Unwanted treats!

Feral_Moon

Person_one wrote: »

Surely you don't think people (whatever their age) are doing this with hostile or nefarious intentions?

I just don't understand the mentality behind someone offering another person's dog treats. They're training tools, not to be handed out like smarties.

Same as I wouldn't dream of offering sweets to strange children either and especially not without parental permission.

Pollycat

Feral_Moon wrote: »

What on earth is a shiddie?

My concern is not just dietary but can also affect behavioural aspects. If people ask my permission and I give them appropriate treats, and they make him work them, then fine. This is something I encouraged visitors to the house to do to ensure he learned to sit and wait for visitors to greet him rather then rush to the door and jump all over people. After all, nobody wants a 45kg dog jumping up at them!

But, dogs aren't stupid and they will go to the person with treats in their pocket, often ignoring their owners. Especially if they sneakily get fed these treats without owner's knowledge or permission. He was also learning he could get treats without having to work for them, therefore started to ignore simple commands from me and look to others for treats. GSD are highly intelligent dogs!

I've unfortunately had to withdraw my dog from our walking group as a result of this so I can re-train him to listen to me first and foremost. As I said before, the walking group was just playtime as far as I was concerned. No need to carry or offer treats to dogs. And no, these weren't "elderly people who mean well".

I would never dream of giving a treat to someone else's dog and I don't carry treats whilst out walking as my dog is(was) extremely well trained.

ETA: one of my major concerns over this is that my dog suddenly started to think everyone was fair game to go visit as he might get a treat from them. In reality, with these new laws in place, he was risking his life because if someone felt threatened by him running over (and many people are frightened of GSD) then he could be destroyed under the DDA

Couldn't you have just announced to the whole group that you do not want anyone giving your dog a treat (and explain your very valid resons for that)?

Person_one

Feral_Moon wrote: »

I just don't understand the mentality behind someone offering another person's dog treats. They're training tools, not to be handed out like smarties.

Same as I wouldn't dream of offering sweets to strange children either and especially not without parental permission.

Not everybody thinks that way. Some people think treats are treats, nice things for dogs to have, a way to interact with other people's dogs, a way to be sociable with the owners, a nice gesture.

Its incredibly unlikely that anybody is setting out for a walk with a pocket full of dog treats cackling slyly to themselves looking forward to disrupting some training and ruining some special diets just for kicks. Not much of a hobby is it?

Just explain politely to people why you don't want them to give your dog treats, smile and move on.

helcat26

I once asked a man in a pub if he would mind if if I gave his dog a piece of my leftover steak.


He replied that he wouldn't mind if I gave him a bit of my leftover steak too!:rotfl:

missbiggles1

Feral_Moon wrote: »

I just don't understand the mentality behind someone offering another person's dog treats. They're training tools, not to be handed out like smarties.

Same as I wouldn't dream of offering sweets to strange children either and especially not without parental permission.

Most people don't have such a utilitarian view of treats as you do, TBF, for most of us a treat is just that.

Not that I'd give a treat to anybody else's dog without asking, just putting a rather more relaxed point of view.

dontone

I've just come across this thread, but I posted on the 'irritations' thread the other day because we were landed with a bill of £150 from the vets all because of someone's else's stupidity.
Basically, my dog loves kids, he'll woof and wag his tail/bum if any kids says hello. The other day, a woman with 2 kids came up to the gate and my dog went to greet them, I was upstairs and heard him bark so went to look out of the window.
One of the kids had something in him hand, and offered it to my dog, so I started banging on the window to get the mother's attention, no sooner had I started to do so, the child turned to the mother, and must have asked if he could feed the dog, to which the mother nodded her head and must have said something like 'go on then'
Anyway, my dog ended up scoffing what was thrown, and me and DH run out side to try and get whatever it was off our dog (too late) and I ended up shouting up the road to the woman wanting to know what it was...
Turned out they'd fed him Jaffa Cakes - dark chocolate.
Needless to say we weren't very pleased, in fact I was furious, and as we didn't know how many were thrown in and eaten, we had to take him in to the vets to make him throw everything up. Our dog has stomach issues anyway, so it was a case of making sure he was ok.
So the moral of the story is that no-one has the right to feed someone else's dog, especially chocolate. Not without permission. Not blaming the kid, but the stupid woman should have known better. I'm just thankful that I saw what happened or else our dog could have got really ill and we wouldn't have known why.

Person_one

dontone wrote: »

I've just come across this thread, but I posted on the 'irritations' thread the other day because we were landed with a bill of £150 from the vets all because of someone's else's stupidity.
Basically, my dog loves kids, he'll woof and wag his tail/bum if any kids says hello. The other day, a woman with 2 kids came up to the gate and my dog went to greet them, I was upstairs and heard him bark so went to look out of the window.
One of the kids had something in him hand, and offered it to my dog, so I started banging on the window to get the mother's attention, no sooner had I started to do so, the child turned to the mother, and must have asked if he could feed the dog, to which the mother nodded her head and must have said something like 'go on then'
Anyway, my dog ended up scoffing what was thrown, and me and DH run out side to try and get whatever it was off our dog (too late) and I ended up shouting up the road to the woman wanting to know what it was...
Turned out they'd fed him Jaffa Cakes - dark chocolate.
Needless to say we weren't very pleased, in fact I was furious, and as we didn't know how many were thrown in and eaten, we had to take him in to the vets to make him throw everything up. Our dog has stomach issues anyway, so it was a case of making sure he was ok.
So the moral of the story is that no-one has the right to feed someone else's dog, especially chocolate. Not without permission. Not blaming the kid, but the stupid woman should have known better. I'm just thankful that I saw what happened or else our dog could have got really ill and we wouldn't have known why.

I think the moral of that story is that you shouldn't let your dog be alone at the front of your house where people walk past if he has stomach issues that serious. I presume after this you won't?

dontone

Person_one wrote: »

I think the moral of that story is that you shouldn't let your dog be alone at the front of your house where people walk past if he has stomach issues that serious. I presume after this you won't?

Actually, he is watched, perhaps I should point out that he run to the gate and barked as soon as he was let out by DH, who was watching from the back door (our garden is a big corner plot) and I was already upstairs & looked out of the window and saw the woman and kids walk up to the gate. TBH, we've never had problems with people walking past before. More often than not, kids will just say hello to him and walk past, or there is a little boy who walks past with his mam now and again who adores him and won't go until he strokes his ears. Never have we had anybody feeding him.
What I was trying to point out that other than owners, no one has the right to give your dog anything without permission. It could prove to be very costly. Watching is one thing, but sometimes it's not possible to be that fast and catch what is being thrown in to a garden as a treat. But thanks for pointing it out anyway.

teddysmum

Feral_Moon wrote: »

What on earth is a shiddie

Yorkshire terriers are refereed to as yorkies, Chihuahuas as chis , and shih tzus as shiddies.


You obviously aren't of the small dog fraternity.

sangie595

As a rule (there are some fortunate exceptions), dogs are food junkies. There are two rules to avoid this. Train them not to take food from anyone or anywhere else, other than you. Don't let them into a place where other people might feed them when you are not in control of the "no" word. Yes, it is annoying when other people think they are being kind to your dog. If you aren't present or in control of your dog, then the responsibility for the crap they are fed is yours. Any dog that is watched, trained, and under the owners control, isn't in a position to take food from someone else.

I agree that other people shouldn't give "treats" to our dogs, our kids, and probably to us either. But sometimes they do. I can choose not to eat the chocolate. I can tell the kids not to eat it (good luck with that). But smart as my dog is he doesn't rationalise that it isn't good for him. So I am responsible for ensuring he stays fit and healthy, and is trained to make the right choices.