Maddie is about to enjoy a little snack!

Photo by Liz Spieser

A few weeks ago I picked our first ripe cucumber out of the garden. It was so delicious and crunchy that I was compelled to share a few pieces of this tastiness with our dogs, Patch, Mishi and Maddie, who were lying around in the garden. They liked it, and looked at me with hopeful eyes even after I said “no more” and finished the cuke myself.

Fast forward a couple days to when I was picking our second round of cukes. The first one I found must've been more than a foot long. I admired it and then set it down on the dirt in the garden bed and kept hunting. Cuke hunting is kind of a fun challenge this year--because I planted so many, so close together, it requires some fancy footwork so as not to step on the vines as I move through them. I was deeply engaged in this process when a little noise got my attention, sort of a lip-smacking sound ...

Maddie, our black lab mix with mischievous Corgi eyes,was crunching away on that giant cucumber I had left on the ground. She must have sneaked into the bed when I wasn't looking and taken it! When I discovered her I just looked at her and laughed; she glanced up innocently at me and then went right back to her cuke. “That's my cuke!” and I marched over to her and took it away.

I am not usually a softie when it comes to dogs stealing food, but there was something very endearing about Maddie's little escapade. When I was a kid, the rule was: You can eat as many vegetables as you want. Shouldn't I apply that rule to my dogs?

By this point Mishi and Patch had gotten interested in the cucumber and they all started following me as I paced around the garden, chuckling and trying to decide my next move. I caved. “Patch, Mishi, Maddie, sit.” This time I broke off big hunks instead of little pieces. “This is for Patch, this is for Mishi, this is for Maddie...”

OK, so I can't end it there without a little “moral of the story”. First of all, I broke a cardinal rule of my own and rewarded a dog for a behavior that I don't want to persist. I even rewarded her with the cuke, the item in question! If I want to make sure this doesn't become a habit now, I will have to be 100 percent vigilant in the garden for a while. I still plan to share my veggies with the dogs, but on my terms, not theirs.

One pertinent training point that this little story illustrates is a dog's tendency for fast learning. We often tell our clients to think carefully about what they teach their dog, either purposefully or inadvertently. One time, just one time is all it takes in many cases for a pattern to develop.

I don't want to over-dramatize this point, because it's almost never too late for training or reconditioning. But we save ourselves a lot of grief by thinking ahead about what experiences our dogs are exposed to. Managing behavior, or preventing the opportunity for unwanted behaviors to occur, paves the way for successful training. In other words, we should pay close attention to what we allow our dogs to learn.

Getting into the garbage once successfully is enough to make a dog try again ...

A dog who is attacked by another dog may end up being perpetually afraid of, and/or aggressive to other dogs ...

Killing a squirrel once can result in a dog who is squirrel-obsessed for life ...

One time successfully ignoring recall can teach a dog that the word “come” doesn't mean much ...

Once a cuke-stealer, always a cuke-stealer...?

--Story by Liz Spieser

John Spieser is a professional dog trainer and owner of Dogheart. He can be reached at john@doghearta2.com.