Jasmine has to be forced to eat, most days. Otherwise she'll sit and guard her food all day, protecting it from everything except ants. Then she won't want to eat it later either, because the ants bite her nose.
So now we have a game, in which she has to eat her food before a mean old stick gets it. One of us mans the stick, which constantly tries to sneak up and grab her food when she stops eating. She gets annoyed, snaps at the stick, and eats a little more.
Sometimes this game takes a while to finish, so I pull out a chair.
Guess what greeted me the last time I did that?
A green
I just love how he aligned himself with the green stripe, for camouflage!
His profile.
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13 comments:
Perhaps you should warn him that if he's going to hang around in a chair it's better to be conspicuous than cunningly disguised as a green stripe just as people sit down ...
Yes, our Pyrenees was a picky eater too. Some days he'd eat almost nothing; other days a lot. I think it goes with the breed, especially in the heat.
At obedience class, they said never leave uneaten food sitting around: put the food down, give the dog a reasonable time to eat it - like 10 mintues - then take it away till next meal time. (I forget what that was supposed to accomplish.) But we never did that. Like you, we worried that our Pyr didn't eat enough. We kept a bowl of dry food out for him all the time (he ate in the house, so we didn't have the ant problem), and added a bit of our food or canned dog food at dinner time to prime his appetite.
He was always lean (around 98 lbs) but totally healthy until he died at age 8 from a kidney ailment.
Love your tale of stick prompting, and the green frog on the stripe!
Um. She might not need any supplemental food to her high-protien daily allotment of eggs...
???
;)
Gorgeous frog. Keeping it?
Trippy frog, man...that top shot is from "2001 - a Frog Odyssey" isn't it?
Love the frog! The way tree frogs hang onto things fascinates me. Quite the brilliant green on that fellow too!
Sara I'm just glad I looked before I sat!
Thanks Lin. I'm surprised that they'd even take a Pyr in obedience class, LOL. We have done that with Jasmine (putting her food away after 10 minutes), if she just flatly refuses to eat.
Jenn, well she ate them all so no more duck eggs for her!
QG, as a pet you mean? Nah, we'll just enjoy watching them in the yard. Plus, we don't need any more pets that you have to feed bugs to!
Oh Jer you are making me feel old. Hey wait, you're old too! I think I have several months on you though, so you have to obey me at all times. :)
Sunidesus, yeah they have quite the grip! I love how they have such individual spot patterns too.
The nature you encounter near your home is just stunning. Thanks for sharing! :)
I'll second what Lin said. I had a Pyr many, many years ago and she was an infrequent eater. I did pick up her food when she didn't eat it within a half hour or so. As with Lin's dog, my girl was lean all of her almost 13 years with us.
In the rural parts of these livestock guarding breeds' countries of origin, they were out with the flocks for extended periods of time with little interaction with the shepherds. They didn't get regular meals. They scavenged what they could. Stands to reason that they have dodgy appetites.
Sweet frog!
Thanks y'all. Karen, my brother says it all looks better here than in real life. :)
Julie come to think of it you may be right. A bit froggy-eyed at times anyway... well who wouldn't be!
C. Corax, I guess that makes sense. Jasmine, I'm sorry to say, would sometimes rather eat chicken poop than dog food. Sigh.
you really do a very nice job with the photos.... really liked this one!
Thanks L and Mark. Mark, you must have missed the few lines between the pics. The frog is a Green tree frog (Hyla cinerea). The chair's a KMart special!
Our Pyrs have always eaten much less than our smaller dogs---lower metabolism, I guess. Fionn likes to guard his food, too---he doesn't want it, but doesn't want anybody else to have it, either. Lately he's partial to groundhogs that he drags home and works on for a few days.
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