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Food Obsessed


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"Food motivated" is great for training. "Food obsessed" is a different category altogether.

Bella's becoming completely obnoxious about anything that might possibly be edible that she thinks she may get.

 

I'm sure it's a problem we've created since she seems to be getting worse - so how do we stop it?

 

Anything that Bella thinks is remotely edible she gets wound up about. You can crinkle the wrapper on a sponge and she'll wake from a sound sleep and come barrelling into the kitchen. If she thinks you have a treat she will sit/down/sit/down - basically go through any trick she has - in hopes of you giving it to her. She snatched a banana, unpeeled, from someone's hand in an elevator the other day (boy, was that embarressing). She gets so high energy and so wound up if she thinks she's getting something to eat, I'm just waiting for the day when she injures herself or someone else trying to make sure you see her. I took her into the wine store on the corner which always has dog treats and she put her front paws up on the counter to try and get a treat (I didn't let her have one after that).

 

We can say "leave it" if she finds something edible on the ground and she will. She doesn't bother our dinner plates or when we have people over and have hors d'oeuvres on the (low) coffee table. She's never counter-surfed.

 

She does get treats, and occassionally when I'm cooking she'll get a bite of something. Again, here, if I drop something on the floor while cooking, she'll wait until I say "ok" and point to it before she'll eat it, but she'll usually hover and drool while I'm in the kitchen.

 

At about 645 pm, she'll start getting agitated - she usually gets dinner around 7 pm. She'll get up and walk over to her bowl, then walk to the closet where her food is, then back to her bowl, then she'll stand and look at us. She only does this at night, not in the mornings.

 

So, as I said, I'm sure we created the monster - how do we stop the obsession? I'm guessing a good start is to not feed her anything from the kitchen and no treats, just meals?

 

Thanks for any advice -

 

ETA - I know I have grammar issues in this post, sorry :blush

Edited by sarabz

Dave (GLS DeviousDavid) - 6/27/18
Gracie (AMF Saying Grace) - 10/21/12
Bella (KT Britta) - 4/29/05 to 2/13/20

 

 

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Rocket loves all food, but knows that "mine" means that it's mine and he isn't getting any.

 

He also understands "thats all," when he's had his last piece of something, and will walk away. I've never had him snatch anything from anyone, but I haven't had a whole banana to myself in the three years he's been here. :lol

 

We do make him sit for each treat or meal, and he doesn't get anything until he does the sit.

 

Apparently french fries are his new high value treat, because he was not happy when I told him "that's all" after 4 fries the other night. He snapped his jaw at me a few times which I think was a form of greyhound profanity.

 

If I really think about it, his snacks meals etc are pretty much on a routine schedule, so unless the signs are there that something is for him, he often will ignore other happenings with food, like when one of us is cooking.

 

Don't know if any of that actually helps, but he would weigh 100 lbs if he got everything he actually wanted. We do end up saying "mine" and "that's all" quite a bit and it seems to keep things under control.

Edited by Time4ANap
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Camp Broodie. The current home of Mark Kay Mark Jack and Gracie Kiowa Safe Joan.  Always missing my boy Rocket Hi Noon Rocket,  Allie  Phoenix Dynamite, Kate Miss Kate, Starz Under Da Starz, Petunia MW Neptunia, Diva Astar Dashindiva, and LaVida I've Got Life

 

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Guest FastDogsOwnMe

All my dogs are food obsessed, as are most normal racing Greyhounds in the kennel- if a dog doesn't in hale its food we knew it was sick... and they only eat once a day except race days!!!

 

I have some that do get two meals... some that get one. I am thankful to have good eaters!!!!!!!!!! My newest was picky for a while, I hated it. I broke her of it. She is a pig lately.

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I'm ok with her inhaling her OWN food - what I'm trying to get away from is just the obnoxious, will-barge-through-a-closed-door-to-get-at-food attitude.

 

I guess stopping the random treats/snacks is a good first step - if there's not the chance that she's going to randomly get food, then she'll stop expecting that something might be for her?

Dave (GLS DeviousDavid) - 6/27/18
Gracie (AMF Saying Grace) - 10/21/12
Bella (KT Britta) - 4/29/05 to 2/13/20

 

 

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:lol Begging even I'm ok with - it's when she's flinging herself around the room attempting to get in front of me to sit/lie down in hopes of a treat. She's broken glasses jumping over the coffee table :rolleyes: scraped a leg or two banging into a wall, bruised DH and myself by jumping over/onto us because the other has food, etc. Her eyes bug out of her head and she acts like she's never had food before :D

 

Or - is this just normal but seems awful because we're in a tiny apartment? :lol

Edited by sarabz

Dave (GLS DeviousDavid) - 6/27/18
Gracie (AMF Saying Grace) - 10/21/12
Bella (KT Britta) - 4/29/05 to 2/13/20

 

 

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It's no help, I know, but this is one of the things I miss most about my Gabe. He was a chow hound to the core and would plow over old ladies, nuns, and babies (not really!!) to get treats. Every night when he heard me start to clean the kitchen, he'd come tearing in from wherever he was in the house because he knew he could sucker mama into sneaking him some extras.

 

Now, cleaning the kitchen is way too calm and quiet. :weep

Valerie w/ Cash (CashforClunkers) & Lucy (Racing School Dropout)
Missing our gorgeous Miss
Diamond (Shorty's Diamond), sweet boy Gabe (Zared) and Holly (ByGollyItsHolly), who never made it home.

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If it's a relatively new behavior, I'd consider whether she might have a medical issue like worms that's making her more hungry. Are you having any trouble keeping weight on her or have you had to adjust the amount you're feeding?

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Jen, CPDT-KA with Zuri, lab in a greyhound suit, Violet, formerly known as Faith, Skye, the permanent puppy, Cisco, resident cat, and my baby girl Neyla, forever in my heart

"The great thing about science is that you're free to disagree with it, but you'll be wrong."

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Bootsy is food obsessed. He climbs on tables, counters, he opens the pantry when he can, he knows what it means when I say "are you all done" to my son, he leaps up anytime we stand up just in case we are going to the kitchen or going for a walk, and he would murder a small child if he wanted the cookie in its hand.

 

In other words, if there is a fix, I don't have it. :lol

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Christie and Bootsy (Turt McGurt and Gil too)
Loving and missing Argos & Likky, forever and ever.
~Old age means realizing you will never own all the dogs you wanted to. ~

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Guest aowam

I would imagine that cutting back on the treats to very random times (like a couple days worth of gap) would help that. Unfortunately I wouldn't know because my guy is very picky and doesn't even care for treats unless they're hot dogs, chicken jerky or cha lua (a vietnamese thing). I was at a meet and greet and the store has some treats which they offered to him. He took it in his mouth and dropped it immediately. The other greys dove for it at once and he just stood there not caring. >_< For a while I was wondering if his teeth hurt or something. Not that big a fan of crunchy treats.

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If it's a relatively new behavior, I'd consider whether she might have a medical issue like worms that's making her more hungry. Are you having any trouble keeping weight on her or have you had to adjust the amount you're feeding?

 

Nope - we've never had trouble keeping weight on her and it's not a new behavior, I'm just sick of it :P

 

 

 

OK, so really what everyone's telling me is that none of you are any help whatsoever!? :lol Gee, thanks!!!

But yes, I'm thinking that cutting back treats to either none or very predictable times as we've done with meals would help this.

 

Christie, the description of Bootsy is a perfect illustration of Bella's behavior! :rotfl

Dave (GLS DeviousDavid) - 6/27/18
Gracie (AMF Saying Grace) - 10/21/12
Bella (KT Britta) - 4/29/05 to 2/13/20

 

 

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Hm! Yeah, she's getting rewarded for this behavior enough times that it's worth doing, in her mind. You've got such a good handle on "leave it" and "take it". You must know your training stuff fairly well! You can probably wipe it out just by only giving her ANY food when YOU ask her for a behavior, not when she offers one. Ever. Evereverever. It may take awhile to extinguish the crazy begging, but wait out the "extinction burst", and you'll have it! ;)

 

Hang tough! :lol

GT-siggy-spring12.jpg

My Inspirations: Grey Pogo, borzoi Katie, Meep the cat, AND MY BELOVED DH!!!
Missing Rowdy, Coco, Brilly, Happy and Wabi.

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Guest Giselle

If she thinks you have a treat she will sit/down/sit/down - basically go through any trick she has - in hopes of you giving it to her.

This is a problem because...? ;) I'm joking. Be happy that you have such an easily motivated animal! AND it sounds like she's incredibly "biddable". Other than that, yes, Xan is right. Avoid giving food in places you don't want her begging (because this is essentially what it is). Since she has been rewarded in the past for these begging-type behaviors, she'll persist for a little while. Just stick to feeding only at meal times and only during training. If anything, you'll amp up her motivation during training if you can get these begging-type behaviors to go extinct. It's a win-win in the long run!

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take her food obsession and use it. port chester obdience club, located right off of rt 287 in white plains is starting a new semester. mary elizabeth simpson teaches on monday nites, i've know her for close to 20 years and she is FANTASTIC! felix did many, many classes w/ her and her agility work is superb. rent a zip car and go for it! the drive should only be around 40 min. max. i believe the web site is teachrover.com and look for the fine print- a one time $50 discount for rescue dogs! i did all of my basic courses there and 2 rounds of rally-o. it's a very positive professional environment.

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Gosh, I wish Annie Bella LOVED food and it motivated her. Oh she eats her 2 meals a day, and likes her treats, but never ever begs, never pushes her nose where it shouldn't be, never drools just watching me eat, etc. On the occasion I've forgotten to give her a regularly expected treat (such as when we return from our walks), she hangs out for 30 seconds in the kitchen and then goes lays down. Granted, I wouldn't want an extreme the other way, such as your baby, but something in the middle that would help in training her would be real nice. :rolleyes:

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Hopefully this helps. A bit long, sorry about that:

 

When I first adopted Sammi, because of her height, I taught her to lay on her bed while we ate at the table. No treats from the table EVER. If I had something left over, I fed it to her away from the table. Usually her dish, sometimes just one piece I offered her from my hand. **(funny story about this to follow) She was a major counter surfer, keeping food off of the counter and enough NO's! helped curb that to the point I can now be marinating a fat steak and she won't even look at it. I think the egg that I cracked on her nose helped, too :lol I didn't mean to. I was talking to my mom and making something. I was cracking the eggs on the edge of the counter and suddenly one didn't crack... it went thwumpppp. My mom instantly almost pees herself laughing and I look down at Sammi who now has egg yolk dripping off of the bridge of her nose. Ever since then, if I am making something and there is an egg on that counter, she stays 3 feet back :lol which means, even if a recipe doesn't call for eggs, I still have one sitting there :P

 

Thankfully, Sammi is very easy to give treats to. I would trust her to take a Cheerio from a baby, she is that gentle about it :wub:

Treats were given only when I asked for something of her, sit/lay, etc... I discovered that giving a treat when she came in from going potty created a "Ghost squatter" monster with a bladder that was apparently the size of a chick pea since she suddenly HAD to GO OUT NOW every 10 minutes... just to squat and produce nothing. :blink: She learned soon after that she had to produce something to get that treat. So now she comes in and sits facing the fridge where the treats are and waits for me to hang the leash and take off my shoes. :blush Even taught the 2 huskies that trick :lol

 

Now, speaking of the huskies.

 

The younger one (Bella) isn't that food motivated, she was just a little... rude... about treats. Sammi dealt with that one the day she had the guts to snag a treat given to Sammi right from Sammi's mouth! That was the only time I can for sure say that I witnessed a dog intending contact and miss their target. If Bella was Sammi's height, she would have gotten nailed. Between Sammi's snap and me racing after her to crouch over her, open her jaw and remove the treat was enough to teach her never to attempt that stunt again with Sammi. That happened before we moved in, now she adores Sammi. Idolizes her like a little sister would their older sister. Accepts reprimands when she goes too far in play, follows her, eats next to her without fear (Gizmo, the other husky will try to steal Bella's food, but won't go past Sammi to do so. Sammi ignores Bella's food dish, but hangs out in the kitchen until Bella is done)

 

The older one (Gizmo) was a rescue from a horrid situation. I've seen pictures of her when my roommate first got her. Imagine a fluffy SH head on an underweight whippet's body, then the fluffy SH tail at the end. Unfortunately, she is now at the other end of the spectrum from too many grandma's' taking pity on her. If Sammi is food motivated, Gizmo is not only food obsessed, she is food possessed! :eek

 

Gizmo is now the LAST one to get her dish at meal times. (She was first before we moved in, then after Sammi, but was starting to get mean about food, so now she has a routine she has to follow to eat) Gizmo is no longer allowed in the kitchen when food (human or dog) is being prepared. At meal times where she is being fed, Sammi gets her dish, then Bella (both in the kitchen, Sammi is by the door and will actually block it with her body to prevent Gizmo from getting to Bella's dish. She started this on her own the one time Gizmo squeezed in and attempted to get the dish) Then Gizmo has to be laying down in the living room, calm, and her dish is brought in and set down. She has to remain laying down until she is calm and has "lost" her stare-down with the human. (Dang bull headed husky! lol always tries to stare you down, and loses, then tries cute and innocent, loses, tries the intent stare again, loses, but still tries again the next day) Then she is given the command to have her meal.

 

Treats are the same thing for Gizmo. She has to lay down and remain calm, not fixated on the treat in hand, and she will be given her treat- below the nose otherwise she tries to snap at it. When humans eat, she is not allowed to get near the table or "in their face" about it. No one is allowed to hand her (or any dog) a treat from the table.

 

Since we have started this with her a couple months ago, she has become a lot calmer. She used to knock people and dogs over to get into the kitchen. She would almost injure herself & others to get across the living room if someone was eating a snack. She used to be practically up under people trying to eat. At treat times she used to try to intercept a treat for another dog. She used to attempt to bully Bella for her food dish before hers was even done, yet still guard her own. Now, people do not have to stand watch over slow-as-a-sloth Bella, Sammi does it. Gizmo would almost take a finger trying to get a treat from your hand. Now she is calm and patiently waits her turn. She would try to take food from the kids hands (she tried once with my son and found his fingers wrapped around her muzzle and a firm eye-to-eye NO from him) Is she flawlessly perfect now? Oh heck no. It's still an every day training session. We're still working on her staying out of the kitchen. The other night she almost tripped me zooming in there and I grabbed a wooden spoon and banged it against Sammi's stainless steel dish that was still empty in my hand. She still sometimes becomes possessed and wants whatever you have. But she has come a long way. :)

 

Ok, now for Sammi's funny story about the dinner table.

 

** I was so proud that I had taught Sammi to lay down near my chair at the dinner table until I was done eating that she was invited to Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' home that first year we had her. She was an angel at dinner. My mom was constantly complementing her on her good table manners. Well, like most large holiday dinners, we had coffee afterwards, right at the table. I did not realize that getting my coffee was her "sign" that I was done eating. At home, after dinner I would get my coffee and either move to my computer or to the couch. I thought the moving away from the table was her sign, not the coffee cup in my hand. Because as we were all sitting there relaxing, there was suddenly a peculiar sound coming from under my mom's elbow. Then 2 quivering ears appeared with that sound again. Mom looks down and starts giggling. Poor Sammi was SO confused. I had my coffee, she had been good, where was her slice of that delicious smelling turkey? She was quietly trying to hint about it and practically shaking with each soft, delicate nasal whine she emitted. :wub:

 

My father, after mom had passed away, also discovered that if there is not something soft for her to lay upon, Sammi will stand at the table "begging". Not for food, but for her bed that she is supposed to lay upon while we are eating ;)

Edited by Gryffenne
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Guest DragonflyDM

I’ll add my two cents. Don’t let your dogs eat without permission at ANY TIME. When they get their kibble, make them stay until they make eye contact with you for at least 5 seconds. Then release them. They will learn that all food: meals, treats, etc. are all dependent on your permission.

 

That being said, dogs are opportunists, and you can’t always expect them to walk away from opportunity. Remember the phrase: keep honest people honest by removing temptation.

 

Long and short…if your dog knows you are the master of their food intake, when you tell them to stop, stay, leave it, or mine-- they will walk away with no issues.

 

ALSO-- have alternative treats to give when the dog has been good. Not immediately but after a minute or so. They will continue to associate you with a positive food source and that obedience is rewarded.

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Thank you all!!! Appreciate the insight and advice - now if I can just get both myself and DH trained :)

 

 

I would love to do an obedience class with her but as much as I ask DH to do the same things I do so that she learns the same routines, he insists on asking her to do things that make no sense to me. Example - he'll take her leash off as they're coming out of the elevator, even if he knows he's going to want to wipe her paws or something else as soon as they come in the door. I've always been a big fan of "make it easy to do the right thing" - so, if you want Bella not to go farther into the apartment when you come in, leave the leash on. Have had this conversation a few times, and it doesn't work. (On DH, not Bella :lol)

Dave (GLS DeviousDavid) - 6/27/18
Gracie (AMF Saying Grace) - 10/21/12
Bella (KT Britta) - 4/29/05 to 2/13/20

 

 

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Boy, do I hear that! I can train the dogs *pretty* well, but DH is almost a lost cause!

I try to impress on him the one I think is the most critical safety measure - to make them WAIT until you tell them ("okay") to go through a door - and his version (if he does it at all) is, "Waitokay". :P

GT-siggy-spring12.jpg

My Inspirations: Grey Pogo, borzoi Katie, Meep the cat, AND MY BELOVED DH!!!
Missing Rowdy, Coco, Brilly, Happy and Wabi.

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re :training dh

 

i sent dh to classes, found one w/ a male instructor- that helped! but dh technically owns annie, so he did the first round of classes w/ her. he also did the first round of classes w/ felix which most definatley put him on the right track. of course they are going to do it "their way" but having someone else correct them is the way to go. pick your battles and they(husbands) are also highly motivated by food!(almost 34 years of behavior mod here).

Edited by cleptogrey
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re :training dh

 

i sent dh to classes, found one w/ a male instructor- that helped! but dh technically owns annie, so he did the first round of classes w/ her. he also did the first round of classes w/ felix which most definatley put him on the right track. of course they are going to do it "their way" but having someone else correct them is the way to go. pick your battles and they(husbands) are also highly motivated by food!(almost 34 years of behavior mod here).

So true! We had a behaviorist come to the house to help with Pogo (reactive, has repeatedly attacked our other boy), and he was able to hear her better than he had ever heard me saying the same things.

 

Haven't figured out how to food-reward him yet without him catching on. Maybe that doesn't matter. :lol

 

 

GT-siggy-spring12.jpg

My Inspirations: Grey Pogo, borzoi Katie, Meep the cat, AND MY BELOVED DH!!!
Missing Rowdy, Coco, Brilly, Happy and Wabi.

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