Creating Rituals: Patience & Persistence

This morning was like many other mornings. The hounds where sphinxing in the dining room while I prepared their meals, attentive to my every move. Axel was downright stoic as he waited for me to finish. He started this routine nearly a year ago, now. Abbey has only been doing it for a few weeks. Waiting for food, to my hounds, is one of the most difficult tasks imaginable yet the most rewarding. You can see them quiver with the anticipation, waiting to hear the release command or their name that calls them to come eat. Never have I cut up a chicken more slowly than this morning, though. One of the house rules is no hounds in the kitchen. Every time I walked towards the cutting board, Abbey would stand up and try to approach. We developed a dance of sorts which did not amuse Axel at all. Abbey would approach, I would put down the knife, then I would gently, determinedly remind Abbey to go lay down next to Axel. I stopped counting after two times and just dug in my heels. We were going to make this work and I was going to give Abbey my undivided attention in this task. Cutting up a chicken with my favorite knife should take less than five minutes. This morning we spent twenty excruciating minutes of me working on the chicken then me working with Abbey, back and forth, back and forth.

How many times have we heard “Patience is a virtue” chirped at us by a well-meaning soul? More likely than not we then ran off to our next task perhaps even before finishing the first. I think that for many, many people, feeding your canine companion is one of those many chores discharged hastily and thoughtlessly. A healthy dog generally inhales their meal, after all. I think that it has become this self-feeding cycle of behavior that is at the very least a missed opportunity and at its very worst a recipe for disaster. We serve it hastily and without much ceremony, so our companion gobbles it up quickly. Our rapid pace and lack of attention during the routine can create an unnecessary sense of urgency that feeds anxious behavior such as resource guarding. Resource guarding is a serious issue that can potentially lead to anxiety-aggression if ignored. A healthy relationship with your canine companion should have you as the source of shared resources, not the holder of resources that need to be taken away at the first opportunity.

“Twenty excruciating minutes” — even I complain about a process taking up 1% of my day. One percent! And it’s only 2% if you take into consideration only the time that I am awake. This inconvenient and untimely training cost us our morning two mile walk, I justified. The truth is that when I thought about it at the end, feeding the hounds always takes twenty minutes. We just get to spend it differently. A friend was recently telling me of her feeding routine. She feeds each of her three hounds by hand, one at a time. During that time she slowly feeds bit by bit and makes a point to constantly touch the hound she is feeding. The other waiting hounds are on their beds resting until they are called over for their turn to eat their meal. Her reasoning was fantastic. One, it made her slow down and spend time with each of her hounds individually. Also, she could set a reasonable pace that did not cause anxiety over the availability of resources. Then, she incorporates the touching so her hounds do not become defensive if she needs to reach in and take something from their mouths. Finally, they all learn patience and are rewarded heftily for it.

Irene is a Greyhound Welfare foster that I was dogsitting over the weekend. She appeared to have some resource guarding issues when in her crate and eating. In particular, she would growl and bark at Axel if he came within even a few feet of her. I decided to give her a challenge. I brought Axel and Abbey to sit beside her crate, within a few inches. Irene sat in her crate and watched, no growling or barking, attentive to me for the most part. I then began to treat the three of them for sitting together. Even with the treats out, no barking or growling came from Irene as she did everything she could to impress me. Pleasantly surprised, I decided to try making meal time more of a challenge for the foster girl. First, we worked on ‘crate’ as a command. Holding her bowl, I would only feed her a bite of food when she entered her crate. She would hop in and out at first with the excitement of meal time, then you could see the lights turn on behind her eyes. After the fifth time, she would stay in the crate longer, anticipating that I would give her a bite. With only a little bit of her food left, I decided challenge her even further. Leaving her door open, I brought Axel over to sit outside of her crate. I proceeded to feed Irene the rest of her meal bit by bit, occasionally giving some to Axel. Again, Irene was perfectly happy to share food with Axel. I was just confident enough that she was not going to be threatened by Axel’s presence that I set the bowl down just inside the door to her crate. She and Axel licked the bowl clean together then got on with their lives. Not more than fifteen minutes passed during the meal.

Irene is a sweet and smart little girl. Her personality is complex, just like any other canine or even our own. While there is often no simple solution or simple behavior, it is amazing the clarity that we can be rewarded with when we decided to give our companions even just 1% of our day in purposeful attention. Then, when we commit to that same amount of time, patiently and consistently — daily — the opportunity for reflection can become profound. As I have mentioned before, true resource aggression is a serious problem that can lead to injuries of ourselves and our companions if handled improperly. It was only after observing Irene at feeding times for the entire weekend that I made the choice to bring in Axel to help her. My observations of Irene led me to believe that she was anxious about Axel’s presence more so than aggressive about protecting her food from him. As always, Axel impresses me with how he can go from big and goofy to serious and working mode in a heartbeat. I’m not sure if it is me giving off those signals or if it is the dog we’re working with that tells him to shape up, but I’ll certainly be thinking about it in the future!