Alvin

Alvin
Alvin sticks out his tongue when he is nervous

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Treat time has never been so dangerous

I previously wrote about Alvin's obsession with food and although many of his behaviors have tapered off, his reaction to food is still a sight to behold.  In the presence of food he becomes an entirely different dog and is bold and well, completely crazy.  He continues to have a hard time managing bites of food and sometimes he is able to bite down correctly and sometimes he has to repeatedly spit the food out because he seems to forget how to bite down.  For the life of me, I can't figure that one out.  His food lunacy, coupled with his confusion of when to bite down has led to treat time being any one's guess as to if I am going to come out of it with all my fingers.  It's really become the Russian Roulette of the dog world.  One would think the obvious answer would be to eliminate treats but my other foster dog takes a medication before bedtime and although she literally will eat anything edible, she refuses to eat her chewable pill and so I have to bury it in a piece of hot dog, which has led to everyone getting a piece of hot dog before bedtime.  The other obvious solution would be that I would not hand feed the piece of hot dog to Alvin but with my very obvious ADHD, along with being able to hand feed two dogs, I often just automatically put my hand down there and sometimes it goes great and sometimes I end up jerking my hand away, while swearing loudly and frantically looking for blood on my hand and a finger on the floor.  Between Alvin insisting of running into my legs and running circles around me while I try to walk and lunging for my fingers when treats are present, I am going to be fortunate if I come out of all of this with no body parts missing or broken.  The irony is that this is the dog normally so afraid of hands and yet put a bit of food in one and not only will he readily approach but he will put it halfway down his throat.  I so very much wish his otherwise fear of hands could be transferred to a fear of feet because his complete lack of fear of feet has led to me doing many of those multiple hopping trips where I repeatedly stumble over Alvin and end up kicking him around.  I can't properly articulate how bad I feel when I accidentally scare or hurt Alvin and to basically drop kick him across the room makes me feel like a monster but then I look down and there he is right back for more.  I have heard of Velcro dogs but Alvin requires his own definition because if I even move a leg he is up running towards me and gets in his circle weave position.  I find that I am reluctant to adjust my body at all because after having a dog run towards me over and over again it begins to drive home the point that I am sitting on my butt too much.  Yet, the couch is one of the only places where I can ensure that I won't fall and break a leg, lose a finger, or kick a dog.  Let's all just keep hoping that Alvin doesn't decide he likes being on the couch because then I will have no safe haven.

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