The_momma22

How did you go about training them to eat from there own bowls? That sounds something that could be feasible! Thanks much!

Bigboy

Well you could slightly stagger thier feeding times and when the adult dog gas finnished eating put the puppy food in a seperate bowl and get the pup to sit ( this has to be trained first) then when the pup sits nice release the pup with command word like go on etc

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JGLI

I had an eight week old puppy with a ten year old GSD mix. My dogs have always been free fed with no issues whatsoever. They were fed in the same room at opposite ends. When I set down the food, the older dog knew where her bowl was located and would go over to eat some of it, she rarely finished. I put the bowl for the pup down at the opposite end of the room and, being a hungry pup, she'd head right for it to eat. I would stay in the room somewhere between the two dogs in case one became interested in what the other had but after a few sniffs both dogs seemed to understand they each had their own bowl. I could leave both bowls down with food remaining in it if they did not finish it without concern. The only issue I did have was with water, for the first few weeks the pup was with us, my older dog would drink all the water in the bowls (which was a new behavior for her and not related to any medical problem)but it was easy enough to refill them as needed.

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Kyllobernese

I have always free fed my Shih Tzu x Maltese and they stay a nice weight, have never had one get too fat yet. However, Susie, my Bernese cross is spayed and she did get too fat so I just feed her am and pm. I am getting a Golden Retriever, 9 mo. old, tomorrow so I will probably just feed him at the same time as Susie, twice a day.

DeeLind7

Well, I would love to tell you I am a great dog trainer. Or something like a dog whisperer..... but oh no. I was just lucky... that's all. We had one Collie. He loved my Mother-in-law. When she passed, he went through a severe depression. We got a new puppy to help him out. All I did was feed them both from different bowls but in the same room. When the puppy was done eating, I'd take him outside to play and then go for a walk. So as the story goes, as one dog passed, we got a new puppy and I just repeated the same thing over again. We were up to three dogs at one point. When our female collie passed from cancer, I decided to switch bowls and feed my Chi next to my male collie.... nothing doing. Now you need to know, my Chi was an obese dog that would eat anything... but he would not eat from his bowl, placed in the dogs spot that passed. He refused to eat. I had to put his bowl back in his "same spot" in order for him to eat. Go figure. I'd love to take credit for some excellent training, but I really did nothing. Our youngest collie was food agressive. Yes, at 7 weeks old. I sat on the kitchen floor, and fed him a single kibble at a time... he loves food, so training was easy. I taught him sit, stay, wait, leave it, just with his kibble alone. He is a little over 4 years now, and is a gentle eater. He doesn't gulp his food and he is not food agressive at all.

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