How long do you think you can leave a bowl of dog kibble outside without attracting wild animals? Would it matter if the dog was outside with the food?

Short explanation: dog bowl, crawling baby = dog food everywhere. Feel sorry for dog because she only gets food when baby is sleeping. Trying to allow dog to eat food in peace and keep baby's stomach dog kibble free.

Mama, Do you feed your dog on a regular set schedule, or leave food out all day? If you set a twice or 3x daily time, the dog will know to eat then and finish what is in the bowl. You can keep baby away for those few minutes.

Wet food slightly =gravy! Maybe dog will eat faster. Maybe be more appealing

gravy = nasty dog breath due to wet food

the dry stuff helps keep their teeth clean = better breath

Don't turn it into wet mush, just a miniscule amount of water.
Do not have to do every time.
teeth - depends on dog breed, I have a small dog - 12+ years dry food. Has to have teeth scaled constantly.

My dog eats at 6:00:00 A.M and is done by 6:00:28 A.M and again at 6:00:00 P.M and is done by 6:00:27 P.M.

Kid would never stand a chance against her.

Wow, that's incrediably fast! Does she ever burp? My terroror usually belches if she goes too fast! Pretty funny to see.

This dog will not eat all of her food at once. If she would, I'd be all set. We adopted her as an adult and they say she was a stray before that, so her strange grazing habits are even more puzzling.

I've been trying to put the bowl down 2 -3 times a day (naps and overnight), so you would think that she would rush to eat when the food is there, but she doesn't. A couple of times in the past 10 days, I forgot to put the bowl down until 9:00 at night and felt really guilty (although even then she still didn't eat like a proper dog; just took a couple of bites). So, I'm trying to brainstorm.

quote:

Originally posted by Clamato:
My dog eats at 6:00:00 A.M and is done by 6:00:28 A.M and again at 6:00:00 P.M and is done by 6:00:27 P.M.

Kid would never stand a chance against her.

Same thing with us. 5:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. We slowed it down to a little over a minute by getting one of those blue bowls that makes it a chore to get to the food. Had to get this when our lab started puking shortly after eating. Since then, no problem. But don't leave pretzel bread sitting out.

We have a golden who lunges at his food bowl whenever we fill it. It was recommended to us that since he gulps food to get a stand to put his dishes on. It really helps, but he still eats like there was no tomorrow.

It may take some time, but remove any uneaten food from the bowl after he stops eating. This will help to retrain him into eating at certain times. He will start to eat all that is in the bowl once he is conditioned that he won't have it available all day.

I would put my 10 yr old lab up against yours, Clam, in a speed eating contest any day.

I have read that you can (and should) retrain a dog as Rob says, but never had to do it myself.

You guys want to see speed eating - get a second dog and they crank it up to an entirely new level!

I like a dog that grazes, IF it is well house broken. They don't tend to over eat. They are less likely to vomit. They let you know when the bowl is empty. It keeps their blood sugar more level. I say train the baby.

**lightbulb**

Maybe that's why it took over a year to housebreak her. I got so frustrated during THAT process; all I could think was - you have a three year old dog's bladder, why can't you hold it when I have to leave for an hour? I just thought she was not very smart.

The housebreaking comment was in reference to #2. Dogs usually need to poop after they eat. Crates work best for frequent tinklers.
Chances are that either you or your home's previous owner had another dog which tinkled all over. The later happened to us.
I've had grazers and it was great. They would never eat when we weren't home. As soon as we returned, the crunching began. I tried to turn my current dogs into grazers. One ate herself silly and it scared me. Another one kept going over to the bowl just to check and see if it was still full. She couldn't believe her eyes. I gave up right away for fear of killing my little glutton.