A Lovely Cheese Pizza, Just For McGee

When we first began our Reactive Dog training class five weeks ago, one of the first questions the instructor asked was "Is your dog food motivated?" Dog Dad and I simultaneously shook our heads in dismay. Though The McGee does enjoy her mealtimes, no treat seems to be important enough to keep her attention when she is reacting to another dog.

The list of foods we have tried is starting to sound like fodder for a Shel Silverstein poem:

What's in the fanny pack today, Boss?

Chicken Sausage, Spinach, Lamb,
Broccoli Tops and Cubes of Ham,
Hotdogs cut in bite size nibbles,
Ground Beef mixed with Doggie Kibbles,
Zukes, Cloud Star, Buddy Biscuits,
Tortilla Chips or maybe Triscuits,
Parmesan and Sweet Potatoes.
No Dog, you can't have Tomatoes.

I could go on and on here, but you get the idea: this dog is not easily pleased.

We chuckled during our week one class meeting when the gal in charge mentioned that she has seen people resort to ordering a pizza for their dog. Hahaha, isn't that so funny that someone would be that desperate to get their dog's attention?

Knock on wood people, knock on wood. If there is one thing we are learning from this class, it's that when the teacher speaks "hypothetically" or talks about that "1 dog in every billion", she is speaking directly to us. It's like if you were a middle school teacher who needed to address the issue of one kid who really needs to start wearing deodorant, you'd address the whole class so the kid doesn't feel embarrassed and hope that your point gets across. That's us with the pizza.

Yeah, McGee, you heard right. You really need to start taking this pizza eating thing more seriously for the comfort of everyone around you.

So this past Monday evening, we loaded up the car and I sat for the entire hour drive with a pizza box in my lap and a pair of kitchen scissors in my hand. That's right friends, I cut up an entire medium sized Papa Johns pizza into bite sized morsels for my dog. Then I bagged that sucker up and put my Ziplocs on the dashboard to warm over the defrosters. This is what it means to LOVE YOUR DOG.

Overall, McGee wasn't super ecstatic about the pizza like we hoped she'd be. The distraction of hearing or briefly glimpsing another dog was still more powerful for her than the alluring offer of some gooey pizza bites. While all the other dogs in class are now walking from cone to cone in an orderly follow-the-leader fashion in the center of the room, our little crew is still huddled behind baby gates and a tarp in the corner bracing ourselves for any moment that another dog might bark.

Though we don't feed her on class days so that she's extra hungry and ready to focus, McGee still had quite the food baby in her belly when we finished up on Monday night. Keeping her attention for a whole hour with other dogs in the room, as well as pre-class work with her buddy Mr. T, meant that McGee ate THE WHOLE PIZZA. I am so grossed out by this, I can't even tell you.

Since the pizza wasn't the enormous hit we thought it would be, not to mention the fact that I'm worried about the long term effects of letting my dog gorge herself on Papa Johns, I don't think it's an experiment we'll repeat. The good news is that, when we ran out of cheesy, doughy bartering chips, we still had a few minutes of class. In those few minutes, I think we may have discovered OUR NEW SECRET WEAPON. But more on that later...

How do you keep your dog focused on you when other dogs are around? What treats have you found work best?