Feeding
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| I feed mine together, with the exception my rescue dog who has some resource guarding issues. The rest just line up and I put the bowls down in front of them, they keep their noses in their own bowls and even the older dog who takes a little longer is left in peace, easy-peasy. if your puppy is a resource guarder it's unlikely he'll simply grow out of it. It's probably better to just feed them seperately. A lot of people do. It's not the end of the world. kristine |
| I only have one dog right now, but, we have had 2 in the past and we also "dog sit" quite a bit---so, often there are 2 here. We usually can feed dogs together, but, it is very controlled. I place the food bowls on opposite ends of the room or far enough away and I also make them stand so they aren't staring at each other. I do monitor the eating time.... just in case.... If I know that a dog has an issue, then I will feed in separate rooms which is fairly easy in my house because we have pocket doors and other ways to close off rooms. It isn't a big deal and works either way. I also make everyone sit and wait for their meals until the bowls go down and I release them to eat. I started working on this when Dahlia was a very young puppy. Now, if there are no other dogs at our house, she is can "freestyle eat" As soon as another dog is at our house, she has controlled eating 2 x per day. She adapts well to either. |
| Our puppy has issues with eating too, but his is he wants to play during meal time. He will watch the other dog eat, jump and bark around trying to get him to play. He once knocked over the other dogs food and then ran away. He is getting better the older he gets, he sits and waited for the older dog to eat and then eats his. I don't know why he has to wait but we can't get them to eat at the same time. We also feed one at one side of the room at one at the other; it slows down the crazy puppy energy. Also we used to feed puppy in his kennel, that's another option. |
Whether I have had 1 or multiple dogs I have always fed the same way. They get to eat in a quiet, secure environment so they can enjoy their meal (even tho' some over the years have been inhalers  ). They get fed at regular times so they know what to expect & I know what to expect. The times may vary a little here & there depending on circumstances but as adults they get fed 2 times a day, breakfast & dinner. Puppies of course get fed 3 times a day until they reach a specific age. Makes training easier. They learn a routine of eat, rest, go outside to do business. Also makes spotting an "off" dog a lot easier. If someone doesn't eat, I know something is wrong & can jump on it alot quicker than trying to figure out who ate, who didn't & if someone got into someone else's different food. |
| I line my dogs up or slide a bowl and say guinness this is yours, molly this is yours etc My GSD grumbles when he eats which sometimes plucks me but if I have a food aggressive /resource guarding foster dog I just feed in another area...some dogs just really like their food and do not want anyone messing with it I guess I have no answers... |
| I find i easier to feed them altogether,the problem I have is that they all want to shake paws-never taught,just seem to do it. So I put the bowls on worktop,the dogs sit,I shake all the paws + put the bowls down. They tend to have a differnt spot in the kitchen,always changing which goes where. I just stand in the middle to make sure sneaky chops doesn't go and annoy the others till they have finished. Then they all check each others empty bowl before I pick em up for washing.x |
| No fancy tricks here. But the odd thing is that they all line up in the same order. I've never understood that. Or how they determined who gets to stand where? Kristine |
| I have 3. I feed all 3 at the same time. My wolf hybrid and sheepie play musical bowls half the time and the other half they are eating out of the same one. My hound is the only one that has issues but the other 2 leave him alone and he leaves their bowls alone. They all eat in the dining room. Also sometimes Lily gets fed in treat balls/toys (with her food)....Usually when theres no time to work her mind. |
Mad Dog wrote: No fancy tricks here. But the odd thing is that they all line up in the same order. I've never understood that. Or how they determined who gets to stand where? Kristine Is it in order of seniority? or age? Mine do that when they go in & out. It's Mariah, José, Annie & Splash right now. |
| Both of my dogs do a sit stay before they get their food. If they get up before released, the food gets picked up and we start over. Eevee is the boss, so she gets fed first. They eat on opposite sides of the room, and the trick to getting them to eat at the same time is to distract Eevee with her food while getting Bailey started with her food. Eevee likes to grab a bite of food then come check out what Bailey has, and if Bailey isn't eating before Eevee comes to check on her, Bailey will give up the food and we have to start over. |
| I found that routine worked for me. When Tiggy was a puppy she tried to eat some of my 5 year old dalmo Rastus' food. He growled at her but she's of the opinion that being pushy is the best course of action. As I didn't want any fights I started the following routine. I tell them it's tucker time "an Aussie word for meal time" and to go to their beds. Their beds are about 15 feet apart and partly separated by an island bar. I will not get their bowls till they are sitting on their beds (this took some perserverance) They have their own bowls that I don't swap and I have two specific places where I put the bowls. I always put Tiggy's first, not because she's dominant although she is but because it's part of my stay training for agility. If she moves I go back to the bowl and make her go sit on her bed again. After I've put Rastus' food down I walk away and then wait varying intervals of time depending on how busy I am that meal before I say 'tucker' at which point they are allowed to go to their bowls and eat. I do separate them by 10 feet and Tiggy just around the corner of the island bar but that's because they eat slower that way. Not slow mind you just slower but my husband feeds them much closer and there are no problems. They wait for each other to finish and then go and check out the other's bowl. You never know there may be a crumb that got missed.  We've never had a even a growl or raised lip by sticking to this routine. It is just one I made up for us but thought you might be interested. |
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