Feeding schedule for your dogs
When Palette was 3 months old, she once got me surprised a lot with amount of food she could eat at one sitting. Palette and I were visiting our neighbor and, she was playing with their big dog a while in my sight, and next moment, they were out of my sight but very quiet. I wondered where they went, and then I saw Palette peeking out from corner. There she was, self serving the big dog's food. She already had her own food before we visit the neighbor's house, but she has found a bowl of food and self serving..and her tummy was very big..her innocent eyes stared back at me as if to say she was proud of treasure she has just found with her big dog buddy.
Palette 3 months old
At that time, we fed Palette on schedule and food was not in her sight all the time. I now feed Palette at rough scheduled time, and her food is not always in her sight. The big dog we were visiting was fed free feeding, and her food was always in her sight. I was not familiar with term "Free feeding" at the time, but I learned that free feeding means food is always out in the dog bowl and dogs can eat as much as they want,they can eat whenever they want to.
So, should dogs be fed on schedule? Should dogs be fed free feeding?
I personally feel that if the food was out there all the time, dogs could think that they can eat whenever they feel like eating, and they could take a break, play, take a nap, come back to their food and eat again and ultimately, they may end up eating more than they would eat on scheduled feeding per day. Also, I am not sure how you determine that the dogs are not touching food because they feel sick or not touching food because they know they can eat them later. And, since food is there when dogs want to eat, you may not be able to be certain when you should expect to take your dogs for potty. If the dogs in question was puppy, then it makes harder for you to potty training your puppy.
From potty training point of view, I think that with scheduled feeding, you will feed food at the same time and, chances are, dogs would go for potty around same time and easy for you to learn potty time pattern of your dogs. Also, since you know how much you serve, and you see how much is eaten, you can identify when dogs are under the weather sooner.
If you could train your dogs to ring a potty bell, it is more clear communication between you and your dogs as to when your dogs need to go for potty. Palette learned how to ring the bell for potty in a day and, I think it is very good tool for potty training. She uses " Gottago door bell" and it is a bell similar to the one you see on customer service desk or at restaurant for chefs.I prefer this bell over the bell that you hang on door knobs. Because with door knob type bell, you may not be sure whether the bell rang because your family used the door or dogs were ringing it. You can read more on Gottago door bell that Palette has learned to ring for potty training here .
Usually, Palette sits in front of me when meal time and I lower the food, and put the food down, let her wait for a second or two, and release her from "wait" and let her eat the food. Palette has learned that if Palette's butt left the floor to stand up as the food is lowered, the food would go up, and she has to start over. This will teach your dogs that "sit" brings all things they like: door opening for walk, getting leash on for walk, getting meal, getting petting/attention etc etc. With sit -wait for food, they can eat food more relaxed mood, not in excitable manner.
I came across article on feeding method: free feeding and scheduled feeding and it says that scheduled feeding makes dogs more protective for food due to limited food in the bowl. I think that resource guarding and food feeding schedule are two separate things. If dogs tend to guard stuff, then, you can teach them to view the human approach as good thing, not the threat for food/treats/toys etc.
You can read more on free feeding and scheduled feeding article at happy tail dog blog here .
When Palette was still puppy, I taught her "give"- drop items whatever in her mouth on cue. I started off with toy which she had not so much of interests in it, then as soon as she drop the toy,I praised her big and gave the toy back so that she knows not everything I ask her to "give" does not go away but come back. After she did good on the toys, I moved up more higher valued item and practiced" give" a lot of times, and finally "give" command with bones.
You can read more on how I taught "Give", "Take it" in previous entry titled "Tug of war" here .
With the way I feed Palette now- Raw feeding, there are occasion I like to take bone from her such as when I know the bone is not edible bones for her. So, the fact that Palette knows "give" is a big help because she does not try to guard the bone but happily trade the bone she was chewing on with trading item.
When I was feeding kibble, I also helped her understand that my approach to the dog bowl does not mean food is taken away but good thing happen. She was not that bad with resource guarding but, occasionally, her body tensed up when I came close to sit. She was not growling but I felt she was not relaxed enough.
So, I practiced with kibble. I let her sit in front of me and let her see me put a couple of kibble piece in the bowl, and lower the food bowl and if she was good sit and not standing up,I then put the food bowl down. She gobbled up the kibble pieces and, chances are, when food is not in the bowl, dogs would look up at you for more. I tossed a couple of pieces in the bowl, and Palette looked up at me for more and when she is relaxed,no tensed posture when I come close and when I can touch her bowl after she ate bits in the bowl, I started picking up the bowl, put the kibble bits in, gave her the bowl with kibble bits inside and pick it up and put a couple of pieces more and gave it to her and repeated the process. Now she is careless when I come over to her, sit next to her or put her fish body oil capsules onto her food mat.
I think everyone has their own view of feeding schedule but do you free feed your dogs? Do you feed on schedule? Take a poll and see how others are feeding their dogs.
Palette 3 months old
At that time, we fed Palette on schedule and food was not in her sight all the time. I now feed Palette at rough scheduled time, and her food is not always in her sight. The big dog we were visiting was fed free feeding, and her food was always in her sight. I was not familiar with term "Free feeding" at the time, but I learned that free feeding means food is always out in the dog bowl and dogs can eat as much as they want,they can eat whenever they want to.
So, should dogs be fed on schedule? Should dogs be fed free feeding?
I personally feel that if the food was out there all the time, dogs could think that they can eat whenever they feel like eating, and they could take a break, play, take a nap, come back to their food and eat again and ultimately, they may end up eating more than they would eat on scheduled feeding per day. Also, I am not sure how you determine that the dogs are not touching food because they feel sick or not touching food because they know they can eat them later. And, since food is there when dogs want to eat, you may not be able to be certain when you should expect to take your dogs for potty. If the dogs in question was puppy, then it makes harder for you to potty training your puppy.
From potty training point of view, I think that with scheduled feeding, you will feed food at the same time and, chances are, dogs would go for potty around same time and easy for you to learn potty time pattern of your dogs. Also, since you know how much you serve, and you see how much is eaten, you can identify when dogs are under the weather sooner.
If you could train your dogs to ring a potty bell, it is more clear communication between you and your dogs as to when your dogs need to go for potty. Palette learned how to ring the bell for potty in a day and, I think it is very good tool for potty training. She uses " Gottago door bell" and it is a bell similar to the one you see on customer service desk or at restaurant for chefs.I prefer this bell over the bell that you hang on door knobs. Because with door knob type bell, you may not be sure whether the bell rang because your family used the door or dogs were ringing it. You can read more on Gottago door bell that Palette has learned to ring for potty training here .
Usually, Palette sits in front of me when meal time and I lower the food, and put the food down, let her wait for a second or two, and release her from "wait" and let her eat the food. Palette has learned that if Palette's butt left the floor to stand up as the food is lowered, the food would go up, and she has to start over. This will teach your dogs that "sit" brings all things they like: door opening for walk, getting leash on for walk, getting meal, getting petting/attention etc etc. With sit -wait for food, they can eat food more relaxed mood, not in excitable manner.
I came across article on feeding method: free feeding and scheduled feeding and it says that scheduled feeding makes dogs more protective for food due to limited food in the bowl. I think that resource guarding and food feeding schedule are two separate things. If dogs tend to guard stuff, then, you can teach them to view the human approach as good thing, not the threat for food/treats/toys etc.
You can read more on free feeding and scheduled feeding article at happy tail dog blog here .
When Palette was still puppy, I taught her "give"- drop items whatever in her mouth on cue. I started off with toy which she had not so much of interests in it, then as soon as she drop the toy,I praised her big and gave the toy back so that she knows not everything I ask her to "give" does not go away but come back. After she did good on the toys, I moved up more higher valued item and practiced" give" a lot of times, and finally "give" command with bones.
You can read more on how I taught "Give", "Take it" in previous entry titled "Tug of war" here .
With the way I feed Palette now- Raw feeding, there are occasion I like to take bone from her such as when I know the bone is not edible bones for her. So, the fact that Palette knows "give" is a big help because she does not try to guard the bone but happily trade the bone she was chewing on with trading item.
When I was feeding kibble, I also helped her understand that my approach to the dog bowl does not mean food is taken away but good thing happen. She was not that bad with resource guarding but, occasionally, her body tensed up when I came close to sit. She was not growling but I felt she was not relaxed enough.
So, I practiced with kibble. I let her sit in front of me and let her see me put a couple of kibble piece in the bowl, and lower the food bowl and if she was good sit and not standing up,I then put the food bowl down. She gobbled up the kibble pieces and, chances are, when food is not in the bowl, dogs would look up at you for more. I tossed a couple of pieces in the bowl, and Palette looked up at me for more and when she is relaxed,no tensed posture when I come close and when I can touch her bowl after she ate bits in the bowl, I started picking up the bowl, put the kibble bits in, gave her the bowl with kibble bits inside and pick it up and put a couple of pieces more and gave it to her and repeated the process. Now she is careless when I come over to her, sit next to her or put her fish body oil capsules onto her food mat.
I think everyone has their own view of feeding schedule but do you free feed your dogs? Do you feed on schedule? Take a poll and see how others are feeding their dogs.
Posted by yassy at 5/25/2010 11:45 AM 
Categories: Dog Diet
Tags: free feeding scheduled feeding resource guarding
Categories: Dog Diet
Tags: free feeding scheduled feeding resource guarding
I "free fed" for quite a while, but Corgis have a tendency to get heavy as they age, and so I've had to go to a sort of feeding schedule. OC, in particular, I have been feeding only small amounts as specific times as I have to keep her weight down because of her bad back and hips.
Sadie and BG have been putting on weight, too, as they've started trying to be sneaky and eat the pups food if they leave any. I've been trying to give the pups more frequent meals several times a day while they were young, but now that they are almost 9 months old, I've started to try to feed only twice a day.
The problem with feeding several dogs is that each one has to check everyone else's food to see if they aren't getting something better, and then Sadie and BG sneak while the young ones are checking the other's bowls since they are scattered in a couple of rooms to try to make sure there aren't fights.
Having seven dogs is very challenging to feed at the same time. I've tried to feed a single dog at a time in a closed room, but then they won't eat because they aren't sure if they are in trouble or if someone is going to get more/better than them I think... they stress and stand by the door and won't eat anyway.
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