# Clicker is Awesome



## princessre (Dec 23, 2008)

So we just started using the clicker as part of our obedience training. It's working awesome!

Can we use this to encourage dog food eating? Casanova eats a small amount of NB (not nearly enough to make recommended dosage), which is a huge improvement from before because he refused dog food period. But I need him to eat more. So can we do a NB pellet then a miniscule, microscopic really, piece of treat like Wellness pure rewards jerky, say? Or is this antithetical to getting him to actually like the food? Right now I get the feeling he's eating the NB only when he's starving. Unfortunately his appetite is really low, so he eats very very little.


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## Missy&Maggie (Jun 17, 2007)

I don't know the answer to your question, but have some suggestions to try to get Casanova to eat more. One thing you could try is grating Natural Balance dog food rolls over his dry off. In the past I have also wetted down the girls food with warm water. Lately I have been adding organic veggies like steamed green beans and sugar snap peas and my two love it. Good luck getting Casanova eating more!!!


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## jmm (Nov 23, 2004)

How old is he? Have you tried moistening the food with warm water and letting it soften before feeding? 

I would stick to feeding him meals. Food down for 10 min, then up. No treats in between. He'll catch on. I usually put my pups in their crate to eat. It helps make the crate a good place to be and helps with dogs who get distracted. 

You could use a clicker to train him to eat something, but you are defeating the purpose of having him hungry and eating his meal by feeding treats. I would simply feed on schedule and cut out treat between meals while he gets with the program. If he's teething, softening the food or feeding canned food may help.


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## princessre (Dec 23, 2008)

QUOTE (JMM @ Mar 23 2009, 04:32 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=750144


> How old is he? Have you tried moistening the food with warm water and letting it soften before feeding?
> 
> I would stick to feeding him meals. Food down for 10 min, then up. No treats in between. He'll catch on. I usually put my pups in their crate to eat. It helps make the crate a good place to be and helps with dogs who get distracted.
> 
> You could use a clicker to train him to eat something, but you are defeating the purpose of having him hungry and eating his meal by feeding treats. I would simply feed on schedule and cut out treat between meals while he gets with the program. If he's teething, softening the food or feeding canned food may help.[/B]


Haha, okay. I thought it might be a harebrained idea...just that we are in obedience training right now and have to feed treats to do homework everyday. I'll try wetting food and putting in crate. Casanova is very human food motivated. He will starve all day to train us to share our food. Then as soon as we head inside to goto bed, I hear "crunch crunch crunch!"


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## jmm (Nov 23, 2004)

QUOTE (princessre @ Mar 23 2009, 03:43 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=750150


> Haha, okay. I thought it might be a harebrained idea...just that we are in obedience training right now and have to feed treats to do homework everyday. I'll try wetting food and putting in crate. Casanova is very human food motivated. He will starve all day to train us to share our food. Then as soon as we head inside to goto bed, I hear "crunch crunch crunch!" [/B]



Use his meal as a treat.


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## Moxie'smom (Dec 16, 2007)

Moxie was a picky, pain in the ars eater too. JMM's way of feeding really helped us. It's a little tough love..but they won't starve.

What I found that also worked was taking his dry kibble (NOT changing his food every week, just spiking a wee bit to make it more appealing), sprinkling some freeze dried liver (just a tiny bit) over it, adding some snap peas chopped finely and a little water and popping in the mico for 20 seconds. He gobbles it up every meal. 

We DON'T ever feed him human food, as in our food. As hard as it is not to, I think you're setting yourself up if you do. Dog food is complete and balanced and it doesn't have what dogs need everyday. I know they'd much rather eat chicken, but what they don't know they;re missing won't hurt them. The only human food we feed is an occasional hot dog for a "high value" treat, or chicken for the same "High value" treat, but certainly not all the time. Only when we have major distractions.

It's tough when you're training and using as many treats as you have to..just make sure you break it up in teeny pieces..or as Jackie said, use his kibble as treats. I usually cut back on Moxie's food if I'm training a lot.. BUT it's more important for them to learn how to eat their food at meal time, than treats. 

Good luck


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## ilovemymaltese (Oct 9, 2008)

Gigi is a notable picky eater. She likes any food(human, dog, and even the cat's) besides her own. When we let her roam the house, she is always in the kitchen or dinning room endlessly searching for food. Everybody in my family thinks she's a houndog because her nose never lifts up from the ground. And, when we are eating food and she smells it, she acts like a crazy women! 

Now when we give her her food, she just looks at it, and then she gives us this look like saying, "You expect me to eat that???" LOL no joke!

She get's lots of special treats though. Only fruits, vegetables, chicken, and other natural treats. Not everyday though. When we give her those treats, they are gone in less than three minutes.


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## tamizami (May 1, 2007)

He might not like the Natural Balance? I just tried Acana Grasslands (lamb & fish) and my dogs LOVE it! Good luck with Casanova....we love clicker training, too.


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## princessre (Dec 23, 2008)

JMM- just to make sure I'm doing this right...

1. Should I put food down 2 or 3 times a day?

2. Can I treat and train after dinner if he's had all his meals? 

3. Is Flossy considered a treat or a chewing toy? It's not alot of calories for sure, but I could have sworn he was hungrier for dinner yesterday b/c I took his flossy away.

Thank you


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## The A Team (Dec 1, 2005)

Ava loves stealing the NB out of the other dog's dishes. I'm still feeding her the stuff Bonnie had her on when I got her because when I tried introducing something else, it didn't work well on her system.

BTW, I am having a VERY hard time getting her potty trained, how was Casanova in that department???


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## princessre (Dec 23, 2008)

QUOTE (2MaltMom @ Mar 24 2009, 09:52 AM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=750553


> Ava loves stealing the NB out of the other dog's dishes. I'm still feeding her the stuff Bonnie had her on when I got her because when I tried introducing something else, it didn't work well on her system.
> 
> BTW, I am having a VERY hard time getting her potty trained, how was Casanova in that department???[/B]


Pat, you are so lucky she's interested in NB or any other dog food for that matter. That is super. 

It's been about 2.5 months and Casanova's almost 100% pottery trained now. It wasn't easy (especially #2 was hard for him), but we followed crate/xpen training very strictly. We crated overnight and a couple times during the day. The big motivator that made everything click was not letting him out of the ex-pen until he went on the pad. And we praised like crazy whenever he did and sometimes got rewarded with a walk down to the lobby. But if he didn't go (especially first thing in the morning or after nap or after meal), then he didn't get to come out.


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## princessre (Dec 23, 2008)

I forgot to say Casanova is 7.5 months old. Should I be feeding Nutrical while doing this dog food thing?

Also he has rejected 10-min opportunity with dog food at 6am, 9am, and 1pm thus far today. I have a feeling I'm offering it too often.


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## jmm (Nov 23, 2004)

Generally at his age twice daily. If he is very, very small 3 times per day. Set your times (6 am, 1 pm, 6 pm or whatever you like) and only offer it then. No coaxing, no attention. Food down and the rest of the world is boring. You can use treats to train after a meal OR you can use his food as a treat and train at a meal time. 

My dogs eat Flossies like a treat, so I consider it a food treat. Perhaps offer it to him after a meal. 

If he is a very tiny dog, a lick of nutrical is a good idea. My average sized dogs (5 is lbs as adults) all did fine on 2 meals a day at that age. 


QUOTE (princessre @ Mar 24 2009, 04:15 AM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=750504


> JMM- just to make sure I'm doing this right...
> 
> 1. Should I put food down 2 or 3 times a day?
> 
> ...


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