Back Dog Treat Time

I used to use treats with the  Back Dogs, until I realized Brut (my-food-possessive-dog aggressive-territorial boy) turned into a psycho with food around.  So if I did I would only use it when Brut or the other three dogs were alone.  This has went on for over a year and a half and now I'm beginning to incorporate treats with all four dogs again. 

Our yogurt spoon feeding time has been helping all the dogs learn how to take turns.  Well, I decided to test this out.  I had Brut, Fiona, and Silver together in the house doing simple things like sit and lay down, all the while making Brut stay when it was someone else's turn by holding my "stop sign hand" in front of him.  Worked like a charm.

So today, I decided to take it one step further.  For one, I wore the treat belt, so there's no mistaking I HAVE TREATS as I walked out to the backyard with Brut on alert. I threw treats into our wading pool and had Brut grab them.  I let the other dogs come at their own will.  With the same "stop sign hand" I told Brut to stay and Silver and Fiona got their turns at bobbing for treats.  Zappa tried to come in close, but Brut snarled and he turned away.  And I let him, because it is better not to force these two together.  They will come together when they are comfortable with each other.

So we went back and forth between Brut bobbing for treats and Silver and Fiona.  It was obvious that Silver was feeling safe because, one, she was all the way in the pool and, two,  she got right in front of Brut to grab a treat.  My plan was working!!

When I was almost out of treats, I called an end to the game while things were still going good.  Then an interesting thing happened Brut, Silver and Fiona were all lined up sitting, so I praised them with treats.  Then next thing I know here comes Zappa at the end of the line and sitting for his treats with no fuss from Brut!!  SO COOL!!  I could have gotten a great snapshot of all four of them lined up!!  Which is another one of my goals, to get a picture of all the Back Dogs together at once.  My mind is clicking now.  BOL!!

So I will have to remember to have the camera close, unfortunately this time all I could do was pretend with them.  But I have this great moment saved in my memory forever and that's the best place it could be.  :)