To prepare for Super Bowl XLV, we stopped by our new butcher shop, The Butcher and Larder, for some delicious chili and sausages.
It is a great butcher shop and they clearly love pooches. With our order, they gave the pooches two knuckle bones. One way we get the pooches to listen to us is whenever our dogs are playing with toys or chewing on something for a while, such as the knuckle bone, we periodically take it away. This helps the dogs listen to us and teaches the dogs to respect boundaries.
Sometimes when we walk the pooches, we will have to either pry their mouths open or stick our hand into their mouths to pull out another animal's poo, someone's leftover and even a dead animal. Each time, people around us are shocked that we can do this without the pooches reacting. In the following video, you can see how easily Mr. B will let us take away his beloved knuckle bone.
Thank you to everyone for all the kind words, spreading the message and donating to Shy. We have been absolutely astounded by the kindness.
32 comments:
that is awesome. Maisie will "let" me take a bone away from her, but definitely not easily!
http://maisieme.blogspot.com/
That's great! It shows how much trust your dogs have in you that they are sure you are going to give it back! We do the same thing with Cassie and have done since puppyhood. My mother is astounded how readily she gives things up. Her Rat Terrier Tobey will take your hand off for coming near his things. She tells herself that it is part of his having "grown up on the streets."
By the way, to your Rubit question: Large will do best! I like the round, but I think that is more a personal preference. Fuller comment on my blog.
We do the same thing with our pups and get that same pitiful "what did i do?" look! Lucy will automatically without fail perform a perfect "sit" and of course we give it right back to her!
The Heartbeats
Way to go Mr B! Flash is pretty much like that, she may resist some but will give it up pretty easily. Ollie on the other hand, I don't even mess with. We need to work on that and sometimes he'll let me take something, but only if I have something else of higher value. Gotta love our problem child!
Wow that is great, since I have my younger siblings around my dogs we work on giving up things too. The dogs are pretty good at dropping things although if it is food Sophie will do her best to eat it once she sees you notice her with Something she shouldn't have
Knuckle bones are also great for your dogs' teeth! They clean the plaque off.
Another good way to get your dogs to give up a valuable (to them) bone or toy (or something they find in the street) is to "trade up" -- if they drop whatever is in their mouth, they get an even higher-value treat (mine get a bite of hot dog).
I love the look on his face, it's like he's saying "hey, dude... I'd like to be chewing that." Mom does that to me all the time too. She used to do it with my breakfast and dinner too to assure no food aggression issues - but I'm really low key and laid back, things like that don't phase me! :o) She does it with our foster dogs too to make sure they also have a good temperment with food.
-Corbin
how nice of the butcher to share the goodies with the pooches! how long do you normally let them chew on the bones before you take them away?
we practice a lot of object exchanges with our dogs to avoid any potential guarding behavior. it took some work with chick, who was more of a guarder at first, but lollie has never been even remotely protective of her treats.
Ha ha! I get the same reaction with my Billy - he's always trying to wolf down something he shouldn't have on the street. His mouth is HUGE so when I go rummaging around in there it tends to stop people in their tracks!
http://bwpaws.blogspot.com
Drop it and leave it are considered basic commands at my house. Even as important as sit and stay. I'm glad I've focused on it so much 'cause now my girls don't pick anything up on walks anymore. Just a "leave it" and they're on their way. Toys and bones get relinquished with a "drop it".
We've gotten the girls used to having hand in their mouths from an early age; I have a great fear of them choking on something, and want to be able to reach in and grab it - and both girls will let me pull ANYTHING out of their mouths. Brushing teeth? Eh... We're still working on that one.. :-)
-Dr. Liz (the girls are on the porch, hoping for some unsuspecting garbage truck to come up our street so they can bark at it...)
What a great butcher shop. Those places sure are hard to find here in CA
Benny & Lily
Wow! That video is impressive. I've been working with my dog on "leave it" but it's very difficult. I adopted him after he'd been picked up as a stray, so I think it's going to take some time.
love local butcher shops!
Mr B's face is so cute! "Where's my bone going?!"
Darwin's good about letting us take things from her (thank goodness!). But if we're at the park and she takes another dog's toys, she LOVES chase and keep away even more!
I've done the same thing with Duke. As a huge dog I didn't want to have to worry about any resource guarding issues.
Poor Mr. B. He was like, "Hey! Where's my bone going? Oh, there it is!" Heehee...so cute!
My mom and dad can pretty much pull anything out of my mouth except a corn cobs. It's the only thing I've ever gotten possessive of. I don't know what came over me. I just luved that corn cob.
Wiggles & Wags,
Mayzie
I love how big his eyes get when you give it back to him. That is one happy dog!
You have some of the sweetest Pitties. :) Hope you guys are getting dug out. Also have you checked out Shy's chipin. Amazing how many people have come forward to help. It won't be long and she will be seeing again. Sniffs, The HoundDogs
Mom does dat wif me too :)
Woofs and Licks,
Maggie Mae
Big Carl still gives us issues with this but Baily and Mesa are old pros :)
Kari
http://dogisgodinreverse.com/
Sounds like you had a delicious Superbowl Sunday.
Our dogs are really good about letting us take stuff from them, too. I don't recall doing anything special with them to get to that point, but we've been very lucky!
I'm so glad to see how far the donations have come for Shy! That's great news!
Daisy is perfect about letting me take things from her. Roscoe not so much.
I pick up anything and everything and my mom has to watch me super carefully, too!
Your pal, Pip
For some reason I've had trouble opening your page today - kept getting "page not available" earlier, and now, can't get the video to play! Maybe it's my computer, being temperamental...no one else seems to have had trouble. I love this exercise though - it's so important. I do the same thing, starting Day One! Learned it from the Monks of New Skete. Have you ever heard of them? It amazes me how many dog owners DONT practice this important exercise.
And, it just took me SIX tries to leave that comment. I got the message "internal error leaving your comment on this blog." Is anyone else having trouble??
Ummm...yea, mom can't do that. She is trying but I got some food issues. I have gotten SO much better and they keep trying but I struggle to want to let anything go and my food still can't be taken away. I guard and sometimes-though rarely now-will still growl. Mom is working on it with me though.
Thanks for your toy tips! Mom has been working on those and they seem to be working :)
Mom said to add that I never counter surf or steal people food (well, unless totally tempted, but hey...I am a dog!)
I just have this problem with my own food at meal time and my bones. You can take my toys outta my mouth and try and catch me when I got a stick! BOL!
Ha, poor Mr. B is like, "Hey, what's the big idea, Dad?" Yeah, nothing like intentionally sticking your hand into a pit bull's mouth to shock and awe people.
Mr. B is ADORABLE! That face is adorable. It's funny how confused he looks when his knuckle bone is taken away. lol Thanks for the video and showing the rest of the world that pitties can be sweet dogs. You guys are awesome.
I've done this with Kirby too and was amazed one time when my 2 year old nephew took his treat ball away from him very unexpectedly, and Kirby just let him...whew!
Kirby's Mom
We do this with our dogs, too, just to ensure everyone remembers who's in charge. So glad to hear the Butcher & Larder is as cool as I'd hoped! Can't wait to make it down there.
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