Feeding Time

In the wild, animals have a feeding time based on their hunger.

There is also a social order and communication that determines access to food. Domestic pets are different. For domestic pets there is no need to fear the loss of food unless they have suffered abuse or neglect and are starving. In fact their routine can become redundant and boring. Communication is not necessary, but can still happen. The social hierarchy will definitely be different as the owner is the one in charge of feeding.

Your dog will let you know when it is hungry through various behaviors, such as following you into the kitchen, bringing you their empty bowl, or scavenging the trash can if they have been starved. Many dogs tend to overeat when they see a bowl of food especially if they were dumped or starved by their previous owners. During feeding time, it is suggested that you provide the appropriate portion of food, but allow grazing by leaving food out especially for those abuse cases because this will also be consumed rather than your dog eating it later when they are hungry again.

Begging is common, especially if you do nothing to stop this behavior. You may actually be unintentionally showing your dog that begging is appropriate.

Begging can be done in several ways.

A dog may bark in request for food. It may try to nip food from your hand as you prepare it. Some dogs try to jump, nip or pull on your clothing to beg. Brushing up against you can also be a begging tactic. Your dog will try to do anything it can to make you realize it is there and it wants food. If other dogs are present this can even lead to aggression over food.

Even though these are typical behaviors and natural to your dog you can train your dog to sit, wait and receive their food reward at feeding times. This is especially helpful at feeding time at our rescue as we practice cage free living which means all the dogs at our rescue live indoors (currently at 1 of the 2 founders homes as our fosters have all stopped fostering for the Summer). We practice by making all the dogs sit and wait while their food is prepared. Then bowls are placed in the raised feeders and the dogs are released to go to their individual bowls. We also try to feed around the same times every day to help them get use to the routine of being fed on a regular basis. If you work outside of the house you may have a feeding routine. If you work from home you must still ensure you have set times.

If you provide your dogs with extra treats they may also try to beg for those. Dogs have a great sense of hearing, so if they hear the treat bag, they could display all the feeding time behaviors listed above. We’ve all heard the jokes about dog’s not hearing burglars breaking in but they can hear a cheese wrapper from miles away!!