Hi All,

Sammy has learned to climb the baby gate and paw at the 4.5 food x-pen that is gaurding the door where Calvin and his food stay. The easy solution would be to just close the door, but since Calvin lives in the room now (he's old and losing control of his bladder control) we can't do that. We have tried a higher x-pen and she somehow got into it there. I tried lacing the catfood with hots sauce, cajun poweder and peppers. She ate it slower, but still ate it.

We have been working on wait and leave it, but her self- control and attention pan is approximatly the size of a pea. We train every day for at least an hour ( in short 5 min sessions). And the food still is too much of a draw- we obviously have a very prized reward being eating the cat food. Any suggestions? She sleeps in her crate at night and gets at least 2 hours of walking and ball-playing a day at a nearby school.  As soon as she gets old enough I was going to make her a jogging companion. We started doing some basic groundwork for agility, but she is not yet old enough to go to the classes that are offered here (She's 11 months- all of them want the dogs to be a year or older). I asked if she could attend the puppy class, but it had already started. We will try again in a few weeks once a new one starts.

Also, what has been the most effective way to discourage jumping up? we lived with 12 kids in a orphanage and despite all the talks we had she had in ingrained in her head as a way to get attention and food from the little ones. Now we are no longer with then (Sammy misses the kids sooooooooo much!). We have more consitenty, but it is still continuing. We normally ignore the behavior and reward her when all four are on the floor.

Any tips would be greatly appreiated. I am finding that there is a difference inbetween training a 95 pound german shepard and a 12 pound terrier! Also, we advocate clicker training and she is a HUGE fan of it.

Thanks,

Sammy's Mom

Forget the cat food - I think I'd have to keep my pack from eating the CAT!!   LOL... the mighty hunters!!

I have a cat (Squeaky) who will be 19 yrs old in March .  When we first brought Holly home, Squeaky was eating her puppy food, and Holly was eating the cats food.  So I started putting puppy food in both bowls.  Well after a month or two, that got old, so now someone has to sit next to the cat when she eats so Holly doesnt get to it, then pick up her bowl when she walks away!!!  But I have the same problem..Its hard.  My Squeaky cannot jump up on anything or go down the basement so I am limited on where I put her bowl.  The puppy is worse then a child lol.......I keep saying its gonna get easier.

We used to put Claudes(cat)food in our bathroom with a baby gate in the door. Darn sneaky dog can get over the gate w/o making a sound. So she would get in, eat, and get out. Claude likes to graze so waiting while he eats isn't an option. I finally gave up and put his bowl on my bathroom vanity. Yaz still can't find it.

We have the cat's food behind a baby gate in the spare bedroom(otherwise known as the ferret's room)