[blparent] daughters, dogs and dinner

[Star Gazer]

This was the ending of my relationship with my guide dog, though my daughter threw food to her at a much younger age, think under a year. 
Separating the two didn't work as my dog would howl and my daughter would refuse to eat. 
Throwing food meant that my daughter was always hungry which meant she didn't sleep well. I was waking up with her the way you do with a newborn because she needed to eat. 
It was horrible. 
We had other issues too, and maybe I wasn't cut out to have a guide dog. That's fine. 
I found this behavior tough to deal with because the dog provides a great reaction when food is thrown. When the dog doesn't react, mom and dad sure do and that's fun too. 
You could probably work on this behavior and if you have the time and energy, no harm in trying. I didn't, see my earlier comment about lack of sleep. 
If you can both be present for meal times, maybe one of you could sit with the dog and correct for accepting food and the other correct your daughter for throwing? It will mean meal times will suck at your house at least for some time. It will also mean what should be a one person process will become a two person process. It's up to you if this is something you can and want to try. 

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jodie and Kahlan
Sent: Friday, January 17, 2014 7:12 PM
To: blparent at nfbnet.org
Subject: [blparent] daughters, dogs and dinner

Hi. Chris and I have a two year old daughter and a two year old dog, and the daughter keeps giving the dog treats. We keep Falla on tie down while I’m cooking dinner and we’re eating. We used to keep her in her crate, but the crate broke tonight when I was trying to get Kahlan out of it. She likes to unzip it and get in there with Falla. We’re going to solve that by getting her a hard crate with an actual door instead of zippers.

But we had Falla on tie down and Kahlan throws her food on the floor. 
She threw it straight to Falla. She didn’t lunge for it or try to take it from her; Kahlan threw it to her. She’s as far away as she can get and still be in the same room. We want to keep her in the same room because she’s very food oriented and we want her to know that it’s not OK to take the food and we want Kahlan to know it’s not OK to give it to her, or throw it on the floor at all for that matter. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

--
Hugs from Jodie and kahlan
"Gratitude is the elixir of life"
unknown
_______________________________________________
blparent mailing list
blparent at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blparent:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blparent_nfbnet.org/pickrellrebecca%40gmail.com