When Brae accidentally breaks open a food toy, instead of scarfing all the food down he will wait for me to reassemble it. Once, he waited 20 minutes by lying in my field of vision (I did not realize what was going on till after my show was over) while over a cup of food was free for grabs in the open toy. I did set it up for the video, but this has happened 3-4 times naturally in the past.
Most dogs I know would seize the opportunity and eat the free food. Weirdo
Here's the link if that doesn't work:
https://youtu.be/8q1rsAA3ZlI
I did not ever correct or reinforce this behavior, it's all Brae. He is less food motivated than toy motivated, but I would still call him decently food motivated. He eats 4 cups of kibble a day with no issues. He works his meals out of food toys 30-60+ minutes a day. And he keeps going until he gets it all out. He's so into it that sometimes my partner has me interrupt him and dump the food out because the clattering gets to be too much. If we train with food, kibble is reinforcing enough to use as a reward. And when I pour the food out of a toy for him, he will gladly eat it!
So it's not lack of food motivation. My only thoughts are:
1. He enjoys the game so much that he would rather work the kibble out than eat it straight.
2. The difference of a toy being open is jarring to him in some way and he wants me to make it familiar again.
3. I have trained with kibble in a bowl or cup while sitting on the floor with him. I've never had to correct Sor or Brae and neither try to mob the 'source' of the food. I think it's because I've done so much Its Yer Choice type stuff before ever training with open food like that. But maybe Brae sees the open toy and thinks it's like the off-limits food in a bowl. HOWEVER, if I give him a bowl of kibble (rarely happens) he will eat it without hesitation. And all the times this has happened, it is not a training scenario. Often I am focused on something else (because that's what food toys are for, right?). But he will purposely go to me or get in my field of vision with 'something is wrong' body language when the toy accidentally breaks open.
EDIT: I just learned that "contrafreeloading" is a thing. Neat!
