I have a black lab. I can leave her in the house with a plate with a steak on it sitting on the couch next to her and go outside. When I come back in, she and the steak will be where I left them. She doesn't touch it unless I give her permission. She's been trained that she can't touch food since she was tiny and she's really good about it. I've left her in the car with leftovers and she just sits in the driver's seat and waits for me. If I put something extra in her dish, she looks at it until I say it's okay and then she eats it. I also always keep dry food for her in her dish (contrary to what the trainers say I should do). She has never been a piggy dog gobbling food down. When she gets hungry, she goes and eats. It seems to me that following what the trainer said (which was to put food down for 15 minutes twice a day and if they didn't eat it, pull it back up) only teaches them to be pigs - eat it before it disappears. Gee, if I only had 15 minutes twice a day to eat, I would eat like a pig too!!