Anyone else have a chow hound?

[Andrea]

Noah is so food motivated      , but it seems to be getting worse.  He was so distracted at class today looking all over the floor for food.  He is like that at home.  He is certainly getting enough to eat, but he acts like he is always starved  .  Asked the instructor if there was anything that I could do and she laughed and said to try some nose plugs.  Does anyone else have a chow hound that wants to eat all the time?  We are supposed to take out CGC test next week and I am concerned that he will be distracted and we cannot use treats for the test.  Any suggestions?

[Alison]

Abby is only food motivated for cheese and Natures Menu chicken treats,she isn't all that bothered with food otherwise.

The Westie I used to have lived to eat and cared for nothing more than a bit of anything!!!

I'd say its just they personalities and somthing you have to work around either way.Alison

[marilyn]

   I have 2 of them,they can hear a crumb drop

If you find a cure let me know please.

Marilyn 

[Princess Lucy Loulou (Tina)]

Oh yes Lucy is just the same   

[Susan J]

Yes, Missy never leaves anything on her plate for Miss Manners.   

[EDDEL]

Andrea, I moved your thread here since you're describing a behavior & asking for advice too.


Bianca sure enjoys her meals .  Both she & Ed live to eat
(everything she knows about fine dining she learnt from daddy).

Theoretically, a food-oriented fluff/furry is much easier to train .
But they gotta be more focused on you first & foremost, rather than the food.

I don't know how you can train/stop him from looking for food all over the place/food.
But I thought maybe you could teach him the "look" (as in look at me) command
by holding a treat to your eyes/nose, call his name use the cue word (eg: look at mommy)
so he looks up at you and once he makes eye contact , reward/treat him.
I know some people can just point their fingers at themselves (their eyes)
(hand signal for look at me), and their dog will respond, ie. pay attention.
Then again Bichons are not your regular dogs and do as they please.
Not much help am I?

Which day (of next week) is your CGC test?
We'll be rooting for you & Noah .

[lorraine]

Yes, Ella is a chow hound too, just loves food. But I look on the good side and she will do anything for a treat which works wonders for recall etc.

[princess]

Yes Andrea  I feel your pain 

Rogue is so food focused we cant leave the chairs out from the table as she will be up licking the table 

She was incredibly easy to train 


A trick i learned while training her recall was to have chicken in my pocket and when i called i put my hand in my pocket - sometimes she got chicken sometimes only praise. Now nearly 3 years later if i put my hand in my pocket she will come to me  Maybe you can try that with noah for your cgc test???

best of luck 

[Andrea]

Noah does know the watch (i use this instead of look) command and he will look at me -especially if he knows that there is a treat involved. He is more easily trained but he sometimes gets so excited about the food that he acts like an idiot    Next Satruday is the test.  The instructor has had to miss 2 classes so she told us that if we do not pass, then she will give us the test the next week as she feels that with missing the 2 classes with her, it set the dogs back.  She also told us that if we want to come on Thursday night from8-9pm, she will also help us.  All of the dogs were  not sitting for someone to pet them, they were all excited and jumping.  Hopefully by next week, with lots of practice, Noah will settle down and do what he needs to do to pass.   

[MattiesMom (MaryEllen)]

My Sassy is a chow hound.  I have to watch them at meal times because she'll gobble up her dinner and then wait for Mattie to take a breath and dive into Mattie's bowl.  Mattie is a picky, slow eater and she will let Sassy push her aside.  Your trainer did not teach you how to wean Noah from a treat reward to voice or toy reward?  This is next  (and important) step in training.  Sassy was so food motivated in training that I switched quickly from food to a toy as a reward.  When introducing something new, I use food to get it started.  As soon as she has understanding, I switch to a toy and voice reward, and surprise her with a treat reward every once in awhile to keep her guessing.  I've found that she gives better overall attention when I'm using the toy.  Instead of her watching my hand for the treat, she is watching my eyes and listening.  In class, this is difficult because others are using food and Noah will focus on their treats (just as my Sassy did).  But your trainer should have introduced to the whole class how to begin to move away from treats to voice rewards.  You can't give Noah that understanding in one week.  I'd say start anyway and practice.  Go back to commands that Noah does correctly all the time.  Tell him what you want and when he does it, praise him in a warm, happy voice.  Have him do it again, and then again.  On the third time, give him the treat and still praise as you did for the first two times.  Do this with commands he knows well and as long as you are successful.  If he starts to lose interest, stop working or switch to rewards for each command for a few repetitions.  Then go back to the interval rewarding.  Over the course of time, you would normally begin to increase the intervals for the treat reward.  To keep him guessing, you want to sporadically treat (not keep to exact intervals) so sometimes there is are 2 times in a row, sometimes you wait for 5.  This works.  My neighbor has 2 dogs inside a fenced backyard.  Every time I walk by they come flying to the fence trying desperately to get to me.  This is because every once in awile (maybe once a week) I have treats for them.  Once Squiggy got loose and no one could catch him.  I was out walking and guess who he came to...you got it, me!  So, putting in intervals will work.  Then, when you have a test or event with no treats allowed you should be able to get through it and treat after you're done.  However, I don't think you can get this across to Noah in a week.  It is worth a try though.  Best of luck!  MaryEllen

[Andrea]

  Mary Ellen.  I do try not treating him everytime and do a lot of verbal praise.  He does not have a favorite toy that I can use to entice . him.  I hope that maybe working hard this week and possibly having another week, will help as the instructor said that if the dogs don't pass next week, then she will give us another week since we missed 2 classes.  Maybe in two weeks he will do better.  He will watch me and do basic commands without treats-just verbal praise so maybe we can get through the test without the treats.  On our walking with a loose lead, she puts temptations down to help the dog keep focused on us rather than the treat.  This works fine until she puts food down and guess who has to try to stop and check it out.  We also walk  figure 8's around the other dogs and owners to use as distractions.  He does fine with this.  I am not too worried about most of the tasks, just the sitting to be greet and be petted without jumping- he was dong great but he seems to have a lapse of memory  and the walking on a loose lead.  He does good most of the time, but we'll see. 

[MattiesMom (MaryEllen)]

Have you trained heel yet?  I trained Mattie in less than a week by smearing peanut butter on my left hand.  Every few steps I asked for a sit and gave her a lick.  After a while she would heel without the PB on my hand, knowing a treat would come her way after a bit.  Mattie has the best heel, but Sassy kind of heels (Sassy style) by giving a teeny jump at my hand every few steps.  She hasn't learned patience and it's so darned cute I have no reason to correct it, LOL!  Heel might help you with the loose leash walking.  Can you cheat and have a bit of PB on your hand for the test, LOL?
Oh, that was bad...no cheating!  Best of luck, MaryEllen

[Andrea]

I have worked with Noah on heeling and he was doing great- used peanut butter on a long wooden spoon.  He can't have peanut butter now so it is a little harder to find something to keep his attention.  I need to start doing more of the heeling with him as I have gotten a little slack and just letting him walk with a loose lead.

[MamaMia]

Have you taught him to "leave it"? or "look away"? I challenge my dogs often with food, they have to wait til i say go ahed, or i can throw food around them and tell them to leave it, and then give them a snack that i have in my hand. They have to look in your eyes to get food, not on the food like EDDEL said 

[Andrea]

Noah does know the leave it command and he has to sit and wait for his food at meal times.  He will leave a treat on the floor if he is told to leave it and he will also do drop it if he picks something up that he should not have.  We do a lot of leave it on our walks as he is so interested in everything-especially other dogs and people.