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| Author | Topic: Playing with food |
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nonsense New Member  Posts: 5 |
posted 10-02-2003 07:45 PM
 
Our cocker/lab mix has a very annoying habit of playing with his food before he eats. He will generally want to play with one of his balls or rope toy and like to try dropping a ball into the food dish. He will then bat at the dish, sometimes knocking food out. Other times he scoops up a mouthfull of food, spits it on the floor and eats it one piece at a time. This is becoming quite annoying. I'm not sure if he thinks he needs to catch his food, or somehow make it a challenge. If he's really hungry he will sometimes just dig in and eat. The problem we have is with correcting the behavior. We don't want to negativly correct him and have him associate that with eating. We have tried telling him no in a stern manner but it seems to have little effect. If we take away his toys when it's time to eat he will still bat the bowl around. I'd appreciate any suggestions on how to stop him from doing this. Thanks, IP: Logged |
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the_maine_pitbull Member  Posts: 320 |
posted 10-02-2003 08:20 PM
Steve-- Try taking the food dish away.. Have the dog on a scheduled feeding and only put the food down when it is feeding time.. If he tries to play with it.. take the food dish away. five minutes later try it again. he will get the point that a food dish is for eating, not playing with and when the dish is there he will eat it instead of attack it. Angie IP: Logged |
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Jamiya Member Posts: 1392 |
posted 10-03-2003 06:37 AM
And if nothing helps, feed him outside!
IP: Logged |
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Maisey Member Posts: 1387 |
posted 10-03-2003 01:03 PM
My dogs also take mouthfulls of food and spit it back out to eat one piece at a time. They always eat it all so I never thought it a problem. The rest sounds to me like he is just being playful and entertaining himself...not sure why you find it so annoying, except the times when he spills the whole bowl. Both ideas above sound good to me for correcting it though. Smiles and welcome to the board, Maisey IP: Logged |
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nonsense New Member Posts: 5 |
posted 10-09-2003 10:46 AM
thanks for the tips guys. So far taking the bowl away when he starts bashing it around is working pretty well. He's reduced the tendancy to do it and the ball hasn't ended up in the bowl all week. When he does bat at the bowl, I tell him "No Play" and if he does it again the bowl gets taken away for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes of him sulking I give the food back and he just diggs in.  I don't mind him dropping a mouthfull on the floor and eating it slowly, I just don't like him batting at the bowl, spilling food and water all over the place. Thanks Again for the tips! Steve IP: Logged |
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