How can a dog be converted to free feeding or free grazing?
I've been wondering about this for a long time. I never had the nerve to try it with Jake, as I thought he'd eat until he exploded. Then again, I never asked this question to people who might have had experience in making the switch. But with Mulligan, I think I might like to give this a try. The other reason I'm asking is for Heather's Rudie (although Heather never asked me to ask you all  ) who is a very determined counter surfer and food hunter, getting into all sorts of mischief looking for a morsel. My thought is if it would be possible to convert a dog like Rudie to a free feeding approach, then perhaps his drive for food would be reduced or maybe even eliminated.Soooo, how about it? Is it possible to convert a dog from a structured dinner time and amount to free grazing / free feeding? |
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| PS the only experience I have with this sort of thing is when Mulligan came to us he had apparently been denied free access to water. The first thing he did when he entered our house was to go for the toilets, lifting the seats. He obviously know how to do this already. When we left water down, he'd drink it all. So we put it down and let him drink until we thought he had enough, then we were sure to put it down again later, and we repeated that only for a day or two and I guess he caught on that there would always be water available. Now he almost never drinks! His urine is sooo concentrated that I WISH HE'D DRINK MORE! Maybe the same outcome in food can happen for Rudie.  |
| I used to have a Border Collie and a Great Dane. They were both outside dogs. I had a really large dog feeder for them with dry dog food in it always so they could eat whenever they wanted. They never over ate. But now I would not try this with the 3 dogs I have now. 2 Labs would eat no matter how full they were. And Ryleigh my sheepie would do it just cause they are. It might depend on the breed, but I know Labs will eat 24/7 if you let them. I know this wasnt much help,sorry. But I have had free feeding dogs in the past and it worked ok with them. But they still liked getting a dinner with can food mixed with dry food at night, then just grazed during the day. |
| It depends on the dog. And if you have more than one, it depends on what the personality mix is. Maggie, Chewie, Simon could self feed. And possibly Harley and Bunny. Riley and Biscuit....never, ever. They eat until they are rotund. Riley also would get really terrier snotty about it if he had the chance.  I have this need to know that everyone is eating the right food, the right amount and with my seniors, that they are getting the right supplements and Rx meds. They eat them right off the top of their food. If I was self feeding, I would have to hand pill them all - which would defeat the easier concept of self feeding...  And now we are trialing a glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM that is a liquid with a spray pump - I just give the weight based dose in squirts on top of their food!  |
| Hm, interesting thought. Rudie is ALWAYS hungry and absolutely obsessed with food. Like you saw he will break metal screws in half if it means that he might be able to get half a sandwich from the trash. He is still about 5-7 lbs overweight (maybe more, we'll find out tonight...). But, one time I left the food out and he did not in fact eat the entire 30lb bag, so maybe there's hope? Marley used to get free fed but she was too skinny. Now she must eat one cup in the morning and one cup at night. I sometimes have to yell at her to eat her food |
| Also, if I didn't have the leverage of food, I don't know that Rudie would ever learn basic commands. He could not care less about my approval or being a good boy for goodness sake, but if there is some kibble in my hand he will do backflips for me! I wonder if free feeding would take away the "food comes from mom, I should do what mom says" thing we have going. |
| If food is what works for you now then I would want to build value for a game of some sort by associating it with food (see Susan Garrett's work) before I gave away the value of food rewards. You could free feed kibble but save something great like cheese as a behavioural reward though. |
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