5 Tips for Feeding Your Dog

Yes, it’s more then just dumping food in a bowl and seeing what happens or scraping your plate into the dog’s dish after dinner.  Proper feeding is the least we can do for our dogs, here are a a few of many tips to help things go smoothly.

• Feed the correct amount of food. Over feeding dogs is very common and having an overweight dog is very unhealthy. Most brands of dog food include a chart on the bag that suggests how much to feed your dog. Use this information as a guide but remember that dog food companies want you to purchase more food, so it’s not uncommon for them to suggest more food then is actually needed. Also be aware that treats are usually high in calories, make adjustments to your dog’s diet so they are not putting on unneeded weight.

• Don’t keep switching foods. Make sure that you are keeping your dog on the same type and flavor of food consistently. A dog’s stomach will not adjust well to change, even changing flavors of the same brands can effect the dog. If you are switching brands or flavors, do it gradually over the course of a week or so.

• Have structured and scheduled feeding times. Free feeding (food in bowl, dog grazes throughout the day) is another system you want to avoid, and it has nothing to do with the dog’s weight in this context.  Not only does free feeding encourage picky and sporadic eating, it lacks all elements of owner interaction and structure; get the dog to look to you for the things they need!

• Monitor the feeding session. This is especially important if you are living with multiple dogs. Do not let your dogs float back and forth between bowls and don’t let one dog guard food from another.

• Make adjustments according to your activities. Do not feed your dog right before you go to the park; be sure to leave plenty of time before and after physical exercise.  Dogs who physically exert themselves on a full belly are more prone to suffering from gastric torsion, especially in the summer.

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