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)?
We are now in the transition time for meals. We are pretty strict with the phone alarm set, so the month of October I keep shifting forward about 10 minutes every few days, so when we “fall back” it won’t be such a shock.
Now if I can convince myself to get that extra hour back for myself sleep wise.
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Without kids or pets in the house the last couple of hours in our day are so uniform you may as well call it ritual.
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It has become almost a nightly ritual to have a little ice cream in the evening. (See, this is what happens when I stopped keeping the ice cream in the basement freezer.. )
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This was my mom’s ritual as well. A very (very) small glass of red wine with dinner and then ice cream while watching tv before bed. Usually a pecan variety.
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Rise and Shine, Baboons,
Our evenings are pretty quiet, especially with early darkness. Isn’t CST coming soon? I will look that up! The pet/treat ritual is similar to yours, only it occurs when we are done eating our supper, then McGee gets his treat. If I do not give that to him in the time he thinks is reasonable, then I get barked at sternly With Glaring Eyes. Sometimes I still don’t figure it out so he nags me. What a pup. He is definitely in charge, and he will lie to me, like Freya, regarding Treats, trips to the Dog Park, and going Outside. When it comes to those topics, he has not had any of those desirable experiences today and I better get cracking in service to McGee, no matter what really occurred in the day.
Otherwise, the nighttime and morning routines just recently became much more complicated with husband’s failing health issues. So we do all his cares about 8pm, and then I am off for the night and I usually watch one silly, meaningless TV show via streaming. This will remain until Antiques Roadshow starts airing the new season, then Monday evenings are devoted to that at 7pm. I watch the silly, meaningless show in bed while I wind down. McGee joins me for snuggles (thus the nickname, Snuggles McGee)!
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Our day is full of rituals, starting with Husband walking the dogs when he gets up, then giving them their breakfast, then making coffee.
The dogs expect gullet treats twice a day, and the little pup barks and “talks” to us to give us her opinion on things. When we are leaving the house for errands I say “I’m going to get some cheese”, and both dogs immediately run into our bedroom. Kyrill jumps on the bed. Mitzi runs to her crate and waits while I take off her collar. Then she goes into her crate. They both get string cheese.
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Gullet treats?
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They are flat esophageal strips. Our dogs love them.
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The dogs wrestle, tumble, spar, and chase one another after their breakfast. Then they settle down for morning naps.
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The Birds somehow survived the Ohio Pet Massacre of 2023.
(I still cannot believe people voted for this stupid man.)
The Birds get a bedtime millet treat just before lights out.
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Maggie and I go for our first walk immediately in the morning. Sometimes I wake up pretty early and I can’t sleep anymore, so we go out in the dark. When we return, I serve Maggie breakfast, which is a crumbled salt-free rice cake and her prescription kibble, sprinkled with a probiotic and water to make a stew. I also make myself some tea. Then we settle in the recliner, in front of the fire when it’s cool, and I read. If Maggie wants to play, I will tug with her and toss the toy so that she can fetch it and return for more tugging and tossing. Then I take her to the bathroom, brush her teeth, wash her face and eyes, and brush her. Then she’s off to doggy daycare and I am off to my day, whatever activity I’m about that day. I pick her up around 4 or 4:30, take her for another walk, then come home and give her supper, which is exactly like breakfast without the probiotic. Sometimes I steam white rice and give her that instead of the rice cakes, but the rice cakes actually seem to help her digestion better than anything. After supper, I read a little and play with her if she’s up for it. Then I knit for a few hours while listening to an audio book or streaming something on tv. I take her out for a short walk again around 9:30 or 10. Then it’s off to bed.
It’s dark around here these days and we’re about a block from open countryside and farm fields. There are lots of critters around in the dark. I’ve seen raccoons, skunks, foxes, and coyotes. Maggie has a harness that can light up with LED lights and I carry a flashlight. If Maggie stops and stares in one direction, sniffing, we turn back. I’ve recently seen a skinny fox around quite often. I don’t want any confrontations with the local fauna.
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Maggie likes her treats, and will sit and go into her kennel for them, but her day is not defined by them. Even her treats are hydrolyzed protein and prescribed.
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Charlotte is a cat of many rituals, all day long, but I’ll stick to evening/night. She expects her dinner to be served around 5-6 p.m., and if I’m in the kitchen, she’ll remind me. Yesterday I was away at dinnertime, so Charlotte reminded Husband by getting on the counter and reaching for the door of the cupboard where her bowl is kept.
After she eats, we attempt to have our own dinner, which can be difficult because Charlotte wants to go out on the deck. If we can, we’ll eat outside and keep an eye on her, but it’s more difficult now that it’s getting dark so early.
After dinner, it’s kitty playtime, usually with Son. As soon as he gets up from the dinner table, Charlotte is ready for him. Once a successful playtime/hunt is over, she expects to be rewarded for her hunting skills with a treat, usually around 7:30-8:00. If we’re lucky, things calm down after that and we’re able to spend the time before bed reading on the sofa. Sometimes Charlotte joins us and cuddles up for a nap; other times she wants to play again and makes reading impossible until she gets a few more minutes of play.
Our mornings are similarly well structured, but I won’t get into that.
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OT: Bookworm people: I’m listening to The Resistance Knitting Club by Jenny O’Brien on Libro.fm, and I’m really enjoying it. It combines some of my favorite things: reading, knitting, resisting.
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I usually check in on the blog about this time.
A little chocolate and a book at bedtime. E-book, audiobook, or regular old book book.
Often I listen to Otis Gray’s Sleepy podcast too.
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