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?
My terrier/lab (I think terrier/hound) male, Merle, has breakfast 1/2 hour after a long morning walk. Since I, a night owl, am working on sleeping longer, his breakfast is usually between 10:30 a.m. and noon. Dinner for him is 8:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., with the last walk 11:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. He is on Grandma Lucy’s Salmon Macanna to which I add poached in water wild caught Alaskan/Canadian Salmon and steamed organic veggies (tho not carrots). He eats what he wants, and I refrigerate the rest; he knows he has to eat his leftovers first at the next meal as we are not into wasting any type of food in our house. He’s just great at knowing when to stop eating; he has maintained a perfect, healthy weight! We have the world’s weirdest schedule; works for us, though. Sometimes he wants his leftovers when my husband is feeding his doggie dinner (5:00 p.m. ish). If Merle asks for the leftover bowl, he gets it. I still make a normal size dinner bowl and let him figure out how hungry he is. I really liked reading about all the different feeding methods and schedules. So wonderful to see so many people so involved with their dogs. Nice to know that there are all types of feeding schedules and non schedules and that dogs thrive under many circumstances. I think the key is to research the food you feed, see if supplementing with human food is a good thing for your dog (and I think it is if the dog is on kibble….how could something so processed and carb-heavy be healthy for all meals for an entire lifetime?). Remember, look at the ingredients on any manufactured dog food. Subtract the percentages of ingredients shown from 100%….the answer you get is carbohydrate. You’ll be amazed……that’s why my doggie gets salmon and fresh organic veggies in his bowl….otherwise even a high quality freeze dried food like Grandma Lucy’s is too carb heavy.
mealtime at my house varies on the day of the week. As leave at different times during the week in the morning. The weekends are when ever I peel myself out of bed . Their evenings meals depend on when they were fed in the morning. I try to not to fed them too late tho.
It is such a relief to hear someone saying fixed mealtimes are not necessary. My dog and cats go with the flow and
know they “usually” get fed within an hour or so of when I get up. Since I’ve retired the time I get up is all over the
map depending on what time we went to bed. Also there are occasional mornings when I’m selfish and eat first
because I’m hungry but again they go with the flow. My previous dog did also. No one has died of starvation and
they trust me that they will get fed.
Thank you for saying my way is okay.
I sort of have a life beyond dogs, so dinner time can vary. Sometimes they’re screaming, starving maniacs when I get home; occasionally, they seem to have forgotten what they missed. I go with either. They get half a Nubz after breakfast, so they aren’t interested in me having a relaxing coffee before the morning routine. Fasting a full day? Ha! My life (and conscience) would suffer way too much.
As another stated earlier, sometimes the decision is more critical than others. One of our dogs has idiopathic epilepsy and takes phenobarbital at 12 hour intervals. This should be taken with food. My wife and I also work fulltime jobs with fairly normal work hours. My wife does the early feeding about 6 am and I do the late feeding about 6 pm. That makes it easy, the dog doesn’t have seizures, and everyone is happy.
Our Lab will let me know its 4 pm time- time for dinner.. if it is earlier he know we gotta wait. At 4:00 he’s right there, or jumps in the air – straight up- to let me know its time. We recently switched his food to 1/2 kibble and 1/2 freeze dried raw. He stands next to me and chuffs, may let out a small whine- but waits for the food prep, which culminates in a small amount of pumpkin on top, of which he gets to lick the spoon. He then hurries to a spot he designated as the wait spot- and is on a Stay until I put the food down, sit down, and release him. He pretty much designed the scenario. It cracks us up. He hustles to his wait spot so fast he slightly tips over and catches himself before he tumbles. I do try to take him for a longer walk close to dinner time to mix up eating and get him used to a moving dinner hour. He’s good with all of it.
I have two large rescue dogs, both pit-bull mixes. I have a general time when I feed them in the morning and evening but that varies on the weekend. I sleep later on the weekend and they have no problem with it or with daylight savings or variations in eating times. One of the dogs was so skinny when I got him and he ate so fast that he would choke himself. I tried hand feeding him, throwing down a couple kibble at a time, and a couple varieties of bowls made to slow down dogs. What I found works well is that I now mix some kind of wet dog food with his kibble. Both often get pumpkin or a half a can of wet food in the evening and in the morning they will get a half a can of wet dog food in the morning. All mixes well and the food sticks together so he has to eat it at a slower pace. He is still a fast eater but rarely does he choke himself.
I mostly wing it, but try to not get too far off schedule. Since I, myself, do not have a set daily schedule, my hounds have learned to adapt and are quite patient with me- almost to the point that I might get engrossed in a project and lose track of time. My boys do get fed twice a day – breakfast and dinner. Sometimes they get fed first and then I feed myself and other times its reversed; it depends on how the day is going. However, I do have friends who have that demanding dog who knows time and it can be a real hassle for them, especially if “life happens” and the meal is not ready on time.
I prefer a set schedule – it works for us all. The time change is only an issue for one day, then everyone seems to adjust with no problems.
My understanding is that dogs do better with a set routine – no matter if the routine Is food-related or something else.
I get up at 5AM and the dogs are out by 5:10. While the coffee is brewing, I prepare my dog’s breakfast along with their supplements. I put their food in their crates in the garage and let them in. Between 4:30 and 5:30PM, I feed them supper. The only time I see urgency is in the morning to get back in to eat. If I am late with supper, they don’t seem to really care as they would rather chase balls than eat.