Good Dog, Happy Baby: Preparing Your Dog for the Arrival of Your Child

Author:Michael Wombacher [Wombacher, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New World Library
Published: 2015-05-10T22:00:00+00:00

From outside your dog’s reaction zone, toss her a treat while she’s eating.

As she gets more comfortable with this, move closer. Take your time and don’t rush it.

Continue until you can stand next to her and touch her while dropping treats in the dish.

Keep in mind that in real life, getting from the first of these photos to the third could take a few weeks.

This brings you to the next exercise: actually taking the bowl away from the dog. There are two approaches you can use here, and which one you choose will be a field decision you’ll have to make based on your intuition and observations. If you feel that you can safely reach in and grab your dog’s dish without creating a response, go ahead and do so. Quickly place a yummy treat (like cheese or chicken or meat — something he never sees at any other time) on top of the dog’s food and immediately return it to him. The key word here is immediately. Make this quick, and don’t give him obedience commands. This is not about showing him who’s boss. It’s about building trust.

If you don’t feel good about this, you’ll have to start at a more basic level. Sit on the floor with two bowls in your possession: an empty one, and one with his meal in it. With the bowls on one side of you and your dog on the other, take a handful of food out of the full dish, place it in the empty one, and hold it in front of your dog. Do not let go of the dish! Continue to hold on to it while the dog is eating, and when he’s through pull the dish away and place another handful of food in it. Then, repeat the procedure. This will get your dog used to the idea that your hand is near his dish often, and that when your hand removes his dish it will momentarily return it with more food. In other words, your removal of the dish is a prelude to more food, not to losing a valued resource.

When you’ve arrived at this point, you are ready for the next step. Put several handfuls of food in your dog’s dish, and then take it away from him before he’s finished, placing a delicious treat on top of it and promptly returning it to him. Let him empty the bowl, and then repeat this procedure until he is totally comfortable with it. Only when your dog is habituated to this routine and has no problem with it should you take your hand off the food dish — just momentarily. Then reach in again and repeat the procedure. Gradually increase the time you leave your hand off the dish before reaching in to take it again. By the time you get to this point, your dog will have watched you take his dish away so many times that it simply won’t matter to him anymore. This, of course, is the whole idea.

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