Forced Feeding Vs Free Feeding

[LokiGem]

Still free feeding

Im sorry if it seems that I am beatting a dead horse. I just think my reasons and success with free feeding might help someone out.
When I brought Loki home at 7 1/2 weeks old I took some vacation time from my job to help get him comfortable in my house. I scheluded his feedings in the beginning but going back to my job, taught me something about scheduled feeding... You (the dog owner, the Alpha dog,) doesn't always have a regular schedule by which to determine one for your dog.
Loki is my heart, my love, and my best friend.
Sometimes I leave for work in the am @ 5 o'clock; sometimes I leave @ 9.
I can't expect Loki to follow my unpredictable schedule and have scheduled feedings. It's just not possible or fair for either of us.
Loki spends a lot of time with me in the car. He eats 4 to 5 cups of kibble a day. Loki was 1 year on 6/19/03. He weighs 68 pounds and is happy, loyal, obediant, and knows that I am his boss.
I make time for Loki everyday. I walk him, play with him, train him, and talk to him everyday. Its just never at the same time everyday.
Loki has driven with me acroos the state of PA and to rhode island for work, to NYC to visit family often, and to the jersey shore to vist the grandparents. Loki is happy just to be with me. He eats twice a day 2 1/4 cups in the AM (if he doesnt eat it all or if he does,) I add the other half in the PM. He usually eats his morning meal b4 I add the pm meal.
The next morning I add the leftovers to the bag of food and repeat the amount am & pm. It works for us because we live a busy life. Loki is so happy to be with me he seems content to let go of the much reccomended scheduled feeding. He thinks his purpose in life is to look at me for direction no matter what time or where. I understand that free feeding can't work for every dog but Loki only knows me as his mother. He wants to please.

 

[JulieM]

Wow, a long-dead horse!

I was actually just thinking about this yesterday, when I read the latest Whole Dog Journal article, "Be a Benevolent Leader," by Pat Miller (author of "The Power of Positive Dog Training").
Here's the quote:

Say Please for Meals: It is perfectly okay to feed your dog before you eat your own meal – as long as you remind your dog that you control the food bowl. For starters, there should be no free-feeding. If your dog can pick from his dish whenever he wants, you allow him to believe that he controls the very valuable food-bowl resource, and you miss a golden opportunity to reinforce deference one or more times a day. (I feed my adult dogs twice a day.)

Each mealtime, after preparing your dog’s food, lift the bowl off the counter with his meal in it, and hold it at your chest. Wait for him to sit. If necessary, move the bowl over his head to lure the sit, or ask him to sit verbally. When he sits, tell him he’s a good boy and lower the bowl toward the floor. If he starts to get up, cheerfully say “Oops!” and lift the bowl to chest level again. Keep doing this until you can set the bowl on the floor without him moving. Then tell him “okay!” and encourage him to eat.

This is actually engaging in a little friendly food-guarding, a concept his canine brain should grasp easily. You are saying, “This food is really mine, because as leader all things belong to me, but because I’m nice I’m letting you have some of my food.”

To help clarify the thought behind the above, the main "gist" of the article is this:

A good leader doesn’t need to be violent – she simply needs to create an environment where it is easy and rewarding for her followers to comply with her wishes, and difficult for them to make mistakes. She helps them succeed....

A successful leader/owner controls valuable resources, and shares them with her dogs generously and judiciously. Appropriate behaviors earn rewards. Inappropriate behaviors do not. If resources are consistently awarded on the basis of desirable behaviors, and withheld in the presence of undesirable behaviors, what dog in his right mind would not choose to be well-behaved? It’s no different than teaching a toddler that he has to say “Please” to get a cookie rather than scream “Gimme!” at the top of his lungs while his face turns blue.

You (the dog owner, the ***** ***,) doesn't always have a regular schedule by which to determine one for your dog.

So? Wolves don't eat at the same time every day - why would it be expected that dogs have to? "Scheduled" feeding (actually I believe we were using the term "controlled" feeding, which is more accurate) simply means the dog eats x number of times a day - if those times are 7:30 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. today, and 9:30 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. tomorrow, that's no big deal. Unless you have a dog with very strict mealtime requirements - which would not be eligible for free feeding anyway - a feeding "schedule" does not have to be - and really should not be - set in stone.

I make time for Loki everyday. I walk him, play with him, train him, and talk to him everyday. Its just never at the same time everyday.

Great! That's exactly how controlled feeding works. The dog is fed x times per day, but it's not always at the same time every day.

Again, free-feeding works for some people but most do not have the skills to successfully use it, or the luck to know when and how much the dog last ate if necessary. It is not conducive the efficient, effective training, and certainly if a person is having a training or behavior problem free-feeding should be stopped immediately, at least until the problem is resolved.

 

[LokiGem]

I don't give Loki a big bucket of food to eat out of as he pleases, so I guess I don't "free feed" I often leave Loki's breakfast for him to pick at through my work day if I leave too early for him to be hungary. I was just trying to point out that I have had success by not having strict routine schedule.s My dog eats twice a day when it is convient for both of us.

 

[JulieM]

My dog eats twice a day when it is convient for both of us.

Mine too.

 

[Trinitysmom]

So I'm a little confused if what I do is considered free feeding or controlled feeding. Trinity is 5 months old today, and in the beginning we tried to do the scheduled feedings, morning, noon and night. It worked for about a week, then Trinity would't eat breakfast or lunch. She prefered to eat later in the day. Let me just say that my husband and I both work so she is crated during the day. I come home at lunch to let her out, her food is there if she wants it though she never eats at this time. So she doesn't have the option of picking throughout the day since her food is not in her crate. However, when my husband gets home her afternoon meal is there for her when she wants it, 1 1/2 cups. And she'll normally eat that by the time I get home from work. At that point I give her another cup and a half and she has until we go to bed to eat it or not. If she doesn't finish that I measure it the next morning and just add in whatever amount would make it a cup and a half. Normally she finnishes it in the early evening and that's all she gets until the following day. This has been working great for us. She's weighing in at 33 pounds and is very healthy. She's not aggressive at all, I can pull food out of her bowl (which I make sure to do on a regular basis so she gets used to it) and she doesn't even blink at it. :p

 

[cashisking]

I too feed Cassius 3x a day not a strict schedule, BUT if Cassius does not eat his food in say, 20 minutes the food is put away for the next meal. I have always fed this way, and I think he knows the drill. He still refuses meals from time to time, but I figure he knows his appetite better than I. He also must know that I control the food, but it will surely be out again later in the day. I think that one of the big reasons that I do this is because we feed BARF and I can't/won't let it sit out for long periods of time. I also think that if I ever had another dog that for some reason was not on BARF, I would still feed in this fashion. I KNOW when he has had his last meal, and exactly how much he ate if an emergency ever arose. I personally think of free feeding as leaving a bowl out 24/7 and filling it when it look empty, that, is what I think causes issues..

 

[Axel]

I have never heard of eating a cracker first before feeding the dog but I will now put that into my feeding routine. I must agree with Dan on the schedule feeding. One of the main reasons that I schedule feed is becuse when he eats on schedule he will potty on schedule and this makes house training very easy and I know exactly when he has to go outside. There was a lot of useful information in this thread. Thanks for the info

Travis

 

[Rexsmom]

I dont know how the people before us fed Rex, whiether it was controled feedings or free feedings. But I think they did feed him table scraps. Now that he's our son, we control feed him and we do not feed him table scraps. The reason being is because he is still a puppy and is not fully potty trained, so I dont wanna free feed him and then us have to go somewhere and Rex poops in the house. So we feed him at 7am 2pm and 7pm. that way we can take him out after everyfeeding and we know when to expect him to poop. Also if we free feed him he will eat constantly all day like he never gets fed or something. Then he gets sick and it winds back up on my carpet. We dont feed him table scraps cause neither I nor my husband does not want him sittin there begging. My dad's dog does that but not only does she beg she whines if you dont give her a bite when your done with your bite. Very annoying to me. My dad's dog also does not eat her dog food. She will have the same dog food in her bowl for about a week before it's gone because thats all she eats is "people food". I dont agree with that but that's my opinion and she's not my dog. Rex is and he will not be fed people food except for bones. But that's just me and I know that there are people out there who disagree and that's cool.

Brendi and Rex

 

[kissesbrady]

I free feed Brady, though I too understand that I'm not among the majority. I would prefer to control feed, but Brady happens to be one of those rare boxers who acts like food isn't a big deal to him. When I first tried control feeding, Brady just sniffed it and walked away. And since I can't shove it down his throat, that didn't work for us. He's not a big eater and never has been. My control feeding efforts turned into free feeding simply because the food would sit there all day. It seems to work out fine for us as we've never encountered a problem with it so far *knock on wood*.

However, I work at a doggie daycare where we control feed. I do understand the benefits of control feeding - that just isn't what worked for Brady.