From: hannah@pomponio.ai.sri.com (Marsha Jo Hannah)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
Subject: Re: dog and cat problem
Date: 26 Aug 92 18:55:51 GMT
Organization: SRI International, Menlo Park, CA
In-reply-to: pdsmith.mitre.org's message of 24 Aug 92 16:06:31 GMT

In article <1992Aug24.160631.13617@linus.mitre.org> pdsmith.mitre.org (Pat Smith) writes:

  Background:  5 year old husky dog lives with 2 cats.  They do well together
  including dinner time - all eat together.

  Problem:  things are fine as long as the dog has food in his bowl.  He is
  sneaking cat food when we aren't looking as the cats dry bowls generally have
  food in them cause they are picky eaters.  He sometimes gets caught and hangs
  his head.  We punish him when he is caught (No and gets put out).  He 
  understands what he is doing wrong but continues to do it.  Occasionally, he
  had cornered the cat and prevented her from feeding - he barked at her and 
  snipped at her once.  He was punished for that and knew he was wrong.  Last
  weekend we found him taking a mouthful of cat food and tranporting it to his
  bowl and then he proceeds to eat from his own bowl cause that is okay. 
  I suspect he has been doing this clever deed for some time as we leave him 
  alone as long as he has his snoot in his own bowl.

  Any suggestions.  I really want them to eat together and out of their 
  respective bowls.  A trainer was amazed that they could eat together.  SInce
  we achieved that, I would like to keep it that way and not have to put up the
  cat bowls everytime the dog is in the house.  The dog is also gained some
  weight due to his increased appeitite and cat food supplements which are not
  good for him.

(Sorry to use cat bandwidth for a dog problem, but my reply bounced.)

Many years ago, we had a Siberian Husky, whom we trained to stay out
of the cat bowls.  Now, granted, Muka was a female (spayed), and we
started when she was a puppy.  What we did was, every time we caught
her with her nose in the bowl, we "telescoped" her into it, THEN told
her NO!  That is, whoever caught her swiftly and firmly applied the
instep of his foot to her backside (the move used by soccer players),
such that her nose made a crash landing either in the cat food bowl or
with the cupboard door behind it.  Yes, it made a mess, scattering cat
food and water all over the place.  However, it also made an
impression on Muka, and as you have probably learned by now, the
northern breeds are somewhat difficult to impress, when it comes to
obedience.  She kept "feeling out the rules", and discovered that she
was permitted to clean up the floor around the cat bowl (which I
considered to be a plus), but not put her nose into the bowl.  She
then decided that if she "accidentally" stepped on the edge of the
bowl and spilled it on the floor, she could clean that up.  We
"explained" that this behavior was not permitted, either, and
thereafter, she followed the rules.  Note that this requires
consistency, which requires vigilence.  Whenever you can't watch the
dog every second, pick up the cat food bowl.

With a husky, and particularly with a male, YOU have to be the top
dog, i.e. what you say has to be THE LAW.  If you are just saying No
and quietly escorting him outside, you are in a sense letting him off
the hook.  You should be screaming NO!, grabbing him by the scruff of
the neck (and of the rump, if you need a 2-handed grip), carrying him
to the door, and literally throwing him out it.  The proverbial saying
attributed to mule-training really applies to huskies---first you have
to get their attention, *then* talk to them!

Marsha Jo Hannah