Help food sneakers!!

[Barb, Murphy, Emmet, & Hudson]

What is the best way to break our doodles from eating each other's food. Our newest doodle is only a nibbler every now & then kind of eater, so I really don't want to put up the food bowl on him. I do have their food & water bowl's in different rooms and it still don't seem to help. What else can I do to STOP this? Thanks

[Tante & Jordan & now Annie!]

I have the same problem...I would love any ideas.
I have tried the 20min down and pick it up.It throws my Payton off.He is not my over eater and is very lean.Since Jordan's "diet" she is a sneaker.
She will eat her bowl and go to Paytons she would eat the cats if she could get to it. So Payton gets no food.He is a slow eater and now when I put food down for him if he does not jump on it Jordan does. I have to stay in the room to keep her out of it.
It sucks Payton was a free feeder for 10y.It is hard to get him to understand the change.

[Belinda Stevens]

I wish I had the perfect answer but I don’t. Here is what we do though. I have 3 dogs, one that is a very picky and slower eater. One that is a medium speed eater and one that inhales her food. Guess which one that is…. the doodle! We keep my slow eating old man’s in the bedroom and he next to never eats it all. We just let him back in there when he wants to go but it keeps the others out of there. It doesn’t always work. Sometimes one of the others breaks in or the door gets left open but it works for the most part. The medium eater (Dachshund) and the doodle eat together. We just have to watch Stella once she gets done so that she doesn’t strong arm Quincy and eat his food.
I don’t know if there is any easy answer. Having multiple dogs just creates a problem at feeding time Try different things and hopefully one will work or at least simi work for you.
And hey… we also have 2 cats to feed. That is another story all on it’s own.

[Barb, Murphy, Emmet, & Hudson]

Wow feeding time is busy at your house!! I guess good luck to all of us.

[Tamara & Giada]

Barb we have the same thing. Summer eats Giada's food (one bowl for her is a WEEKS worth of eating!!!). We tell her no, and ahe'll be good for months, then she'll do it again :( But, Giada is so thin the vet really wants us to keep it out. Sorry, I don't have an answer:( GL:)

[Adina P]

With three dogs we had this problem early on. Rosco was the biggest offender. We just always supervised and were ready to intervene should one of the dogs be sneaky. for a long time Thule would only pick at her food. she pretty much ignored her food till the middle of the night.

At one point, when Rosco (I think he was still under a year old but not sure how many months) learned that we did not appreciate him eating from another dogs bowl... he got to Thule's bowl and barked at it... then laid down in front of it hoping that maybe the kibble would crawl into his mouth on its own-- it was hilarious! he did everything he could to convince us or the kibble that he should have it without actually trying to eat it.

That was then.... for the last many months all three of my dogs scarf down their food--- I don't know what changed in Thule but I do know that we started to put down Thule's food and give her a limited time to eat or else we would take it away and she would not get anything until the next meal. I think perhaps she learned from that... nobody leaves food lying around nowadays. The only thing they all do is take turns cleaning each others bowls will once they are done.

The dogs get fed in the same order every day. Cass is first, Rosco is second, and Thule is last. they know the order and will not try to eat from another dogs bowl when it is set down--- despite the chaos of them jumping and leaping and acting thrilled as ever to be fed. They eat in the dining room with their bowls spread out in sort of a triangle ( though I didn't purposely choose a triangle ;-) that's just what it ends up being).

[Barb, Murphy, Emmet, & Hudson]

Oh that Rosco he sounds like a very funny boy lol!!! That's GREAT that they are all trained now! Maybe I will have to place their food on a limited time also, it seems like it really worked for you=) Wish me luck....

[Adina P]

another option, and I don't know if this will work for you, is to feed your happy in his crate--- but the food With him in his crate and give him one hour in there. If after a few tries he doesn't like that, put his food with some peanut butter in several Kongs and put them in his crate with him and leave him there for one hour. If in that hour he hasn't touched his food then put it away. That way he will have extended time to eat, but the food will be only for him.

[Barb, Murphy, Emmet, & Hudson]

thanks for the advice=)

[Adina P]

LOL-- i just saw I 'said' .. "Feed your happy" ... instead of 'feed your puppy" -- sorry my computer just doesn't understand me sometimes...LOL

[Barb, Murphy, Emmet, & Hudson]

lol I knew what you meant!!!