Saturday ponder
Lurcher No.2 eats his food very, very quickly and so to stop him taking in big gulps of air with his food, and making himself sick with colic, I put a tennis ball in with his dinner to slow him down. And this is what puzzles me........he eats very gingerly around the ball until his dinner is all gone and the bowl licked clean. Then he takes the ball out and licks that clean too.
So why hasn't he figured out that he could take the ball out straight away, still get his food down his neck as fast as he'd really like to, and then lick the ball clean?
But it's not only him. I've done exactly the same with all my fosters and they do exactly the same thing.
Just one of those things that I ponder on in the dark hours of the morning when I am once again sleeping on the sofa because Himself's snoring has become unbearable. And Snowy has woken me up for the second time. And I'm on duty and the duty phone has rung at 4am, and it's a wrong number.
So why hasn't he figured out that he could take the ball out straight away, still get his food down his neck as fast as he'd really like to, and then lick the ball clean?
But it's not only him. I've done exactly the same with all my fosters and they do exactly the same thing.
Just one of those things that I ponder on in the dark hours of the morning when I am once again sleeping on the sofa because Himself's snoring has become unbearable. And Snowy has woken me up for the second time. And I'm on duty and the duty phone has rung at 4am, and it's a wrong number.
14 comments:
Don't know why a ball would slow them down. I have gulpers that tend to grab their food from the bowel and lay it down next to the bowel. I wonder if the ball trick would keep food in the bowel? We'll try that tonight.
Sorry about the phone. I sleep very poorly when I am on call & once woken .....well, sleep is never the same after that.
My Ridgeback mix, Clara, is a gulper too. The ball trick didn't work with her, though (she's too smart for that one!), so we ended up buying mini-muffin pans and distribute her food equally amongst the 12 small mini-muffin cups. Now she's done eating only a few seconds ahead of our other dog, instead of in half the time it takes our other dog to eat.
I hope you get to have a better night's sleep tonight!
I don't like to give Toby access to tennis balls as they're difficult to get back off of him. But I have put a kong in his bowl to slow him down and it had no effect.
What does work is scattering his food outside. This has the added benefit of making him work for it too. He needs a job. :)
His brain must be giving his food all - he can't multi task!
Perhaps a ball could work for Himself with a dog type harness around him and the ball fixed securely to the back! I'd love to see him ready for bed!!
boscoe was way too smart for the tennis ball, too. he just looked at us as if to say,are you nuts? and then picked it up, set it on the ground, and went on to wolf his food.
i have since seen food dishes that have rubber spikes in them that the dogs must eat around, to slow them down.
the muffin tin sounds like a good idea, too.
dog dish picture
like this one.
Neither of our dogs really eats that fast. Maddy does sometimes take mouthfuls of kibble and deposits them on the floor before eating. I always thought that was strange.
It must just by greyhounds and lurchers then!! :)
That bowl looks like a good idea though, thanks!
Doberman people put a huge rock in the dinner bowls for the dogs to eat around. I use two big metal Dee rings (too large for a whippet to accidentally ingest).
I think Lurcher #2 sees the ball as a minor item of insignificance until he's finished the food. Only then is it worthy of his attention!
wishing for better sleep for you tonight-
Patience
I fostered a Shar Pei/yellow Lab cross named Bruce who could clean a bowl faster than any dog I've ever had. I tried the tennis ball trick, and he picked the ball out, placed it carefully to one side for later masticating, and inhaled the food. Two large metal bolts from the hardware store didn't work, either. What did seem to help was that I bought a metal frame stand that holds two metal bowls for water and food. This way the dog is not bending down to eat and ingesting a great deal of air a the same time. Besides, the stand looks nice in my kitchen.
My dog Buddha likes to take a mouthful of his Canidae dry food, walk all the way into the living room and look out the patio doors at the scrubby woods while he chews. Then he strolls back for another mouthful and repeats. He often refuses treats I offer him. He's an odd duck. But if you are a stranger at the dog park and you have dog treats--watch your fingers! I guess treats are more enticing when they come from strangers at the dog park.
Really? You put a tennis ball in the food dish and they eat slower? I've got to try that. My poor Chacko, despite being an outwardly big poofy ball of joy, under all that white fur is skin and bones because he pukes everything he eats. Thanks for the tip!
Well, it works for my lot Linda, but obviously they are not quite the brightest dogs on the planet!!
Try hitting himself over the head with a pillow. That's what I do :o) Usually get hit back though. To stop Yogi guzzling, I used to make him eat through my fingers. I only have a few left now....
Just kidding :o)
I'm so amazed, I feel really dumb now. lol I had no idea there were little things we could do or try to slow our dog down!
I'm trying some of these because it's downright disgusting to listen to his bleching and what not afterwards!
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