Grazing

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

Is grazing really that horrible of a thing? Do people still let their dogs graze? Was wondering what the possible pros and cons are. I know the pretty obvious ones but was curious if people could leave their experiences with one or the other.

[Diane and Alma]

Ned is so funny!  Alma always takes a few kibbles out of her bowl and drops them on the floor a few feet away.  She eats what's in her bowl and then goes and cleans up the one's from the floor.

 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Ahhhhh, floor cookies - the best desert!  :-}  Ned cracks me up also.  Crunch, crunch, crunch - great at Halloween!

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

Yeti also has to go potty a lot during breakfast / dinner however when he comes back inside, he is never interested in his food. I'm not 100 perfect sure but I feel like if I was eating while he ate he would be more interested in what I was doing/eating. We don't table feed however he still shows interest in our food.

[Wendy and Myla]

I kind of agree with you about being penalized - especially when he's so young.  Have you tried bringing him outside to go potty before eating?  If that doesn't work, I think that I would let him go potty and then bring him back in immediately to finish eating.  If he wants to play outside and isn't interested, then I would take it away until the next feeding time.  Myla usually eats everything immediately, but I know that she did test us when she was young - we had a time period that we left her food out (and it was probably an hour but I honestly don't remember) and after that we did take it away until next feeding time.  I do hate to go against Doggie Dan though.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

EJ, if it was me, I'd let him finish his meal when he came back from pooping outside.  Doggy Dan is certainly the expert and I am not, but needing to go to the bathroom doesn't seem to be the same as walking away to play.

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

thank you all for your amazing replies! i have also posted in the food group as im hoping to get some insight from the wonderful people who know a lot more than i do about food :). I made a more indepth post there as this one just kind of came to me while i was on break at work and wanted to get it out there before i forgot.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I replied in your other discussion, Haley.

[Judy, Meg & Polly Wolly Doodle]

Weight control is the issue at our house, Polly is not a picky eater but is totally disinterested in eating.  Both girls let me know when it is feeding time but then Polly doesn't care.  I can not let Polly graze because then I would have to guard the food from Meg, and Meg shows every extra ounce she ever gets.  Polly misses an occasional meal because of this but it does not seem to bother her when we take the food up and put away what she doesn't eat.

[Lori, Daphne, Lucy & Pippa]

I found that Daphne & Pippa would often leave their breakfast meal and either not eat it at all or would eat just a few bites before walking away. (Lucy ALWAYS eats). So I started making their meals smaller according to how much they were actually eating for the whole day. Now they get smaller portions for both meals and they almost always finish both meals. 

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

Ever since we switched to wellness we have been giving him 1 cup for breakfast and 1 cup at night. I read on his food bag that minimum for his weight is 1 1/2 cups a day. He hardly ever seems to eat his whole breakfast so I decided to go down to 3/4 cup in the morning. It seemed like he would always leave 1/4 cup in his bowl so I thought it would be ideal for him. He still leaves about 1/4 in his dish. It's like he adjusted or something. He is such a weirdo but I love him