I have long advised friends and family members to keep their dogs’ mealtimes vague, in order to prevent “clock-watching” and demand behaviors from dogs who are anticipating their breakfast or dinner. Not for me, those dogs who wake me by barking for breakfast, no matter whether I’m sick or worked until 3 am the night before. Not for me, those dogs who start pacing, drooling, or staring at 4 pm every afternoon. By keeping mealtimes somewhat unpredictable, within a range of an hour or two, I haven’t ever had to deal with those anticipatory behaviors – even when Daylight Saving Time changes. I’m not one of the people who posts memes and pictures of my dogs freaking out about dinnertime twice a year!
Oh, sure, either of my dogs might do a little happy skip in the kitchen, as I walk toward the dog food area – which happens to be next to the microwave in which I heat my coffee. But if I tell them, “Not yet!” they resign themselves to waiting – alertly, but not underfoot. Or, dog forbid, whining under their breath.
Another Dog Is Throwing Things Off
Things have gotten a little testy over the past two weeks, however. I have been dog-sitting a 14-year-old deaf dog, little Leila, who belongs to a dear friend. Leila has strong opinions about mealtime – and spins and chases her tail for attention, and barks, barks, barks, when she is certain she’s going to starve without food. I have a hard time with barking – but what am I going to do? She’s old, and deaf! Easiest just to feed her when she starts up! Naturally, my giving into her demands has resulted in some incredulous “WHAT DID SHE JUST DO?” behavior from my two dogs. “SHE got fed and we did not? Perhaps WE should skip about and make noises!”
Taking my own advice when it comes to my own dogs, I’m ignoring the noises and skipping about. Otto gets it, and retires to the floor with a groan and a politely wagging tail. Woody is more persistent, and keeps trying a charm offensive, coming to me every time I sit down at the kitchen table with my laptop or at my desk in my office, and placing his heavy head in my lap, looking up at me with imploring eyes and that seductive slowly wagging tail. “Pleeeeaaassse? We are so VERY hungry.”
Prepping For Otto’s Surgery
Worse: Over the past two days, it has been necessary to skip Otto’s breakfast. Yesterday he had a chest x-ray, in preparation for today’s general anesthesia: He is having yet another tooth removed – he has somehow suffered another slab fracture of a molar (this is his third), so the tooth has to be removed. Also, the vet is going to scope his throat; he’s been having a lot of regurgitation, and we have been treating him for acid reflux and a possible esophageal ulcer. And when Otto has to go without breakfast, I don’t feed Woody, either; doing so would be just mean.
“Some experts recommend making dogs fast one day a week all the time,” I tell my dogs. “You are going to live. Mealtime is just delayed.” So the moping and charming persists for hours.
Do you have set mealtimes, or do you wing it with your dogs?
To each his own but the only time my Rottie doesn’t get fed when asked at mealtime is when I am not at home. He is polite but I get a hard stare when it is time to eat and he gets a tiny bit when I eat something. I don’t see it as a problem because I am retired and with him a lot. He gives me so much, it is a pleasure to meet his needs (wants).
The Alexa reminder is brilliant. Also very funny. I had a similar situation with a dog that required meds twice a day, so I set my phone to quack at 8:00am and 8:00pm. Sometimes I’d still be at the gym at 8:00am and when my phone quacked, other gym goers would holler at me that it was time for my dog’s meds.
As for feeding time, my dogs eat raw, once a day, in the evenings, right before bedtime (mine and theirs). They eat while I’m fixing my own dinner, then, since I don’t watch TV, we all head for the bedroom where I eat and read in comfort. A bonus is that they relax after dinner, as is advisable for breeds that tend to bloat, even though bloat is rare in raw fed dogs.
I have used both regular feeding times and irregular feeding times. It depends on the dog I have at the time. Over all, with the malamutes I tried to keep feeding times within a specific range of time such as half an hour or so either way but with my current dog, he is perfectly happy being fed whenever I get around to it within an hour or so. I adopted him when he was 10 years old and he is more than happy with the life he is leading. His needs always come before mine though, because he is a very important member of my household. My dogs are treated the same as when I was growing up on the farm. My father always said look after the animals before you look after yourself. So when we were tired and hot, cold or freezing, the animals always were exercised, fed and watered before we went into the house.
I have 2 dogs. I feed them when I get around to it usually twice a day. Mornings somewhere between 5am -8am and evenings between 330-7pm. they like to graze on there food unless it was an exceptionally busy play day the day before. Both dogs are very picky(if the kibble is stale) they may not eat at all. I often need to coax with high value treats (cooked chicken or beef) on top of the freeze dried raw with gravy to get them to eat.
I think they may wish to sit at the table with the family to eat.
Bottom line though my dogs only eat when they are hungry they do not eat if they are not hungry. I am fortunate to not have any feeding issues. My little 8lbs Shi-poo still wakes me up to go out for his busyness very early in the mornings.
how I love my dogs
I will do whatever it takes to keep them happy and healthy.
My house is not a home without my dogs.
Chantal
I have two food lovers who used to do the same thing even an hour before dinner. I set a reminder at dinnertime everyday on my Amazon echo. Now the dogs don’t act like that because Alexa is in charge of dinner time, not me. No more whining or heads in my lap or running into the kitchen when I go in there. They just patiently wait for Alexa’s reminder. It took only about three days for them to learn what Alexa’s announcement means. Before I had Alexa, I set the alarm on my phone.
That’s hysterical! And, a good idea.
We have a German Shephard rescue dog and trained him from when we first adopted him at 3 months, to sit and wait while we put his food bowl down. When we release him with “OK’ and/or pointing to the food bowl, he eats. He’s now 3.5 yrs old and does this without fail twice a day. He eats just before we do, and it’s usually 7-8am and 4:30-6pm. Sometimes he comes over and puts his head on my lap with the big eyes that seem to say “can you feed me now”. If I don’t, he lies down and waits. We did this with our last 2 dogs as well, and it makes mealtime so peaceful. We adjust the amount of food depending on how many training treats he has throughout the day.
My husband is an early riser and feeds our dogs early. When he is out of town, the first morning is a challenge, because I don’t get up that early. “His” dog wil jump on me in bed and bark in my face. After that first day, I now lock him out of the bedroom and 5:00 a.m. breakfast comes between 6:30 and 7:00 at my convenience. For dinner, that always changes because of our dog training schedules. They don’t eat before evening trainin, which happens 3-4 nights a week. We can then adjust their dog food according to how many treats they have had. I wish I could look as good as my dogs.
I can commiserate. My husband pretty much insists that we feed the dogs at a particular time. I go along with it because (frankly), it isn’t worth fighting with him about and it isn’t harmful to the dogs (if I thought it was bad for the dogs, I’d got toe to toe with anyone who begged to differ). It isn’t a problem until he is late getting home from work. Then I am the one who has to deal with the pleading eyes and the “But, mom, we’re starving” hoots and hollers. I usually just go ahead and feed them myself (even though it’s usually something we enjoy doing together).
I run a boarding kennels and cattery, so I feed at pretty much the same time every day otherwise the anticipatory barking can become quite deafening as well as raising stress levels in the dogs…and I’m neurotic about the possibility of Bloat and GDV in which stress can play a part. Obviously the time required to feed all the dogs will vary according to how many dogs are in boarding, but it doesn’t vary by more than about half an hour. My own dogs only get fed after the boarders and if a client arrives in between, they may have to wait a little longer than usual. They know the routine so well, but accept that they WILL be fed, albeit maybe half an hour later than normal sometimes. They do however lie at the gate between kennels and house to see what stage of the process I am at 😀.
Always been varied times. I don’t want my dog waking me up on a weekend or a day off if I want to sleep late. As it turns out, my dog will sleep as late as I let her! 🙂
If I’m working from home, every once in a while my dog will do the “dinner dance.” It starts by her standing in the doorway just staring at me. Once I acknowledge her, she will run and get a toy. She’ll stand just outside my grasp, and if I reach for it she’ll drop it and run to the kitchen. Being a retriever, she KNOWS that she has to deliver the toy to my hand and not drop it on the floor. So, i call her, tell her fetch, and then start her dinner. But only if it really is (or should be) dinner time!
I have a diabetic dog so regular feeding is a must since he has to have his insulin
We had a diabetic cat who also suffered from pica. It was difficult to manage his diabetes if he didn’t eat on a regular, set schedule, and more difficult to manage his pica if he couldn’t “graze” on his kibble throughout the day. We finally got him used to set meal times, but it was difficult not to kill him (not really, speaking metaphorically) during the process–with loud meows (that sounded like a child being tortured) and a claw in the ankle if you walked by. It was no fun for several weeks. But it was really necessary to feed him at regular times to help control his insulin and get his insulin shots (which, surprisingly, he didn’t seem to mind). We lost him last year and I still miss him terribly.