Alex and Bella had stir-fry for dinner this evening. These are the ingredients:
- 1 celery stick
- 1 carrot
- 3 cabbage leaves
- Cilantro
- 2 ground beef/pork meatballs
- 1 Omega-3 Capsule (Alex Only)
- 1/2 Oste0 Pet (Alex Only)
- Ginger powder (Excellent for arthritis)
For the record, I do not allow Alex, Bella or any of the dogs that stay with us to try to get up on the counter to steal food. That is why Bella looks a little confused when Cynthia was trying to get her to check out her food. Yes, the canine kid was good, the pet parent…Bad, to say the least.
I started by cooking the 2 meatballs on a little bit of oil by themselves. Once they were almost done, I added all the veggies. Because a pet parent reminded me that overcooking veggies would destroy their nutrition, I only “cook” the veggies for no longer than 1 – 2 minutes. Thanks for the tip.
The dish on the left is Bella’s, while the one on the right is Alex’s. This is the stir-fry mixed with their kibble. They both got 1 cup of human food and 1/2 cup of kibble. Because Bella inhales her food, I had to find a slow feed dog bowl, and without realizing it I found out that Bella already had one. Thanks to Will and Eko from marking our territory blog for the idea and information about slow feed dog bowls.
Training, as I said many times before, need to be incorporated on your every day life in order for it to be effective and make good use of it. Why do I say this? Because what would be the point of taking your dog to training classes when after a month or so your dog doesn’t remember anything.
Why did I go from feeding to training? Because Alex and Bella need to earn their food. How? By simply sitting and waiting while I prepared their food. Once I had their food ready, I asked, first Alex, to wait and then put her dish down so she can start eating. While I did that, Bella was on her spot on a sit/stay waiting for her food. I, then, put Bella’s dish down, asked her to “watch me,” the attention is to be directed towards me and not her dish. Once she did that, I gave her a hand signal and she had her dinner. They do this every time they eat. Is there anything in particular you ask your furry children to do prior to feeding them?
AllMyCanineCompanions 
Thamks for this, I think I will try this during the summer. Do you have any receipes that will keep bugs away?
No, I do not. Sorry:-(
No worries, last year I put my little ones on a vegetable, meats and garlic diet. Changing the type of meat weekly so they didn’t bored with the meal, and adding fresh garlic, which really cut down on the bugs trying to take a bite out them.
That’s great. I alternate spices such as oregano, parsley, cilantro, and basil.
It looks great, I will try your recipe too :o) thanks :o) Easy sits and waits for his food too ( but that’s the only reason for him to sit and wait lol) Have a super wednesday!
Great. Yes, try that recipe. You can add or subtract the amount of veggies and/or meat you use. Bella is actually better than Alex in the sense that she does her basic commands almost flawlessly. Have a great Wednesday too:-) and thanks for stopping by.
A flight attendant had a Seelyham Terrier, one of two dogs I would dog-sit when she was working. This particular dog has been in dog shows before. His owner told him to “sit” and “wait” before he could eat. Only when he was told he could eat, then he could eat.
I don’t have any special rule for Kita. She’s good about letting me take her food bowl (but we did have to teach her not to growl at us when it came to her bone).
I hadn’t known that you could cook veggies for a dog (Kita gets veggies in her kibble).
That’s excellent. Yes, pet parents need to teach their dogs that they could start eating when told to do so. This is part of training your dog, and it also teaches him/her to learn self-control. Alex and Bella don’t mind me putting my hand in their food bowl while they are eating, but if I do this is only to add more food. Neither one of them growl at me if I need to remove a bone away from them so I did not have to work on that. Yes, you could veggies for dogs, but like a pet parent reminded me, do not over cook them. The longest I cook them, stir-fry them, is 2 minutes and that is long. Most of the times is close to 1 minute. If you have recipes of your own, please share:-)
Sabbath has to sit while I put her food in her dish. Sometimes I make her wait until I put the scoop away, or for me to pat her on the head and ask her if she’s hungry just to make sure she understands I tell HER when to eat, and not the other way around. Then she must look at me and she will get a hand signal and / or a verbal “take it!”
BTW, if I ask her to do anything else besides to sit and wait, which she does very mannerly without fail, she just stares at me as if to say, “I sit and stay for kibble. You want me to do anything else, you’re going to have to up the ante.”
Wow! That’s excellent. Lol, your Sabbath is very smart. Yes, if you are going to ask her to do something else aside fom waiting, you will have to up the ante, and it seems as if Sabbath is very good at letting you know this. What a smart girl you have:-)
Smart and stubborn. Got that from the alpha male here! Hahaha!
Lol. Yes, let’s blame me on somebody else:-)
I get max to sit and then he doesn’t eat until I say ‘eat up’. If someone else feeds him (rare as if I’m in the house I must feed him otherwise he doesn’t eat properly- if I’m out the house he eats fine, strange dog) he will sit there confused if they walk off without saying eat up
That’s excellent. Wow! Max is amazing. Bella would inhale her food regardless of who is feeding her. Some dogs are a little picky. I had a boxer mix staying with us because his mom said that the dog walker was constantly being changed and if he did not know her he would not eat until his mom came back home close to midnight. In other words, he would not eat for almost 16 hours even though the food was in his dish. He did not trust very easy.
He’s been picky ever since we got him. He’s a rescue dog and the charity thought they had found him a home but he had to be taken back because the other dogs were bullying him by stealing his food and not letting him eat so I think his picky eating comes from that more than anything. We used to take him to day care once a week (there’s now no day when there’s no one at home) and he took months before he would drink out the communal bowl. They had to take him aside and give him water separately
Some dogs, just like us humans, have their own quirks. Poor baby. I have two dogs of my own, Alex and Bella, and I do not allow either one of them to steal food from one another. As a pet parent, it is up to me to set boundaries and make sure they are all fed without being stressed during meal time. Dogs like yours, usually take a while to get used to things, but with patience and consistency they get to be great dogs:-)
Really cool. I’m bookmarking this to remember to try it out sometime with my two.
Thanks. Yes, when and if you try it, let us know if they liked it.