Georgie and I had some teething problems a little after he arrived. It was about two months after he had come to stay with us that he became a lot more confident of his situation. He started to show his character a lot more. The biggest issue Mummy had with George was his resource guarding.
Of course I am food driven and my appetite is insatiable. So you can imagine when there were two bowls of food being put down. I gulped down mine quickly and pursued to eat Georgie’s as well. Needless to say he told me off in no uncertain terms.
In fact, he was rather rude about the whole thing. He was verbally abusive and aggressive! Sometimes I had a brawl with him but other times, he would hurt my feelings – and I go away and sulk. Mummy wasn’t happy with George but she understood where he was coming from. He had to fight for his scraps and would defend them.
We both had to adjust to each other’s presence.
Over time, George was told sternly that his behaviour was unacceptable – with help from our dog behaviourist, Vanessa. As for me, I knew that I should not attempt to eat his food.
So these days, we both sit and wait for our food to be served.
We have to wait till Mummy said it was “OK!” before we’re allowed to start eating. George is actually better at this than I am … I am drawn to food!!!
Once we have the “OK!” we both start gulping it down. You see George has a gobble bowl to slow down his consumption. Before he ate from a normal bowl, he would finish his food in 2 seconds! And then he would get sick. That is also his resource guarding behaviour. It was his way of trying to eat whatever he has before another dog comes along to take it away from him or fight him for it.
The difference is that when he was on the streets he had little bits to gobble down. But now he has a whole bowl of juicy meats and veggies – it’s too much for his digestive system.
So now with his gobble bowl, I finish a lot faster than George. In the past I would be putting my nose into his. But now I know better.
When I am down with mine, I walk away 
and wait … 
While he gulps down his food.
Gosh! He does take a long time. 
That’s because the gobble bowl is quite deep and he has to reach for the food.
Ahhh! Finally he’s done. As he walks away, I go to his bowl and check to see if there’s anything he could not get to.
And he doesn’t mind my doing so.
Because he is full and he’s satisfied.
So one of the lessons I had to learn was to respect his space. Even though I finish faster and could have gone on to eat his food, I now know I shouldn’t.
May’s comment: Huge improvement between these two.
I am so impressed how Darcy knows to wait till George is done with his food before he checks it out. And George doesn’t mind that Darcy does that. A little respect goes a long way.
Respect is key to every relationship – dogs or humans.
One Response
Love your Blogs,
We recently rescued an 8 month old puppy. We were told he was either a Labradoodle or a
Maltipoo. We did a DNA on him and we have the good fortune to find out he is a Cockapoodle/Spoodle
Jake is now 11 month’s old and we have the world’s greatest dog ( other then your’s of course). Oh, by theway….Jake was born blind. We are so enamored with his bravery,tenacity, and abilities….it’s as if he was born with a GPS in his system.
Reading your blogs and the other spo
We had a Westie for 13 years and had to put him down last year. No pet could have been better then Rocky…..and then Jake came along.
Reading your blogs and the comment’s about the other spoodles that you talk about makes us want to visit London to meet your spoodles.. We live in Los Angeles and do not have the same benefits you have in terms of our taking “Jake ” to the various places we go too. Very restrictive here in reference to pet freedom.
Keep writing your Blogs….love them.
Jake, Dick and Melanie