Article
Three
Feeding
Food is very
important to any living thing, without adequate food
they soon die. To us in our affluent modern society
food is generally not given a second thought, we feel
hungry we get something to eat. However our dogs do
not have the same luxury, they feel hungry they must
tell us or wait for their next feed. Food is the root
to many of the problems that dog (sorry for that)
the owner these days.
It seems that
Cyprus produces dogs that scavenge more than in any
other country, the dogs appear to be closer to their
ancestors in that respect. The requirement for food
is a basic survival instinct and whilst most dogs
will accept their human pack leaders controlling their
food some do take exception. In a wild pack of dogs
the leader gets first choice of the available food
and so on down the line to the most junior member.
Not so long ago this was routine in the family household
with the dog being given the scraps off of the table,
after the family had finished. Now however we have
a wide range of commercial food available to delight
our canine members and feeding arrangements have changed.
With this change comes behavioral problems, How? By
feeding the dog at different times to our selves we
can be inadvertently raising his position within the
family. Those that feed the dog in the morning just
before the children get down stairs shouting for their
Corn Flakes have already started this change, in a
dog that has the kindling of a dominance problem or
in a puppy you are telling it that it is high in the
tree than the children. A simple thing like that can
and does lead to the children of the household being
challenged over their right to give orders or posses
the dogs items.
Due to the
heat in Cyprus it is always advisable to feed the
dog in the morning or evening when it is cooler. If
you do have a dominance problem then prepare the meals
at the same time but leave the dogs out of reach until
he has seen that the family have sat and ate their
meal and finished it before he gets his. Another trick
is to scrap your plate into his bowl whilst he is
watching, this reinforces to the dog that you give
him what you regard as not fit for yourself but it
is fit for him.
At all times
the dog must consider itself at the bottom of the
family hierarchy tree. I always say " A Dog is
a DOG" and should be treated as such. It is all
to easy to fall into the trap of anthropomorphism
which is the attribution of human motivation, characteristics,
or behavior to the dog. I shall cover this in more
detail at a later date.
In the next
column I shall address the problem of the dog that
protects its food and/or bowl. I would like to thank
those people that have gotten in touch with me to
ask for advice with a particular problem. I will feature
some of these over the next few weeks.
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This article
was written by Paul C Bunker, a professional dog trainer.
Visit the website at www.Southwestk9services.com for more articles and
dog training resources. You may freely distribute
this article or save to any electronic media as long
as it is left intact, including this copyright box.
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