Teaching Your Dog to Refuse Food
This should be the last lesson a dog is taught, and then only when the handler is satisfied that his dog is well-enough trained in every other aspect. It may be necessary, occasionally, to allow a dog to take meat from an assistant, when, say, the dog is having a refresher course, especially on a seek, if the dog has not had an opportunity to practise this work for some time.
The method is as follows. Stand with the dog on your left side on the lead and have an assistant about two yards in front of you and the dog. The assistant has a stick in his right hand, concealed behind him, and offers the dog a piece of meat in his left hand. As the dog moves towards the assistant’s left hand, to take the meat, the assistant hits the dog on his legs as hard as is necessary to prevent the dog taking the instead, which is all to the good and should be encouraged, as this tends to deter people offering food.
Practise for several days, changing the assistant during different times of the day, and in ever-changing places.
Next, get several assistants standing in a line to offer, in turn, meat to the dog, each one using his stick, when necessary, to prevent the animal taking the food.
After this exercise place the dog in the down position on grass land, the end of the lead being pegged into the ground. (Avoid placing meat on gravel, stony or sandy ground, because if the dog should by chance grab the meat he may take a stone with it into his stomach.) Get the assistant to drop a piece of meat just out of reach of the dog but close enough to him to tempt the dog to snatch at it. If the dog moves forward towards the meat, the assistant hits him with his stick on the legs and rump, again only with as much force as is necessary to stop the animal getting the meat. The meat is then picked up by the handler, who has been in the vicinity all the time, and placed in a tin, which he leaves some three or four yards away. This meat is never given to that particular dog; it may, however, be given to others, as part of their diet.
The same exercise is repeated with two or three assistants, each dropping meat within easy reach of the animal and preventing the dog from getting it by the use of a stick, if necessary. The lesson needs to be practised as often as possible, for a considerable number of days and in a variety of places, if it is to have effective results.
Finally, the dog should be tied up and left with a large piece of meat literally to look at for several minutes by one of the assistants, and if at any time it shows any signs of attempting to take the meat it should be promptly rebuffed with a stick or catapult, used on his rump.
Make sure you do use a catapult when a dog is looking at you or in your direction, you may hit his eyes or teeth and you will never forgive yourself. A catapult should be used only by a person experienced with such a weapon.
Teaching a dog to refuse food is only effective if the animal is not really hungry. In other words, a dog that has been starved for a week or so will forget all about food refusal; it may be cautious, but eventually it will succumb because of hunger if some person offers it food. The only effective way to prevent a dog eating food that has been poisoned and thrown to it by someone wishing it harm is to muzzle the dog. A dog taught food refusal should be fed only by his handler and not by any other member of the family.