Freya is extremely food motivated.  I’m pretty sure if I left a 40-pound bag of dog food open in the kitchen, she would eat until she popped.  She’s not eating me out of house and home, although I’m going to need a separate line on my budget for dog treats.  The good news is that combined with her smarts, it makes it very easy to work on training. 

Of course, I’m not sure who’s being trained.

Nimue is not all that food motivated.  If she feels like it, she’ll show up at meal time but sometimes she comes down later to partake.  She does have dry food out all the time so she’s certainly not going hungry.   She does have one exception; she loves her Friskies Party Treats.  If I shake the jar (I keep them on my bedstand), she comes right away. 

The treat parade started when Guinevere was young.  If her stomach went empty too long, she’d throw up bile – ick.  So I began giving her a couple of dog treats in the morning to tide her over an hour or so before breakfast.  This was when I started giving Nimue a couple of treats as well.  Took a few tries to find that she loves Friskies.  I’m not sure when the two of them convinced me that they should also get a few treats at bedtime.  7:30 p.m. to be specific. 

It took Freya about a day to realize that there were treats to be had when the kitty was getting her Yums.  It took her about another day to figure out that 7:30 was the magic hour each night.  So now, they are both presenting themselves at 7:30 for treats.  See the header photo for the “Gimme treats” eyes.  And they will both lie to me if necessary.  Last night I got home late with Freya from dog class and Nimue blatantly lied to me about getting her treats.  When I asked YA, she confirmed that she had given Nimue treats at 7:30 in my absence!

Clearly where treats are involved, I’m not in charge.  And I’m not highly motivated to change that.  Maybe I should get a treat at 7:30!

Do you have any nightly rituals (with or without pets)?