baiting him away form the kibble with something delicious - like boiled chicken or hamburger, or hot dog or cheese.  But here’s the thing: he’s on a bland diet while we work out his stomach issues.  What can he eat? Boiled hamburger and rice.  So - I’ve had to be creative on our trades while I work through this. 

In that ideal world I’d never actually remove the bowl before he took his head away from it. 

But we are not in an ideal world, at least not with his food options.  So I took what I thought was a small risk in order to teach him the behavior I needed.  It worked.  He never so much as tensed up or even flicked his tail when I removed the bowl.  He trusts me.  I always gave him a huge reward and the bowl back, so he never questioned that trust.

On top of all of this, our food training sessions have really bonded Milton and I.  I didn’t feel that bond at first - I just loved him quite a lot and wanted him around.  But I didn’t feel like he and I were working together.  Because he’s getting a lot of training (recall, sit, drop, beg, some spin and twist) with his food, as well as teaching him to trust me with it, we’ve really come a long way with that bond.

And he’s still a baby.

I’m inordinately proud of Milton.  In an extremely short time he has come completely around with his food issues.  This can be really hard for a dog, but Milton’s a smart, happy guy and he learned this extremely quickly.

I’m so happy I kept him.  Even with the food aggression, the fence-line issues, and the ongoing GI irritation.  He’s a wonderful dog and he was definitely the right dog for my little family.

-Lisa, on May 6, 2010 at 4:45 pm

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