I just have to tell everyone about how well behaved barley was this evening at dinner time, he is such an amazing boy and continues to surprise me . As it is a weekend, barley gets raw food. On tonight's menu was a turkey back, this was his first turkey back and he was struggling with it. I left him to it for about 10 mins but after that he started to get bored of it and frustrated with it. A little history on him will help this all make sense. He is an extremely bone possessive dog, and gets very aggressive over them. He will growl if anyone comes near him when he has a bone, even if the just walk past him, and he has always been like this, there is no way we can get him out of this habit, but tonight he surprised me. After about 10 mins of trying to eat his bone, he started to turn and look at me, then back at his bone, he done this a few times, then he came to me and 'showed' me back to his bone. It was like he was actually asking for help, i know it sounds silly, and this was unlike him. i thought that i might as well give it a go and try to help him with his bone, so armed with a slice of bacon i traded that for the bone, and he accepted the bacon gratefully, i did not take the bone away from him completely, i just moved it out from in between his paws to in front of him, where he could still see it. I cut of some chunks of meat with some scissors so he could eat them and not get bored of the bone, after i had cut of most of the meat i held the bone for him so that he could chew it, as before he was struggling to hold it. he started to chew on it and chewed some bits of, at this point i left him to the rest of it as he had got the hang of it once i had show him how and got him started. The only bones that he has had before has been chicken legs or thighs, so really easy bones. so a turkey back was a challenge for him, but he got there in the end. He has really come on in leaps and bounds with his food issues, especially since puzzle has come. i am so proud of him, usually he would have had to been pinned down and his jaws prized open to get a bone off of him, but tonight he proved us wrong. it will be interesting to see how he is with his bone tommorow
Re: Such a good boy Wow! That is really brilliant Annabelle! I know you found this a bit of a problem before, I remember you posting about it. Well done Barley!!! Such a good story to tell us
Re: Such a good boy That's brilliant... and shows that he knows that the good stuff comes from you! Clare
Re: Such a good boy so happy to hear this, Annabelle! He's coming along, a step at a time. You should be proud of yourself, too, with all the patience and love you have shown him through some very difficult challenges he has given you.
Re: Such a good boy I know you have a lot of challenges with Barley Annabelle but that shows really good progress.....and that he trusts you which is a lovely thing between a dog and their owner,well done for all your perseverance and patience with him it is paying off x
Re: Such a good boy Thank you everyone . With him it seems on high is then hit with a low as his legs are still not right, and he is getting chubby again even though he is on a diet and gets hardly any treats, especially at the moment as we have not been doing any training, but then he also has not been walked much so he cant burn off what he does eat
