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Clever, Too Clever

2K views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  Kait 
#1 ·
Tuck has recently had the kitchen added to the list of rooms he’s allowed to be in with supervision. I’ve been training him to go lay in the bed in the kitchen when I need him to be safely out from under foot but don’t want to send him back to his pen in the living room. I’ve been using higher value treats for this, because the kitchen has so many temptations to go explore when he’s supposed to be on his bed.

We have also been having trouble getting him to eat enough food since starting his new prescription diet. He’s always been particularly finicky, to the point of losing weight when he didn’t like his food. In an effort to get him to eat more we’ve temporarily removed all treats from his daily intake, and he’s being given 30 mins for a chance to eat his food and if he doesn’t it gets picked up until his next meal in hopes that he will accept that this is his only option. I’m using his kibble for training and avoiding working on the things we need high value treats for for a few days.

Yesterday was day one. As expected he was picking at his food, but not eating much and holding out hoping we would pull out the treats or add his old topper to his food (which he’s not allowed to have with the new prescription diet). Last night when he realised it was almost bedtime and we hadn’t given in, he apparently decided to take matters into his own hands. Someone accidentally left the gate to the kitchen open, and I turned around to find that I couldn’t see him and went to look to see if he went to the kitchen. Sure enough, there he was in his bed in the kitchen, tail wagging excitedly and giving me his best “come on, you and I both know this gets me the good treats” look.

I’m curious to see what random tricks he’s going to try today to see if I’ll bring out some boiled chicken 😂
 
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#2 ·
Contrary to the 1st 5 months of his life, when he was a voracious eater of anything I gave him, Elroy doesn't ever get excited about me feeding him anymore. He lies down in the kitchen while I get his food together, then ignores it when I set it down. After I leave the room, he gets up (I think to follow me into the other room) and mosey's over to it to check out what I've given him. If he eats it, great, if not, it goes into the fridge and comes back out a few hours later. This 2nd time I'll drop a tiny treat in front of him, and a couple in front of the bowl, and one in the bowl (probably 5-6 calories worth total). He eats the treat trail to the bowl, and then usually eats his meal.
 
#3 ·
Tuck has never been a great eater with the exception of canned food which he would eat happily but still not enough to fulfil his calorie needs. We’ve always just barely managed to get enough food into him, and it was the vet’s idea at the time to try the topper to see if he’d eat better because he was dipping into not eating enough. It did work, but now we can’t use it anymore. The last two foods they had us try he literally just ignored the bowl and went the whole day with nothing but his chew and a few training treats (no where near enough to fill him and not want to eat). He would walk over the bowl, sniff it and then kind of sadly whine and go take a nap instead. He hasn’t even been willing to eat canned food since the gastritis incident, even his old food that he liked. He’ll eat his old kibble, but he really needs to be on a prescription gastro diet.
 
#6 ·
I am a fan of toppers to keep the same old kibble interesting. It can be a bit of any protein from the family dinner last night, a teaspoon of cottage cheese or a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. When Buck was a puppy, he was a free feeder. I wasted so much kibble with the 30 minute rule. He was too busy with everything to tuck in to a bowl of food the minute it was set out. By the end of the day it was gone. PF members assured me that no puppy ever starved when there was food available. It’s part of establishing a puppy schedule: eating and elimination. Good luck!
 
#7 ·
Parmesan cheese used to be his favorite on the rare occasion I gave it to him, I’m sad he can’t have it now.

Tuck was mostly free fed up to now too. He just never went to it. We had multiple days where he’d eat nothing. That’s when he started losing weight. Granted, I’m naturally nervous about that because of hearing doctors tell me the same thing about kids not starving for the better part of a year while my oldest slowly starved himself to the point of severe malnutrition from refusing to eat, but he can’t afford to lose more weight. We did manage to get him to regain it, now he needs to keep gaining.
 
#11 ·
Winnie seems to only eat everything when the planets line up in a certain way. All other times its a guessing game as to how much she will finish. I did notice that she is not a fan of a certain size kibble so I now crush her kibble up and then mix it with the wet food. She might leave a bit sometimes but on the whole will eat much more now that it's crushed.
 
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