As many of the local dog walkers know our little princess Beanie has recently turned into an expert pick pocket. In the past couple of weeks she’s been richly rewarded for her criminal activity with a tasty stash including:
1. A whole bag of chopped sausage (swallowed whole still in it’s bag and later vomited up at the vets).
2. 4 Herta hot dog sausages
3. Cooked ham (still wrapped in tin foil – tin foil vomited up that night)
4. Assorted biscuits and other treats
5. Plastic bags, gloves, poo bags and a variety of other items guaranteed to start a good chase.
Aside from being anti-social behavior it’s also very dangerous for her. She’s already swallowed bags that could cause blockages and there’s a potential for her to steal something that’s actually poisonous to her (e.g. chocolate, medicines).
It’s a very difficult problem to fix simply because she has been so well rewarded for it. We’re going to try putting her off by getting some volunteers to put some nasty tasting chew stop on the outside of their zipped up pockets.
We’d be very grateful if everyone that meets her:
a) Guards their pockets – she’s a fast worker and can be in and out with a tasty stash in a fraction of a second!
b) Ignores her completely – no eye contact, no talk and absolutely no treats…ever. Even pushing her away is attention. Apparently it’s best if you just turn your back on her (if you can tolerate her pestering you – if not then of course you must push her away. And we’ll be there as fast as we can to haul her off)
We’ll try and get her to sit nicely when she greats you and we’ll reward her for that. But please don’t anyone give her (or Biggles) treats for the time being at least – no matter how good she is.
