February 2014 -- Day Two

George is such a regal boy...

Until food is involved...and then he falls apart. He's hungry and he wants it now!

When I've got food in the kitchen, sending him to his bed is a good alternative.

It can be quite distracting though so we have to practice staying on the bed in the face of distractions and when I walk away from him.

I return to him periodically to reward him. I do this frequently in the beginning but, as he gets the hang of it, I can space out those rewards a little more. We're teaching him to be comfortable waiting for food. If he gets up, I motion for him to go back down on the bed. I don't reward him right away for going back down. I don't want him to get the idea that all he needs to do is break his stay to get a treat. Once he's down for several seconds, then I can start rewarding him again. If you don't want to keep interrupting your food prep to reward him, look at something like the Treat & Train (http://drsophiayin.com/treatntrain). It's a way to remotely reward him for maintaining his stay. Pretty handy when you can't be right by his side.

We can use this when prepping his food too. A down stay works too but beds are nice because it gives the dog a defined space. Right now, between every step, I'm going back to reward him (when he's lying down on the bed). I get the meat out, I reward him. I get the veggies out, I reward him. As he improves, I can start to do a couple of steps at a time before rewarding him. Eventually we work towards the meal being the reward.

If he were to bark, I would temporarily abandon the food prep process.

The last step should be putting his cute, little snood on. We want to do the hardest steps last and, at this point, he knows he is definitely getting fed.

The best reward ever for good behavior.

After all that hard work, it's time for a little low key romp through the yard with Thistle.