We consider it essential that we are the ones who control the daily amount of food our dog eats and that our dog knows that the decision of the amount of food is ours, and not that he chooses how much and when to eat, which usually turns into them also choosing what to eat.

Benefits of us controlling their ration and the dog eating and finishing the amount offered per serving:

• Control their weight.
• Knowing that they always finish their ration, we can know, if one day they don’t finish it, that they may be incubating some pathology, which will allow us to be more attentive when reacting and visiting our veterinarian.
• Reduce the risk of stomach torsion.
• Maintain a powerful motivation, such as food, which will help us when rewarding and training our dog.
• Setting the rules of when, what and how much to eat will help us to a more correct dog-guide relationship, and will give rise to other rules.

WHAT WE SHOULD NEVER DO

• Leave food at their free disposal.
• Offer the food and if they don’t eat it, give homemade food.
• Offer the ration and let our dog peck, leave, come back, leave…and leave the ration in all that process.
• Offer the ration, and after they reject it, mix it with yogurt, oil, pate, sauces, etc…

All this, in any dog will become:

• Our dog knows perfectly how to get their sauces, their yogurts, etc, which will become, earlier and earlier, in that they “demand” the extras. After having achieved success in it, they can endure days without eating their healthy and balanced food, demanding the extras.

RULES

Rules are only understood if they are ALWAYS enforced, without exceptions. Everything else is not a rule. The rule that concerns us achieves success in something as important as regulating the feeding of our pet, and therefore it is worth an effort to achieve that goal.

The rule is: I put your ration, and if you focus on eating it, it remains, otherwise the option to eat it is removed.

BASES

Dogs work by mental images associated with a situation and an environment. Translated to our way of understanding it, let’s imagine that our dog has a notebook, and that he puts a title to a situation, and a development in which he concludes choosing a way to act.

In the subject that concerns us the title could be “my owner takes the food bowl”. What you have written in the development will depend on the way of acting that we have had. Let’s imagine that we put the feed, he doesn’t eat it and we mix pate with it.

What he has written down is that every time they put the food I wait without eating, and as a result I get an extra. What he has decided the previous time, if the effect has been positive or neutral for him, will tend to be repeated and will appear in his “notebook” reflected. The more times that situation has happened, the more it will reinforce his behavior.

Therefore our goal in dogs that already “know a lot” because we have tried all kinds of things to eat is the following:

• To move from him choosing to us choosing and that our dog knows it.
• Get “frustrated” in initial stages to give value to the food that until now does not have.
• Above all, get that what you write in the first stage is: they put the bowl I am eating it and I want to eat it, and they remove it.

With all this his “notebook” will change, his mental image too, and his behavior before that same “title” will also change.

It is common that the owner of a dog that has trouble eating, take advantage of the day that eats well to put more, with which the mental image of the dog becomes “I leave it”.

It is also common to believe that if he eats little, it is better to leave it on all day, to see if he eats..

Both options, as explained, are the worst options.

Therefore, in a practical way, for the dog that is already “badly” accustomed in this topic:

You have to get him not to stop eating before we remove it. For this we will make sure that he is hungry, and if necessary, we will not give him the first day the option to eat for 12 hours.

Later we will wet the first day a little the feed, leaving 5 minutes to soak, without the dog having access.

On the other hand, very important, being our goal that he finishes it or wants to finish it, we will put a very small amount.

When there is little left to finish it we will remove it without having the option to finish it.

All this would be the first take, the beginning of a rule that must last in time.

The next take, if everything has gone correctly, we can be sure that the intention of our dog is to finish it, because the development of his “notebook” has changed, and his resolution in the way of acting, too.

Therefore we must continue to have as objective that he finishes it, throwing the first days little amount in each take, although we extend the number of takes. They point their notebook in the situation of the food, not in the complete summary of the day. That is, they will be aware that they want to finish it every time, but they will not be aware that we have increased the number of takes.

From there, maintain that motivation, with its rule. Not putting amounts that we think he will not finish, and removing the food if the dog withdraws from the food.