The other night we had grapes for supper. Teddy was apparently starving and shoveling food into his mouth faster than he could chew. (He's at risk for choking, but he just doesn't realize it.) I grabbed an egg carton and put a single grape in each hole. That slowed him down somewhat, and it often works until he dumps the carton onto his plate. And I just got sidetracked researching slow feed bowls for dogs ... there's a lot of parallels between Teddy and a puppy, so why not leverage that?
Anyways, the other night, Teddy was apparently too hungry to demonstrate any self-control, and he stole Dave's entire serving of grapes. He was so quick, determined and fierce that we joked he was like a velociraptor. Dave simply went and got himself a second serving of grapes. He set that on his plate, picked up a different piece of food, and the grapes were gone ... again. Teddy had snatched them in a second.
It's frustrating and challenging because we need to establish boundaries that stealing food isn't acceptable, yet he's so quick and determined that trying to stop him results in potentially getting hurt or the food destroyed. I know we need to do better, so I asked him right away if he could share the grapes with Dave.
Teddy responded by immediately plopping a single grape on Dave's plate. I couldn't help but laugh. It was squished, so Dave rejected his offer to share. But Teddy heard my request, comprehended it and shared what he felt was appropriate (a single grape after stealing probably 20 or more). The comprehension is there, but we clearly need to work on the communication and impulse control.
Hey, I could say the same about myself and impulse control when it comes to food ...
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