will your dog come to you when....

[Syaoransbear]

I've called my dog off of a deer carcass that he was sharing with another dog. He came happily, but he also seems to find it secretly rewarding to go through doors so that really encouraged him to ditch his food and come inside.

He appears excited, not pestered, because he usually receives something even better.

[Stosh]

I'm sure Stosh would but like Emoore, I never disturb him when he's eating- even though it takes loner than 45 secs!

[cassadee7]

Originally Posted by doggiedad

i like the fact
you can pet him while he's eating, lift his tail,
put your hand in his bowl etc. sometimes when my dog
is eating we have to walk by him. if we say "move over" he'll
shift his body so we can pass by. he never lifts his head
from the bowl. i like the fact when my dog is eating
there's no aggression from him if you have to move his
bowl, walk pass him, accidentally bump into him
while he's eating or whatever the contact is.

Do you think feeding a dog in their crate every time is doing them a disservice? I mean, really I have no idea if Saber would have a problem with someone walking by, putting hands in her bowl, petting her or bumping her while she is eating because she eats in her crate and none of that stuff ever happens to her in there. So, do you think this is a bad thing? Because what if we are at a friend's home or at a hotel or out camping and then I feed her out in the open and a kid walks by and bumps her?

[cta]

Originally Posted by Kittilicious

Why do people think that just because the dog can be called off of food, petted, tail grabbed, whatever it means that the owner sits around and bugs the dog while they are eating? 99% of the time my dogs eat in peace, as peaceful as it can be in my tiny house... but when they are disturbed, for whatever reason, it's ok with them.

i tend to agree with this. i made it a point when my dog was a puppy to hand feed him, put my hand in his bowl when he was eating to pick food out and feed him, pet him while he's eating, etc. because i didn't want any aggression centering around food/feeding time. he was never phased by it and still isn't to this day. maybe that's just how he is, but i wanted to know that if i ever have a child, that the dog can eat and be ok with something buzzing around him. if it were another dog buzzing around him, he probably wouldn't be unphased, but that's a whole different topic. please don't think i sit around and think of ways to torture my dog, because that's not the case...just wanted to add my two cents.

[sparra]

Originally Posted by Emoore

Because we've had a rash of "Can you. . . . . while your dog is eating" threads here lately. I have this mental picture of a certain subset of the board, just sitting around thinking of new things to do to/with their dogs during mealtimes. It's humorous to me.

Humorous or annoying.....you sound more annoyed than humored....
People can start threads on what ever topics they like....if you are sick of reading them.....well don't...

[k_sep]

I actively try not to disturb Luna when she's eating because the smallest bit of movement will have her abandoning her food to follow me about or try to play. She's such a weird eater; it takes effort to get her to sit in front of her food bowl and finish it all since she seems to think that she can just come back and eat it later. So, calling her off her food isn't really anything to brag about. Getting her to actively eat all her food in one sitting without coming to me, well, that's much more impressive from Luna.

[BeautifulChaos]

Yes. I can call Oliver off anything and everything (thus far). We spent time working on this. It's not bothering or pestering him. Why? Because he gets something of higher value every time. I think it's important in our situation.

Reasons:

- We're visiting family and someone mixes up dog bowls (it's happened in the midst of chaos).
- I need him to do something for me: press the emergency button, get emergency medications, help me up from a fall, or do medical response
- spit out something that someone has given him (without permission) that he may be allergic to

This is just my personal situation and may not be as important for others. But there have been several occasions where I feed him and end up in a bad situation only seconds later, and he needs to respond first and eat later. He's fine with this and does so happily because he knows there is something better in it for him. At this point, it is habit and not command.

I don't do it to pester him, it's just part of his job (though I do try to avoid putting us in that situation) and he is perfectly content because he knows that he will be able to resume eating shortly.

I did the same thing with my other shepherd just because there may be a time in which he needs to leave a high value food (to him) alone. I don't see it as part of a formal recall as much as I do my dogs seeing me as more important/rewarding.

We don't do this every day, they are allowed to eat "in peace" almost all of the time.

I just wanted to put this in as I saw some people saying that there was no reason for a dog to ever have to leave it's food to come to his/her handler. Every household dynamic/situation is different and every handler has different expectations.