Treat snobs

I should have named Victor Mikey. He doesn't like anything. THe only treat he feels is edible is the freeze dried beef or liver. NOt freeze dried cheese, not peanut butter anything. Not even 3 dog Barkery cookies. Mary thought that he was an absolute fool and she would have gladly taken anything he rejected. It was extra embarrassing at the Pet therapy function we attended last week. THey had a very nice goody bag for each dog that came to the "doggy party". So now I am sitting here feeding them to Pepper. They gave it to VIctor and i warned them, but it didn't do any good. They wanted to give him a treat and he spat it on the floor and walked away. Shame on you victor...would it have killed you just this once to chew it and act grateful?

Other than that he did a much better job than he has been doing lately. i took a hiatus until the pressure was off for my health, but also because I was beginning to question how he was relating with the residents. Normally he has great eye contact, and acts as if he is a magnet and they are a piece of metal. But after we saw one woman with hospice (i will never know why they sent us to her) that was obviously dying, he retracted his zest. I would take him and he would behave, but that glee was just gone. I got a call for this party and I thought they were talking about Hyia..the woman introduced herself as Hannah's mother. Hyia has a friend whos' mother introduces herself the same way. So i said Yes we would love to come to the party. THen after I hung up I realized she has said Victor. OOps. SO we came out of our break and I thought ok, we will see how he does. Maybe it was because other dogs where there, and he hates to be upstaged, or maybe it was because these people had a different set of problems and it was not a nursing home setting. No matter, he was back to his old self again and it was good to see. I hope to get up to the nursing home tomorrow and see how he reacts there.

:rofl1: Been there, done that! Victor sounds a lot like Phoebe........well, except Phoebe DOES have more respect for people's feelings about the treats! hahahahaha

Phoebe is a major treat snob. She don't do "veggies" unless it's sweet potato, she doesn't like most any kind of biscuit either, the list of her dislikes go on and on

We go through the drive thru at McDonalds and she smells the yummy goodness of burgers...........she always pokes her head out the window to sniff. The worker sees her, and ALWAYS hands her a dog biscuit. Phoebe takes it kindly, holds it in her mouth until the worker is out of sight. Then she spits it on the seat and there it stays until Orson finds it and gobbles it up, LOL At least she makes the worker feel good about giving the cute little doggie a treat, LOL, they'll never know that Phoebe is disgruntled about not getting a burger instead, hehehe

Well PHoebe is a classy lady. WIsh she would have a talk with him, he acts as if they put doodie in his mouth.

AT the party I asked for one of the sugar cookies. THey gave me one and he sang like a pro. ONce he barked which is a nono..and I said ok..we will stop and everyone in the room said NOOOOOOOooooooo keep going! so we did. THe other dogs did tricks too, but Victor is the only singer..and the only one that says please in a polite quiet voice. IT is a crowd pleaser. Working on Pepper with this now. WE have a conversation. I say..is it cold out side? SHe says ruufff...do i need my boots? ruuuffff ruff. A leash? WE are working on it. SHe is learning to control her voice and even joined in a bit of a song one day. Maybe I will have a duet going next year.

Hahaha, this is what Oakley does too...

He won;t accept treats from strangers. Even REALLY good ones. He spits them out & won't eat them until we get in the car & I feed them to him.

And he is a total treat snob as well.



Glad to hear Victor's singing was a hit!!

IF your doing therapy work and you can get your dog to do this it really is good at bringing people out of their shells. I will never forget last year when all those women joined in..singing each line of jingle bells and listening for his line. IT was like they were willing him to go on which is exactly what you want, interaction.
There were some seriously shy people at the party we attended last week. Victor's skin is especially soft and delightful to touch. One lady in particular took a real interest in him and he stayed nicely with her. They took pictures so if I get one I will share. THere is a golden and a smaller dog that do this as a team. They were both dressed as Santa. The little one does tricks like jumping over the big one. Quite a hit. Another had on an elf costume complete with boots. I don't like to cover him up, kind of defeats the purpose of being able to pet him. He has a jingle bell collar where the jingle bells are riveted in. I had tried to make him one for years but the bells always cut the strings, even the fasteners I tried didn't hold. THis collar i have used for 4 years now and it is as bright and nice as the day I bought it. Got it at Petsmart.

I'm so glad he was willing to work for sugar cookies, LOL (they work on Kevin too, hehe)

Sounds like he did a good job, I think the work you and Vic do is great! Hopefully Pepper can join in soon too

I don't know if I mentioned when my daughter was in the hospital, a lady came in with a retired greyhound.........very sweet old girl. My daughter isn't impressed with dogs, not a dog person, but I was very impressed with the girl, she seemed to understand who the sick person was and wanted to ease her pain

I don't know if Pepper ever will. For one, when she sees a new dog, her hackles come up. She doens't do anything about it, handles herself great at the off leash park with no problem, but i don't think the testers would like it. THe other is the licking. If i try to persuade her not to, she is heart broken. Also if people squeel and bend down she is going to kiss them right on the mouth. I have tried to redirect this to shaking hands, but when she does, she stops looking at them, puts her paw out, but you can tell she thinks she is in trouble. WE have made such good progress in two years that I don't want to force anything in this direction. I have never been licked so much in my life. She's a kissy kid.

All hail King Vic - bring on the freeze dried beef! Oh Vic, he's a special one for sure.