Forced Feeding Vs Free Feeding

[newark]

My opinion would be that it depended on the dog. Right now we 'free feed' Jersey a set amount of kibble and added goodies per day. It works nicely for us right now. It will be interesting as Julie said to come back in a year or a year and a half and see if this is still the method that works for us. Interesting topic.

 

[Slugger6969]

I feed Maddux 2-2.5 cups in the morning (just haven't been able to cut down even after switching to Solid Gold. He just seemed a few pounds skinnier than the other 6-9 months and his backbone was poking out a bit) and he has however long it takes for me to get ready in the morning. On weekends it varies a little more. Regardless, if he doesn't eat all his breakfast then, oh well. Nothing until dinner.

Evening is when he'll chow right down. But I make him a good dinner with canned food or whatever else thrown in.

Now I don't want to seem like I'm nitpicking; this is a legitimate question. Cash said Alphas eat first. Do you mean that Alphas decide when the Betas can eat? Or literally, we eat first and then feed them their dinner. Because the dogs are normally fed before us and I'd hate to have them wait any later than they already do. Some nights we don't eat until 9:00.

 

[cashisking]

Well.....

I learned Amchien Bonding from "The Dog Listener" which states if you just eat a cracker that LOOKS like it is comming from their bowl, and they see that, it enforces your status. T-Dan, and Julie have also stated that time and time again. I am of the belief that my roommate and I are both Alphas (Believe I got that from TDL too) this has been reinforced at my house. I have also watched many discovery channel, TLC, etc shows on dogs and Wolves in the wild, they all reinforce what I have read and learned..

I have to say that I have enormous respect for T-D, Julie, and Jean, as well as many other knowledgable posters on this board. I find their years of experience to be a wealth of information.

I just want to state it is YOUR dog PERIOD. We are all just relating experiences here. I personally hold some experiences higher than others. This is a unique breed and what worked for my Lab, Cocker, Mutts, may not work for a Boxer, and I try to seperate most of what I learned in the past from what I learn here and in books recommended from here. MY OPINION is alot of people here have years and years of experience with Boxers. I take some suggestions on the board with a grain of salt, but most of the time certain people here say it like it is (which I love), and give proven advise...

Jenn

 

[Slugger6969]

Oh no, I'm really am not trying to nit pick or split hairs. I really am curious. I know I'm the Alpha and I know Maddux follows my lead. I schedule feed, always have and always will.

Seriously. And maybe I'm thinking too much into it, but is it enough to be Alpha by setting down their food and then later, my husband and me eating? Is this like giving them permission to eat before us? I do all the other stuff like sticking my hand in their bowls, taking it away, making Maddux sit/lay down, etc. And I don't have aggression problems with Maddux.

But I really am trying to ask a genuine psychological question. Although we are feeding them when we are ready for them to eat, would they ultimately view it differently if we eat after they eat? Ya never know. I may get a dog one day with whom I have problems.

 

[cashisking]

No aggrivation or harsh tone injected in my previous post..

I PERSONALLY try to eat before Cash, but that isn't always possible, I also do not gesture eat each meal, though I did for about a month. Cassius will lay under my feet while we eat, not even acknowledging us (if he does its time out) I think that you taking something from his bowl (or the mere illusoin of it) means that you got yours now he can have his...

We do other things as well to prove our status, we are working on getting permission to come on the bed, though I know him sleeping with me is not preferred, I comprimise by making him wait for permission. I enter doors first. If he gets too snippy I stand up tall and put his butt in time out. I reward the heck out of good behavior.. No, gesturre eating is not the end all be all, but I feel like it is a good bit of it...

Jenn

 

[buddy'smom]

I am the Free Feeding Floosie :D

and while we just had Kailee it worked very very well. I measured her daily portion of kibble out into her bowl in the am. and by night time it was usually gone. If I needed to know what her daily intake was I just measured the am't at the end of the day and subtracted. As well, if in the next am. there was still one cup of food left, then I only added 2 cups giving her the 3 cup portion daily.

However....enter Clyde to our family on March 9th. I continued for about 2 weeks using the Free Feeding Floosie method (I am not being rude towards anyone, I was dubbed this name once in gest, and I found it quite funny, in fact I quite liked the title) Within that 2 week span, I put 3 cups in each of their bowls. Clyde was not gaining, but Kailee sure as heck was. Hmmmm...I observed more closely one evening when I was home (I am rarely here in the evenings due to work) that Kailee was eating ALL of her kibble, then chomping on Clydes as well. Seems she was allowing Clyde to have just over 1 cup of kibble per day, just enough to keep him walking So now I had no control over the intake she was getting, nor Clyde. Poor Clyde was inching out to the kitchen after the was done and ate what was left, all the while watching for Kailee to reappear.

I have had to restructure my feeding practices. Kailee was definatly becoming Alpha, and we were losing our status with her as well, not to mention Clyde was most likely hungry. They now get fed 2 times a day, and the bowls are taken up when they walk away from the bowl. Don't tell Kailee but, she is getting less food per day as she now needs to reduce drastically. Clyde on the other hand has gained some much needed weight and is looking good.

Free feeding does work in some situations but not all, and I do believe for sure in multi dog homes it does not work at all. I have never yet found Tulsa Dan to be negative in his opinion, he states facts and advises accordingly. Although he and many others did not agree with my Free Feeding practices, I was never told I was really doing something wrong, they just pointed out it can cause issues in behaviour. I do believe strongly, if you are dealing with a dog that has some behavioural issues that you need to correct, than yes, Free Feeding is not the way to go.

Jean

 

[Lexxus]

Controlled Feeding

I feed my two dogs three times a day. They have 20 minutes to eat their cup of food. There are no problems with any of them as far as puking or any discipline problems since they went off of the free feeding.

 

[EMWAZ]

free feeding

Just another positive comment about free feeding.. Our dogs have no aggression problems and don't fight over food or try to be dominant..

I have three bowls, three dogs and we manage well. I fill the bowls when they are empty with about a cup and a half its always available.

They are aware of who is in charge, if we had behavior problems I could see the need for controlled feeding but we don't.

Also even though we don't watch exactly how much they eat. I do notice when each one eats and I would notice if they didn't. They each have individual habits and times when they eat and I suppose if I had more dogs this wouldn't be as easy to pay attention to, but with three I can..

 

[MomtoOrion]

I guess we do the "force" feeding (per the definition that I am reading here). We put Orion's food out in the morning (2 cups) and give him about an hour or so to eat it. After he has shown no interest in it any more, I pick it up, throw the remainder of it away (usually not much...LOL), clean out the bowl and set it down again. He's never begging for more food or eating so fast because he's afraid of not eating again. He's never been food agressive when eating. I usually sit down with him when I'm feeding him and I can literally take food out of his mouth while eating and he's fine. I feed him again in the evening (2 cups again) and he normally eats it within an hour.

I guess they way I understand it is that there is positives about both ways of feeding. As with almost everything is this world, there is no right way or wrong way just different ways of doing things....LOL Our method works great for us because we have a crawling baby in the house and we don't need her sitting down throughout the day enjoy Orion's food with him throughout the day....LOL I used to "free" feed my labs and never had a problem with it. Again, if your dog is healthy and your method is working for you then you must be doing something right? It's great to see how passionate everyone is about this though. It just shows how much our baby's health means to us!!!

 

[Nek'sMom]

I control feed

I control feed Niko, and he has had absolutely no aggression problems ever. I can stick my hand in his bowl and take some out and he pays no attention to me at all!:p I never even thought about free feeding him because he automatically finishes all his food when we set it down (in 15-20mins). My Mom free feeds her beagle and she is a little "rude" when it comes to food. She is always stealing people food, and freaks out if we are over there and Niko takes her bones, even if she already has one in her mouth. Niko on the other hand could care less if she takes one of his. I watched her for a week while they were in FL. and had to put her in her crate and feed her the way we did Nek, or she would steal his food, and growl when he tried to eat. I am figuring now after reading all these posts from Tulsa-Dan that it could be related! Good info!