The thing is Azz, if the behaviour is linked to problems re epilepsy etc it's not a good idea to be telling the dog off, because it' s not about respect here, in fact very rarely if ever is any dog problem about "respect" - sorry, not trying to be annoying here but I do think we have to be careful to always be fair .

Wys
x

I only have one bowl for Pereg and there is only one place it can be put. My kitchen is tiny and once the bowl is down it has to stay where it is or else I cannot get past. Even if I had half a dozen bowls there is nowhere to put them and as she does not have kibble, throwing food into different bowls is not possible.

My kitchen is so small that that there is barely enough room for me to get into it in the first place and I have to reverse out as it is too narrow for me to turn my chair round in it.

Leaving her bowl until she is not interested is easy but it means I then have to go back to pick it up to wash it and put it away, but usually by the time I have washed and put all her food preparation stuff away she has finished eating, therefore it is easier for me to pick up her bowl, wash it and put it away while I am still in the kitchen.

I would try that anyway, because you don't really want her to be practising her unacceptable behaviour. Is it time wise impossible for you to leave her bowl until she is not interested? Because at the moment she is probably watching/anticipating your every move, possibly getting herself wound up and ready to guard. Instead of relaxing...

How things change in just one day! Yesterday I sat looking at her while she was eating and once she had decided she could not find any more particles of food either in the bowl, on the outside of it, or on the newspaper on the floor on which I put the bowl, she looked at me and I said "Pereg, may I have your bowl now please?" [yes, I talk to her!] - and she sat down and let me pick it up. No treat, nothing!

We had a few training sessions and it got to the state when I said "Pereg - lesson time" she instantly went into a Down even before I had gotten the treats jar from the shelf!

She does not go into a flat belly down but goes down on her side - no idea why but she has always done that, and yet when she watches me prepare her first meal she lies down flat on her belly.

By the evening she was only getting a treat every three or four Downs, and none for Up, and she will obey Stay when she is down. Only one curled lip and the beginning of The Look as well.

So either she has had a couple of days of feeling a bit strange [I actually thought she might have a GM brewing] or she just needed a very short period of back to basics.