I'm the biggest jerk and Leo is the best dog ever.
So, Leo is great with his meal times. He will not touch his food unless I say Ok, and then I still sometimes have to say it with the perfect pitch for him to eat. That being said, he is HUGELY food motivated, and wants his food very very badly when I put it down.
So, I decided to do an experiment. I put his food in the bowl, aimed my phone (which was recording) at the dog bowl, and then completely left the house without giving his release word, in an experiment to see how long it would take until he would help himself.
Anyways, I go for a walk, but it's pretty cold, so after ten minutes I go back, thinking surely he has eaten by now. Well...not only did Leo NOT TOUCH his food that entire 10 minutes, but he spent all 10 minutes in a downstay whining pitifully at it. I'm so mean!
Now I am truly curious how long it would take for him to break down and eat it, but I don't want to torture my dog like that so I guess we will never know.