Making a dog eat slower - how???

elsien

Mutt has always enjoyed her food (to put it mildly) and eats at the speed of light, which I've always put down to her being picked up off the streets as a painfully thin stray when I first got her.
I'm getting a bit fed up though of having to clear sick up off the carpet when she bolts it and chucks up shortly afterwards. She's always done it on occasions, but it seems to have got worse since having a tooth out 2 weeks ago, although this might just be a coincidence.
She's not ill (I'm sure of this) - I've split her food into smaller, more frequent meals and tried the larger kibble, which actually made her worse. It's not every meal and not the same time of day, but you can see her practically swallowing it whole and knowing what's going to happen.
She's on the dry food - I soaked it for a bit after the op but we're back to normal now because I keep forgetting.
Any suggestions?

sandiep

Pick the bowl up for a few minutes and put it down again. And do this again and again and again.

Also, stop them midway and make them sit and wait.

foreign_correspondent

you can put a tennis ball in the bowl, so long as she does not just pick the ball up and run round with it, or you can buy some bowls designed to slow the dog down, as they have some built in obstacles..

here ya go, its called the brakefast bowl apparently:


.. a tennis ball works on the same idea though and its cheaper and probably easier to get your hands on!

trudiha

The picking up and putting down the food bowl thing made my food obsessed, rescue dog much more stressed rather than less so. Now I give him half of his food in a kong and the other half sprinkled on the kitchen floor. He still behaves like a hoover in over-drive but he will give most of the kibbles a bit of a chew while he's looking for the next one.

Of course, I have to wash the floor a lot but it slightly nicer to wash greasy kibble floor than to clear up vomit. You could hand feed him if you didn't fancy having dog food all over the floor, it does seem to help with food guarding issues which might be at the root of his/your problem.

Changing to a premium food helped a bit too, I have to feed him about half the volume of Arden Grange, so even if he does wolf it down, he's less likely to throw up because he has less in his tummy.

Best of luck.

elsien

Tennis ball -nice idea but no chance. Mutt is completely obsessed. It'd stop her eating for long enough to shred and eat the ball instead!
I've not seen those bowls before though - might be worth a look.

In the meantime I think she'd hate me too much if I kept taking the food off her. Might work if I gave it in handfuls a few minutes apart.
Thanks both.

Edit -trudiha, I don't think food guarding is an issue, she's just a pig. She's on James Wellbeloved which suits her assorted lurgies, so I need to stick with that for now.

sandiep

Make sure food is completely cold too. Hot/warm food makes my dog vomit.

UKTigerlily

I stick Chaya's in a Kong, not frozen but it takes her time to get at it!

elsien

Out of interest, has anyone on here tried the brakefast bowls?

foreign_correspondent

nope, sorry! Badger is a guzzler too, after her op I fed her by putting about 1/4 of her food in the bowl, then a couple of minutes later popped a bit more in, till she had eaten the lot, as I didnt want her to wolf it too quickly - may work for you as a short term solution, but would be a pain in the long term!

suki1964

Seeing as shes on dry food , I dont know if you have a garden but you can scatter it about there to make her look for it or you can just play/train and feed a few bits at a time, hide some in toys, scatter about the house. My cocker wasnt fed from a bowl for months - hand fed as treats and made to work for it

Raksha

I haven't fed my dogs in bowls for two years. Most nights it goes in a Tug a Jug http://www.dog-toy.co.uk/dogproducts/?product=138 or Dog Pyramid http://www.companyofanimals.co.uk/dog-pyramid.php other nights I just scatter it on the ground. I have two dogs and found one was bullying the other, so they are fed seperatly.
Making dogs work for their food makes them value it more. When I get a new dog, or if one gets 'iffy' with one of the kids, then I had feed them for a couple of weeks (or get the offspring to hand feed them).