Can I feed liver, best before Jan 1st?

[Shamas mom]

I am no expert on Liver...I buy it maybe nce a year, because I always wreck the pan cooking it for the hubby....

SO anyway, I bought some on my last shift Wednesday, to make up for Shamas' training tomorrow...and as I pulled it out to boil it, I noticed the expiry date was Jan 1st. Today is the 3rd. It doesn't smell "bad" in a way that I'm familiar with from ground beef but it's more brownish than reddish.

I boiled it up regardless..I hate putting raw meats out to trash, they draw skunks. Can Shamas eat his, or should I buy him some fresh tomorrow when I go to get my hair cut? I know that dogs have strong stomaches, but I generally have only table-fed him food from that night, that WE eat so I've nevver pushed the limit. He's also not bad for trash-grazing....so I tink the oldest thing he ever in THIS house ate was a pizza crust?

 

[Xena Dog Princess]

If you were feeding raw I'd say absolutely not, but you've cooked it and you say it didn't smell so...I'd feed it. I'm reasonably relaxed with food dates, but if I wouldn't eat it myself then I wouldn't feed it to the dog/chooks.

 

[Oberon]

I agree. It didn’t smell and it’s been cooked so I reckon it’d be fine.

 

[Shamas mom]

Thanks.

Hubby said it was fine too, but he was sleeping at the time. I usually run food questions by him, as i tend to be overly cautious. I showed him the package, and the cooked meat.

the trainer said to bring soft, yummy treats...so I had figured cooked liver fit the bill. If not that, I have lots of cheese.

Normally, I train using mostly voice and pettings now....I find Shamas winds up if I use treats....he'll do nearly anything, but he is overly focused on the payout, rather than the job and the skills don't always hold. Something to bring up in that first session tomorrow. We might want to adjust the methods based on that quirk of his personality.

she's a positive trainer, and I am excited to start with her....but I want his training to hold too. I'm sure she has more than just bribes in her toolbox-not all dogs are food-driven.

 

[snowbunny]

I would use it if it smells OK.

I'm sure she has more than just bribes in her toolbox-not all dogs are food-driven.

I agree that treats don't work well all for all dogs, or for all scenarios, but you should try not to think to food rewards as "bribes". There is an article on this page that explains very clearly why that is not the case: Think using treats is bribery?

 

[Shamas mom]

@snowbunny I'm sorry, that was more tongue in cheek.

Treats in training have their place- my issue is more that Shamas has a tendency to become so geared up for his payout--and that's what you are doing, paying the dog for a work well done--that he hyper-focuses on the treat itself...or the treat bag...or the treat-giver; thus having trouble shaping the idea of what he's meant to do. He'll go through his entire repetoir of previously successful behaviors, miss that one that I'm asking for.....and get frustrated and bark at me for teasing him. He can't seem to follow a lure, because he's always looking to the treat bag

Today I will take cooked liver, but I will also talk to the trainer about the problem of his being overly food driven. My family does NOT understand the conccept of earned rewards, and I'm just not sure that a treat-based training programme is best? Not when treats are given away like candy when I'm gone to work. We once went through 400 milkbones in 2 1/2 weeks. Shamas gained weight, and I swore not to buy large packages of anything again

 

[Jacqui-S]

Maybe you need to train the family?
Could that be where things are going wrong?
Sorry of that sounds cheeky.

 

[Shamas mom]

Maybe you need to train the family?
Could that be where things are going wrong?
Sorry of that sounds cheeky.

That's what the trainer's being employed for lol!

I can talk until I'm blue in the face....but my information is internet-based and therefore not "valid"

If hubby's paying good money for a professional, he'll insist on the rules being followed...or at least that's what I'm betting on, giving that he is home when I'm not. After all--the longer it takes them to fall in line, the more sessions he's going to have to pay for

 

[Jacqui-S]

Sneaky.

 

[snowbunny]

Oh, I hear ya! J tends to just hand out treats on walks for nothing. "She looked so pretty"

And Shadow is definitely one who can get really worked up about getting the reinforcer (whatever it may be) and he disengages his brain, so I know what that's like, too. Training stillness is always tough with him. I call him "fast twitch" - he acts before he thinks, whether that's in terms of barking at a noise, or flinging himself around in a desperate attempt to work out what it is I'm after. It makes him hugely fun to train, but quite frustrating at times when you just want him to STOP AND THINK, DAMMIT!