Knowing this, I set out to raise Emma without letting her have "people food". There was also the concern I had about an 80lb dog begging for food from family or visitors. Heck, the truth was if she decided she liked something she could walk up and take it from a lot of people, which seemed like a bad idea to me.
So from day one the plan was no "people food" for the dog. As we can guess, that didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. Though in the end I have learned a few things from this and had some successes. Emma does not beg for food as a rule, occasionally she will steal it from a counter or stove top if given the opportunity, but she doesn't beg like some dogs do, with their pouty sad eyes. I know the look well because as soon as anyone sat down at the dinner table, my previous dog would put on the pouty sad eyes and rub up on you until she got a bite herself. It was extremely annoying when she did it to guests.
I never feed Emma from the table, ever. I strongly encourage never feeding dogs from the table. If Emma is going to get a leftover bone from a steak for example, she gets it the following day after everyone has finished eating and the dishes have been cleaned. This way she doesn't associate people eating with a treat or food.
The other thing I decided was that my if I got a ridgeback, she wouldn't get fat. I think fat dogs are largely the result of too much "people food" rather than consumption of too much dog food or not enough exercise. Feeding dogs "people food" makes them fat.
But, despite my best efforts, the little devil, still managed to get treats from me. Yep, I give her "people food". But you won't believe what kind. See I thought I was being smart, I thought if I tried giving her something I didn't like to eat when she was young, she might learn that the food I ate tasted yucky, I thought it tasted yucky. I happened to be eating raw snap peas. So as I sat crunching some snap peas in my mouth I decided to give one to my 2 month old puppy. I was sure she wouldn't eat it. I knew I didn't want to eat it.
I was totally wrong. That dog chewed on the snap pea and swallowed it without a thought. I was shocked, so I handed her another pea... Again she ate it, and now she was wagging her tail and looking at me expectantly.
I expect most dogs to ravenously enjoy foods like meat, chocolate (despite being poisonous), potatoes chips, you know, things that are savory, sweet, or salty. I do not expect a typical dog to ravenously chomp down and wag their tail for vegetables.
Over the next couple of years I learned a thing or two about the ridgeback palate. It is a fallacy that because Rhodesian Ridgebacks are in the hound family they will eat anything. I have found Emma to be extremely picky. I have been through dozens of different types of dog foods trying to find one that doesn't use her stomach causing her to vomit or have deadly (to my nose) gas. Seriously, terrorists knew how potent that gas was... I have repeatedly been shocked by the things this dog will not touch and the things she loves to eat.
Here is a list of her favorite foods that I think are odd for a dog:
1. Snap peas, every time I get these out she expects to get some.
2. Carrots, she loves carrots as much as she does snap peas, maybe more. I use baby carrots for training
3. Grapes and raisins - she ate an entire container of raisins once by accident when she broke into a closet and discovered them. (WARNING: Raisins and grapes are toxic to dogs - If your dog ingests raisins or grapes please seek medical attention)
4. Celery, not as much as carrots or snap peas, but she will eat a stalk of celery
5. Ice cubes, she loves ice cubes
6. Apples, one time I stepped into the bathroom for a minute and when I came back my apple core was missing, she had of course eaten it. She loves apples
7. Peppers, when she was a pup she got pieces of bell pepper which she loved. Recently she broke into the garden and stole one of the growing bell peppers off of the plant.
At this point I would also like to mention that she has been trained to eat the following terrors:
Spiders
Flies
Bees/Wasps
Other bugs
All I have to do is point out the moving target and she either squishes it with her paw or eats it. This has come in handy a number of times. I highly recommend "bug training" your dog if you haven't already. It makes dealing with those little surprises very easy.
She also found and caught two skunks by the time she was six months old (in the city) which I believe was payback for all the spiders I make her kill.
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