28 August 2008
Nearly four years ago, Marita Beth and I were “gifted” in the form of a very young puppy found wandering in our front yard. The next door neighbour had rung us up one morning at 0730 to find out if we had accidentally let our dog out. Of course, we had not, ‘Tia was still sound asleep in her crate and we in our bed. This scrawny, little cross-eyed border collie puppy became a source of neighbourhood searching for the next few weeks. Our next door neighbour’s kids put up signs, we contacted the Border Collie rescue society, the pound and the local pet stores. No one seemed to own or want this dog despite caring enough to put a very expensive shock collar on his neck sans tags. As TRF approached we tried harder but found no success. Eventually we had to make a choice: the pound, or the kennel? Since the pound wouldn’t/couldn’t guarantee he’d live through the weekend, we took him with ‘Tia to the “pet hotel” (kennel) where we, obviously, had to get all of his shots and papers up-to-date. So, $300 later, that little Border Collie became Cormac and the newest member of the family.
During his travails as a solo pup scrounging for food, he picked up the habit of absolutely devouring his food in as quick a fashion as possible. In fact, he could put down an entire bowl of dry kibbles in less than 10 seconds. We did lots of research and found no effective way to curb this behaviour, and four years later we still can’t slow him down. So, an old incomplete croquet set came to the rescue and in went three balls. The subject of my photo.
If you have any thoughts on how to slow down a dog that thinks he’s ravenous and will never eat again, I’m all ears. Four years later it’s just irritating and I wish he’d slow his eating. Five minutes after he’s done, ‘Tia will finally finish her meal and have a bit of water as a nice post-dinner relaxer. Cormac should learn from her.
Cheers.
~KR (Written on 29 August 2008 )
Listening to:
One Tin Soldier by Coven
from Super Hits of the Seventies
Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.8 sec (4/5)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire
Our baby is NOT cross-eyed! You should apologise!
~MB
Buy Cormac a copy of Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (or Dogs). There’s some great information in there about making the paradigm shift from the Scarcity Mentality to the Abundance Mentality to better achieve a Win/Win. Definitely worth the read!
Ohh, MB, but he was. He most definitely was.
~KR
Thanks Mary. The book didn’t work for me, I’m guessing it won’t work overmuch for the illiterates in the family.
I’ve had the honor (the amusement) of watching this event in action. The extremely intelligent Cormac indeed inhales all the food w/in seconds. I personally think the balls are a brilliant deterent. Covey… *grin*, Mary you’re really funny. (7 habits happens to have been one of my favorite self-help/motivational books – but alas, like Kyle… there’s no helping some of us.)Love to you all!
Interesting approach. Has the croquet set helped?
Actually yes. There’s a new bowl on the market that does the same basic thing, but it has three stationary posts. The balls roll around, so Cormac can just easily push them out of the way while still gulping his food. The stationary posts will force him to slow down and eat around them. I think I’ll be getting one of those bowls for him soon.
~KR
Since you’re unwilling to even try the Steven Covey approach.
Have you talked to Dan? Is there some Doggie Enrichment Program thing that might help? The balls do seem like a pretty good trick, though.
Actually, no, I haven’t. But, that’s a fine idea. Maybe Bert has a suggestion or two, as well. I’d not even thought of that.
Yeah, I would think Dan, Bert, or Thom Barrows would be good people to ask.