Where do you feed your bones?

    • Gold Top Dog

    Where do you feed your bones?

    In bowls? On the kitchen floor? Outside?

    Ginny refused to keep her rec bones in her bowl, or on the laminated floor, and trots them all over the house...If I put her outside on the balcony she inevitably pushes the bone through the railings and it falls down to the ground below (I am in an apartment). I can't really gate off my kitchen due to the layout of the place. I've heard that teaching them to chew/eat RMBs/rec bones on a specific piece of blanket or something can work - does anyone do that?

    I just don't want gristle and bloodstains all over my carpet ;)

    • Gold Top Dog

    You can teach them that they have to eat their bone in a certain spot. Put them in that spot, and tell them to down then give them the bone. If they get up, you take the bone away until they lay back down in that spot. Just be really consistent and they'll pick it up. Spot = bone.

    If you have a crate for your dog you can put it in there too. 

    • Gold Top Dog

    Crates.  Always and without fail.

    • Gold Top Dog

    You could also tie a string around the bone and tether it to the wall on an eye hook next to her bed or something, so she's got no choice but to lay in that spot and chew it (stole that idea from Ian Dunbar..I like it!).

    Cherokee will NOT chew bones in the house. No clue why. If I give her a bone and don't let her outside, she just lays down with it next to her head and goes to sleep. Luckily I have a fenced yard, but still... And if I don't sit out there with her while she chews, 80% of the time she buries the bone within 2 minutes, and digs it up a week later. Ick!

    • Gold Top Dog

    Kobi has 2 spots where he is allowed to chew bones. 1.Outside 2.beside the kitchen table. I trained this exactly as described. Put Kobi in a down position - gave him the bone. If he tried to move the bone away from the area, I took the bone away, put him back down in the previous spot and returned the bone. It took about 10 minutes. Now I can give him his bone anywhere and he will walk over to his spot lie down and chew.   

    • Gold Top Dog
    Wow, I'm a dunce, I didn't even think about the crate! We have one but is pretty much just sits in a sideroom - Ginny never uses it, although she is crate-trained if for some reason I needed it. Duh! :) Thanks guys. I will try that.
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    • Gold Top Dog

     Bugsy has a special towel that he gets bones/ribs on.  we kept him in the kitchen with gates etc initially but now you take out the towel and he knows that if he takes it off the towel, the bone goes away, so he lays on his towel and never leaves it Big Smile

    • Gold Top Dog

     My guys have a bone blanket and thats where they stay if they want to keep their bone.Like someone else said,they quickly realise that moving from that spot equals no bone.It's a bit harder than locking them in a cage,but IMO better.Because my dogs dont always finish their bones all at once,they come and go off the blanket,caging wouldnt be an option anyway.

    • Gold Top Dog

     Crates.  They eat everything in their crates because I have three cats that will and do take food out from under them.  The cats are not dumb enough to try to get in the crates though, so I don't have to shut the doors.  Anytime I start serving up their bowls, the dogs run into their crates.  Plastic crate bottoms are easy enough to clean/sterilize.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Crates, only. Emma's door is usually open, since she knows better than to drag hers around the house, and she'll come out for air, every once in a while. Mine do lay down and at least strip their bones in one go (even if it takes HOURS... I love food motivated dogs!). They'll chew on them until I throw them away, despite the fact that I can't find a smell on the bone or see anything resembling meat. 

    • Gold Top Dog

    Yup, crates here too.  Crusher thinks he's is allowed to take anything he wants from Onyx, so I crate them.... it saves her from having to defend her bone.