Rural Moms Can Survive Training an Old Dog New Tricks – Part 2

As you may recall from last week’s post: My hubby and I want to train our gal Pyrenees, Snowflake (age 5,) to be a little less hoggish when it comes to accepting treats… meaning she butts in and tries to gobble up our guy Pyrenees’ treats instead of listening to our commands (generally to “sit.”)

We selected Milk-Bone®, Pup-Peroni, and Milo’s Kitchen treats to accomplish the task.  Milk-Bone® has long been a favorite of mine as they cater to the need of all sizes of dogs, including special treats for large breeds.  Plus, they are made with quality ingredients and my dogs love ’em.

So, how did Snowflake do?  Were we able to teach this old dog to remember her new tricks?

Well… we are certainly making progress!  Here’s how we did it:

First, we decided to give Snowflake a Milk-Bone® treat per norm.  As you can see from the picture below, that went about as expected.  She nudged in front of our big guy and rather than listening to my son’s command to “sit,” she jumped up to snatch the treat. 

Our next step was then to gently restrain Snowflake and encourage her to “sit” and wait her turn for treat while giving our big guy a Milk-Bone® snack (he is a gent, with no problems with patience or sitting upon command.)  We gave her positive reinforcement with “good girl” comments (a phrase she understands for its meaning.)

After a few tries, Snowflake seemed to get the picture and sat nicely, on her own, when offered her snack.  We stopped at three treats as to not over-load the dogs with too many.  We certainly could use smaller treats, too, but with large breeds, they barely get a taste before it’s swallowed.  The large dog Milk-Bone treats are more enjoyable for them.

Disclosure:  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias #iLoveMyK9 All opinions and insights are my own.