Re: Automatic Pellet Dispenser

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"jack ak" <akjack@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:4bsDh.222

> It is my opinion that your dog(s) should know who is providing the
> treat.  Use your hand to dispense treats.
>
> If you don't have the time to reward your dog(s) with personal
> attention, maybe you should give the animal(s) to someone who has time
> for the dogs.

Dude, I virtually *live* with these dogs.  They are all quite young and have
been rescued from certain death.  They are dogs that NOBODY wanted.  They
all have moderate to severe medical problems and have to live in large and
expensive crates, separate from each other lest they do what dogs do and
re-infect themselves or injure one another.  The rescue dogs that my wife
brings home have been given up by their owners for euthanasia or been found
lose and turned into private vets.  They are the very lost of lost that were
abandoned, no, actually destined for death, and I am trying my damndest to
use my HA skills to care for them the best that I can.  So you can see why I
feel your advice is not well-informed.

We can't watch them 24 hours a day but I do watch them either in person or
via video/audio cam almost every second when we are not interacting with
them directly.  That interaction is measured in long hours every day.  Four
dogs consume an enormous amount of food and attention.  One of the dogs
slept with us )-: every night in a snuggie and hot water bottle and after it
first arrived because it was so malnourished and feeble that at one point it
required mouth-to-mouth to keep breathing.  Now it's strong enough to pull
itself up onto a table with just its front paws like a little Ahnold S.  I
play at least an hour of fetch with her a day and she can retrieve any of
her toys (bone, ball, bottle, rope, dumbbell and kong) by name.  That
doesn't just happen if a dog sits in a crate all day.

What I want to do now is deliberately reward them for sitting quietly,
chewing on their crate toys when I am upstairs watching TV or reading.  Were
I to descend the stairs and approach them, they would all think it's feeding
or outside time or play time or poo time or whatever and the dog concerto
would begin.   A nice, quiet pellet dropped to a nice quiet dog only makes
them more adoptable.   We've already committed to as many as we can save and
feed and care for medically.  The problem is once you rescue one dog, you
get known as a repository for problem dogs and now we're having to turn away
dogs and it's painful.

I'm trying my best to train these dogs to have some qualities that will find
them a full-time owner and not just a temporary reprieve from the needle.
But first, we have to cure them and to do that, they have to be separated in
their crates and handled with veterinary protocols.  Shelters that double up
do that at great peril.

1,000 Dogs, Cats Killed At Nevada Shelter
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/16/national/main2485137.shtml

Behavior modification says to ignore bad behavior and reward good, and
that's what I *should* be doing with you but I wanted to take the
opportunity to ask you if you'd like a rat terrier with probably lethal
heart valve problem that will die if she gets too excited or doesn't get
$1,800 surgery, a Jack Russell terrier with collapsed trachea that snores
like a bassoon when sleeping among other problems, biological and
behaviorial, a "boodle" nearly blind from untreated eye parasites that
barks, interminably, at anything that moves and what looks like a 8 week old
labradoodle infested with worms, pink-eye and nearly dead from hypothermia.
The number of "Christmas" puppies that are abandoned would stun you so I'll
drag out my soapbox:

Ye Olde Puppy Shoppe
http://www.capitalpaws.com/nochristmaspuppies/puppyshoppe.html

A Forgotten Dog's Christmas
http://www.capitalpaws.com/nochristmaspuppies/twasthenight.html

No Holiday Puppies!
http://www.sfbaywestieclub.com/holidaypup.htm

No Christmas Puppies, Please!
http://www.petrescue.com/library/no-pups.htm

The Holiday Aftermath
http://www.petrescue.com/library/aftermath.htm

Puppies As Christmas Presents?
http://www.cyberpet.com/cyberdog/articles/lexi/cmgifts.htm

A Rescue Dog's Christmas
http://www.capitalpaws.com/nochristmaspuppies/rescuedogchristmas.html

OK, now that we've got *that* out of the way do you have any *useful*
suggestions <sigh> about building a pellet dispenser?  It's only because you
seem concerned with the dog's welfare that I even bothered responding.

Bill K.  If you've made it down here, see what I mean?  Ask a technical
question, get a lifestyle critique.  My favorite example is what happens to
people who seek to limit their children's viewing or computer time
electronically.  That always draws at least as many "you bad daddy" posts as
it does helpful suggestions.  Personally, I think it's never too early to
introduce the idea that if you don't pay your bills, they turn off the
lights.

--
Bobby G.