Hot Dogs are MAGIC!

Seriously! I have always heard trainers talk about getting a super high value treat when you need to distract a dog from something that they really, really want to do (and that you really DON'T want them to do).  I belived them and I searched high and low for that special treat that would be more exciting than a squirrel or the neighbors dog at the fence or the big pile of poop that Langley knew just had to be hiding somewhere in the bushes.

I work at a natural pet food store so I have access to some pretty spectacular treats. My dogs have taste tested every cow, bison, lamb, duck, deer, elk or even ostrich body part that some genius rancher thought to market to the boutique pet crowd. Heck, Frodo has even snarfed on kangaroo and shark tails. But nothing had the magical power to break through the singlemindedness of a terrier on the hunt.

During the annual Rattiefest celebration there was a booth where dogs got to bob for hot dogs and when purchasing the hot dogs I grossly overestimated (and gross has more than one meaning when referring to hot dogs) the amount of hot dogs needed. Instead of throwing away several pounds of nitrate free all beef hot dogs, I figured that I'd freeze them and then thaw out a few at a time for Frodo's Nose Work classes.

With Langley visiting, I was determined to let him have free off leash time in the back yard but still needed to find a way around his compulsive search for poop in our lower yard. He tends to quickly ramp himself up when outside and I didn't want him to fall apart after his dad has done such a great job getting him pulled together.

I attached a 12' drag line to him and let him run around but he immediately started compulsively scrounging for poop in the lower yard. So I ran in the house and got some chopped hot dog. I opened the bag and waved it around like a wild woman, trying to get the scent to him.

It worked! After 14 months at our house with nothing to break into his brain during a poop hunt, hot dogs did the trick.

And that my friends, is why hot dogs are magic.  Ask Langley. He'll tell you that they are even more delicious than a turd.