Gunner was the very first dog I had as an adult. This was before I became a professional dog trainer and behavior consultant. He taught me a lot about working with dogs and communicating clearly.

Gunner and I spent a lot of time together since I was single and had my evenings and weekends free after working my full time job. We did a lot of walking and hiking and hanging out.

Long before I became a trainer, I did some basic training with Gunner. One of the things we did was Sit/Wait for meals. He did well with it and it was never a problem.

Until one day.

Our routine at the time included a short morning walk early in the morning. After our short walk, he would get breakfast. I would have him Sit and Wait to be released to his meal. After breakfast, I would head off to work.

He was home during the day while I was at work, and then we would take a nice long walk every evening when I got home.

One morning, I asked him to Sit and Wait for his breakfast. He did not. I asked again. He did not. I gave him three chances. I didn't have a lot of time before I had to head off to work.

After three chances, he still would not sit and wait. He might sit or not, but he would not wait.

So, I told him, sorry but you don't get breakfast this morning.

I took his bowl of food, put it in the refrigerator and I headed off to work.

Wait? What?!!

I think he believed I would eventually feed him anyway. And I am, of course, anthropomorphizing when I say he had a look like, are you serious? You really are not going to feed me?!

Yes, I was serious. He did not get breakfast that day.

He did Sit and Wait for dinner that evening.

And he did Sit and Wait for every meal thereafter.

He never again refused to Sit and Wait for his meals. He never again missed a meal.

He was perfectly fine missing one meal. It was not detrimental to him. He handled it just fine. But he always Sat and Waited when I asked him after that.

Now, if he had been new at this behavior and I was not certain he knew it, I would not have done that. I would have found something he could and would do and made sure he got his meal.

However, we had been doing this regularly for quite a long time with no problem. He knew what was expected. He was feeling fine. There was no reason he could not perform the behavior I asked for.

I did not force him to Sit. I did not force anything. I knew that he knew what to do and how to do it. I knew that he had a choice and he had made his choice.

He missed one meal. He never missed another meal.

We communicated clearly that day. And we understood each other after that.

Gunner was a very good boy. Mostly. Once in a while he would test the boundaries to find out how serious I was about those pesky rules. He always understood through his testing that I was actually quite serious about those rules. I was very consistent.

I miss that guy.

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