Use Dinner Time as a Training Session
Why not teach your dog something new while you’re doling out dinner?
I throw Barley’s breakfast into a treat pouch for our morning walks so that we can work on leash manners every morning. In the evening, I pull a fun trick out of a jar and we work on learning something new! He loves our training time.
Taking 10 minutes to teach your dog something new is far more valuable than just tossing kibble into a food bowl. Some fun ideas to teach your dog include:
Practical behaviors like sit, down, stay, heel, and come.
Basic tricks like shake, high five, speak, and roll over.
Fun, challenging tricks like weaves, play bows, sitting pretty, crawling, hopping onto or going under objects. I recently started teaching Barley to open a suitcase and hop inside of it!
Mat training which works by teaching your dog a specific routine that can help him relax and calm down in stressful situations.
Box tricks that involve challenges like nosing a box, stepping into a box, or carrying a box. For more info, see this great article by Karen Pryor on 101 Things to do With a Box!
Functional games like Look At That (which teaches your dog to look at distracting objects or people. Despite seeming counter-intuitive, this exercise is said to reduce reactive behavior from the trigger), It’s Your Choice (an exercise which helps teach your dog self control — see video below), and Exchange Games (teaching your dog to exchange a non-desirable chewing item for a tasty treat. Eventually this exercise can lead into teaching take it and leave it commands).
Handling Practice. Practice letting your dog handle his sensitive bits by feeding him for letting you check his paws, ears, teeth, and private bits. This becomes an especially valuable skill set for veterinarian visits or show handling.
Should You Cook Your Dog’s Food?
Is cooking dog food at home really better for your pup? While there may be claims made to that effect, there’s no hard scientific evidence to support it.
“Owners are told by many sources that homemade food is superior to commercial products. However, there is no proof to support this claim,” says Dr. Larsen.
Larsen cautions dog owners to be aware of fearmongering within the pet food industry. This is often driven by myths about ingredient quality. While there are no scientifically-supported benefits to homemade diets, whole ingredient-based diets are better in the long term. Commercial foods are made to be complete and balanced, adds Dr. Bartges, albeit not the most exciting of meals.
“Think of it as eating the same highly processed food for every meal, day after day, for years, ” he affirms.
Put that way, feeding your dogs a variety of whole foods makes a lot of sense. In fact, there are a multitude of reasons why you might want to prepare homemade foods for your dog, according to Dr. Larsen and Dr. Bartges.
These include gaining control over your dog’s diet, appeasing picky eaters, combatting food intolerance issues, concern over food recalls, or simply for the bond-building joy of preparing a home-cooked meal for your dog.
Scavenger hunts
Dogs evolved as scavengers, and most dogs really enjoy getting in touch with their roots with a good old-fashioned “find it” game. If you feed messy foods, consider hiding your dog’s bowl throughout the house for him to sniff up. Those who feed kibble or other less-messy diets can hide the food outside the bowl for even more fun. Consider hiding each individual kibble somewhere different (one piece on each stair step, one behind each chair leg, etc.), or just throw the whole lot amongst the grass in your backyard for your dog to search out.
How to Make a Dog Work for Food
Making your dog work for their food will be rewarding, mentally and physically. Instead of feeding them in a bowl, be inspired by all the ways you can make their meal times more of a fun challenge. Dogs are scavengers so making scavenging a fun part of eating their meals is a great way to let them get that natural behaviour out in more positive ways!
VIDEO – You can see some of the ‘Ditch The Bowl’ ideas in action in the 3 minute ‘Enrichment Compilation’ video on this page.