I like to think of it as brain cells = sled dogs. Doing a task is a trip from point A to point B, and the dogs get a snack when we arrive, good dogs! ...except that no, my dogs don't get fed because I Actually Don't Have Dogfood.
My dogs want to chase every rabbit trail because they're hungry, but they don't want to make more sled trips because they're starved and exhausted and know there's no dinner waiting at the finish line. They're slow to get up and moving, and sometimes I have to scream at them or help drag them myself the whole way.
Sometimes no amount of kicking and screaming gets the dogs moving, and only a bear (oh no, Life Consequences) charging us will move the poor pups. They're not bad dogs... but if I was chronically starved half to death, I don't guess much short of an imminent mauling would get me running either.
Now that I do have treatment, tbh I still rely on bears for motivation far more than I imagine is healthy. My dogs are much less skeletal and sluggish, but the food I'm dumping in does not hit the bowl as a direct reward for work like it ideally should, so it can still be hard to train them.
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u/silverheart-nine 7h ago
I like to think of it as brain cells = sled dogs. Doing a task is a trip from point A to point B, and the dogs get a snack when we arrive, good dogs! ...except that no, my dogs don't get fed because I Actually Don't Have Dogfood.
My dogs want to chase every rabbit trail because they're hungry, but they don't want to make more sled trips because they're starved and exhausted and know there's no dinner waiting at the finish line. They're slow to get up and moving, and sometimes I have to scream at them or help drag them myself the whole way.
Sometimes no amount of kicking and screaming gets the dogs moving, and only a bear (oh no, Life Consequences) charging us will move the poor pups. They're not bad dogs... but if I was chronically starved half to death, I don't guess much short of an imminent mauling would get me running either.
Now that I do have treatment, tbh I still rely on bears for motivation far more than I imagine is healthy. My dogs are much less skeletal and sluggish, but the food I'm dumping in does not hit the bowl as a direct reward for work like it ideally should, so it can still be hard to train them.