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Saturday, December 3, 2011

Jiminy’s Love of Chicken! 12/3/2011


A Little History
Due to allergies, our 4 ½ year old male Keeshond, Jiminy, is very limited as to what we give him for treats. I bake off boneless chicken breasts or chicken breast tenders and cut them up in small pieces and freeze them to give as treats. Venus, our 3 ½ year old female Keeshond reaps the benefits as well.

Jiminy was a feisty dog in the show ring, very vocal, because he wanted CHICKEN!!! He’s retired now, but still his love for chicken reigns on.

Puppy Training and Cooking Chicken Treats November 30, 2011
It’s puppy training night at conformation class. I rush home from work, let Jiminy and Venus outside to “do their business”. Since our chicken treat stock is getting low I layout the full package (about 4 pounds) of chicken breasts onto the baking rack on a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil and proceed to set the oven to bake them for an hour.

You should know that for safety purposes we have to keep the knobs from the front of the stove off so that Jiminy doesn’t tamper with them and let gas build up in the house….yes, he’s done this once – only once – thank goodness we were home and caught it right away!

Secondly, for safety purposes, we have to bungee, yes that’s right, I said BUNGEE the oven door shut so that our precious, dear Jiminy doesn’t open the oven to help himself to whatever might be baking if we happen to be outside working in the yard or doing some other project around the house.

It’s 6:00 pm on November 30th and I have to meet some friends at 6:15 pm on the other side of town for our carpool to puppy training class. The chicken has finished cooking but is still too hot to put into the refrigerator. As a rule, I put the chicken in the refrigerator overnight for complete cooling so that it is easier to cut into those tiny morsels that will soon be doggie treats. However, time didn’t permit me to do this since the chicken was still very hot.

My husband, Gene, wasn’t home from work yet so I sent him a text telling him that I was off to puppy training and that the chicken was safely bungeed in the oven for cooling and I asked him to put it into a Ziploc bag and put it in the refrigerator when he got home. He responded by saying that he wouldn’t be long and would take care of it when he got home. I thanked him and told him I had already fed “the fur kids” and would see him at about 9:00 pm or so. I set off to puppy training at 6:08 pm.

Gene Arrives At Home

Upon Gene’s arrival home at 6:30 pm he approaches the double wide, back door with full length windows with a complete view of our Tuscan style kitchen complete with stainless steel appliances. He’s presented with a view of Jiminy standing in the warming drawer of our range/oven!!! Somehow (this is still a mystery to us) Jiminy had managed to open the oven door even while bungeed shut and proceed to eat all but two chicken breasts right out of the oven!

We know that Jiminy was the only guilty party and most likely didn’t even share a morsel with Venus. The reason we know this is because for the next three days Jiminy got several “butt baths”. For anyone that has a Keeshond that experiences the occasional case of diarrhea you know what a “butt bath” is. Their fuzzy rear end manages to trap the excrement and we are rewarded with the experience of cleaning it. God bless the individual that created dry shampoo!

For The Love of Chicken
There is nothing that matters more to Jiminy than his love for chicken! He will go to any length, perform any trick for it. While putting him through the therapy dog program I was given some great advice to control his vocalization for his request of chicken; i.e. barking. I was told to give him the command “good quiet” and reward him – yes, with chicken – when he responded appropriately. We now have his barking under control.
Has anyone got any advice for how to keep him out of the oven when our backs are turned?

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