I enjoy the site Food on My Dog, featuring Tiger. The site seems to be down at the moment, so instead, here’s their tumblr link. Tiger is adorable and has WAY more patience than Ren and Ash. I’m working on Ren, but I fear Ash may be a hard case in regards to resisting food temptation.
I discovered a package of crappy deli turkey meat in the fridge. At least, the package claims it’s turkey, I have my doubts. No human likes, it, so I figured, why not torment my dogs with it before it goes bad?
I tried to be at least marginally original, and so instead of putting the meat on top of their heads, I had them lay on their sides and put it on their faces. This allowed me to also have them practice their “Over” command.
We start with one piece, on the cheek/muzzle. Ren held this for a remarkable 30 seconds at least, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t counting, and on his first try. Ash… well.. he held it on the second try for longer than I expected, and that’s as far as I’ll go on that..
And just to prove that Ren did in fact stay this way and didn’t simply snap up the food immediately after I took these photos, here’s some video evidence. That will be me you hear, using my “talking to animals” voice, I have this strange aversion to hearing myself, but why should I suffer alone? I don’t have video embedding yet, so you’ll have to go view it on my Flickr account. (Sorry!) I call it:
Ren Haz a Meat Slice! or “Oh For The Love of… Just Eat It!”
Seeing that Ren did so well on the first attempt, I decided to up the temptation ante. I put one slice of meat in the previous location, but this time I added another slice, draped over his nose and front teeth. I can’t think of any way to make it more irresistible, without actually shoving it in his mouth.
I really didn’t expect him to rise to the challenge, but I was pleasantly amazed. If you choose to go watch the video, you’ll probably notice that I repeat what I said initially in the first clip. Well err, I didn’t think the first one worked…
Video: Slurp!
masonillustration 