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Yeah you just leave the bowl out and let them do their thing, topping it up when necessary. I guess some dogs might just automatically eat everything you put down and turn into big fatty fat fats but neither of ours do that so it’s ok for my household.
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Jan 20, 2024 22:13
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| # ? May 14, 2024 23:43 |
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HootTheOwl posted:It's free feeding when you just leave the bowl out until they eat it, or...? Yes. You just fill it up and they eat when they want. Some dogs are just grazers and can mange their diet just fine.
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Jan 20, 2024 22:13
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The big worries are overdoing it (monitor your dog's weight and make sure they aren't overeating) and if you have multiple dogs it can be hard to tell who's doing the grazing.
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Jan 20, 2024 22:15
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Huh I always just thought free feeding was bad/not ideal but I guess maybe not. He seemed a bit overweight to me when we met him but we'll let our vet make that call. It sounds like as it is now they just top the bowl up for him.
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Jan 20, 2024 22:17
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Free feeding can also make it hard to use food in training and you might not notice right away if they have a change in appetite indicating a potential medical issue. In puppies it can make it harder to plan potty breaks and delay house training. Personally I wouldn’t recommend it unless your dog has a medical need to have access to food at all times.
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Jan 20, 2024 22:52
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Newton was OK with free feeding when I got him, he didn’t finish his meals. But I started putting them away if he didn’t finish them so that I could use them as a training reward. He gets a meal when he comes in from a walk/backyard time.
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Jan 20, 2024 22:53
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Apollo would eat 24/7 if we let him. Please feed him he's dying
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Jan 20, 2024 23:16
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StrixNebulosa posted:Apollo would eat 24/7 if we let him. Please feed him he's dying He hasn't been fed. Ever.
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Jan 20, 2024 23:35
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Jarvis does great with free feeding. To the point where he always wants food in his bowl, even if he's not hungry. He'll see it's empty and paw at it until we put food in, then he walks away and doesn't come back until hungry. Our friend's ween, on the other hand will stuff herself til she's sick as long as food is available. And will steal anything she gets her greedy little snout near.
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Jan 21, 2024 00:07
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Pongo gets 6c a day spread out into three feedings, he never finishes each feeding and has something to snack on if he feels like it. Still lets me have an idea if his appetite is off when necessary, I don’t fill it back up unless he’s demolished the majority. The slow feeder bowl helps too, he gets annoyed at the last few bits and has to be motivated to get them if he’s still hungry.
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Jan 21, 2024 00:35
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Gabriel will eat literally everything until he throws up and then he'll try to eat the stuff he threw up, some dogs have very poor sense about this and you just have to throttle their food. This also helps with things like house training because if they eat at a regular time they tend to poop at a regular time too, so you know when to watch them extra closely.TooMuchAbstraction posted:He hasn't been fed. Ever. yeah this is how Gabriel is
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Jan 21, 2024 00:51
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If I so much as take a step towards the kitchen within two hours of feeding time Umbra will leap over furniture and skid across the floor to get to her bowl before I'm halfway there. I had to get her a slow feeder bowl because she would swallow the kibble whole and have noxious fermented farts. Dog tax as well. 
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Jan 21, 2024 10:07
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Diego is home with us! First day was hard for all of us, he was pretty stressed after basically (in his mind) being dognapped from his family, my wife and I were both pretty emotional about having a dog in the house again and also getting a bunch of Stella's stuff back out. I hadn't actually had any breakdowns about her in a few months but they're back in a big way now. He's also been really dog reactive on walks and barking at dogs out of our front window. He was living in an 8th floor apartment before so I think having dogs (other than the one he was living with) just waltzing by is not something he's got any experience with. Last night was pretty rough as well, he didn't want to settle down anywhere and paced around or whined a lot of the night. Even though it's been 6 months since we lost Stella it still feels like whiplash going from a 13 year old dog with set routines and well known behaviours to a 3 year old dog that's stressed as gently caress and mostly an unknown quantity! So all the rough stuff out of the way, he's super cute and affectionate, whip smart, and seems to love training. He's got 0 interest in his kibble in the bowl but is happy to work hard for it learning tricks. Yesterday he cuddled with me on the couch for a while and he seems to be learning his manners pretty quickly. Before Stella we had lots of fosters so it's been a while but we're not totally strangers to having a new dog in the house and the consistency required to get them up to speed. Today he's been much more chill. I think we're going to pause on taking him out on walks or letting him look out the front window until he calms down some more. He can get plenty of exercise playing fetch in the backyard and mental stimulation from games and training inside the house. The previous owner said he had some leash reactivity when he was a puppy but that it was gone so I'm thinking we can just limit potential triggers until he's a bit more sure of us and our house and routines and then give it another try. Stella was dog reactive too so it's not new to us but by her senior years it was mostly just pulling and huffing and puffing at other dogs, or letting out some low growls at the window. If we can get Diego there I'll be happy. He's cute and smart and I like him a lot but I also feel stressed and overwhelmed and guilty for getting a new dog but there's no going back now and I think he's gonna be a great addition to our household. Dogs man, they make you feel stuff. 
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Jan 22, 2024 20:42
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Dogs are the best. You're going to do great.
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Jan 22, 2024 20:46
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Ragnar Gunvald posted:Perhaps get low cal "training treats" we had to use them for Freja at the start as she was only 8 weeks old when we got her and didn't want her piling weight on. Just give your dad a large stash of training treats and let him go nuts with them, it lets him keep his routine, treat the dogs and let's their weight stay under control at the same.. That's a good idea, thanks for the suggestion! If he insists on giving something to them, if it's something lower calorie it will at least make some difference.
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Jan 22, 2024 22:08
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prom candy posted:Diego is home with us! First day was hard for all of us, he was pretty stressed after basically (in his mind) being dognapped from his family, my wife and I were both pretty emotional about having a dog in the house again and also getting a bunch of Stella's stuff back out. I hadn't actually had any breakdowns about her in a few months but they're back in a big way now. He's also been really dog reactive on walks and barking at dogs out of our front window. He was living in an 8th floor apartment before so I think having dogs (other than the one he was living with) just waltzing by is not something he's got any experience with. Last night was pretty rough as well, he didn't want to settle down anywhere and paced around or whined a lot of the night. Even though it's been 6 months since we lost Stella it still feels like whiplash going from a 13 year old dog with set routines and well known behaviours to a 3 year old dog that's stressed as gently caress and mostly an unknown quantity! We had some of the same stuff (and some not the same) when we picked up Pochi from airport cargo just a few weeks after Mitka passed. You are gonna do great. Pochi when we picked her up, never having met her, from airport cargo:  Pochi day 2: 
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Jan 22, 2024 22:24
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prom candy posted:Today he's been much more chill. I think we're going to pause on taking him out on walks or letting him look out the front window until he calms down some more. He can get plenty of exercise playing fetch in the backyard and mental stimulation from games and training inside the house. The previous owner said he had some leash reactivity when he was a puppy but that it was gone so I'm thinking we can just limit potential triggers until he's a bit more sure of us and our house and routines and then give it another try. Stella was dog reactive too so it's not new to us but by her senior years it was mostly just pulling and huffing and puffing at other dogs, or letting out some low growls at the window. If we can get Diego there I'll be happy. man if you are already at this point in two days you are insanely lucky, that is a great fit. Gabriel stayed behind a china cabinet for four days and then would barely come out of his crate for about two weeks.
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Jan 22, 2024 22:26
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alg posted:We had some of the same stuff (and some not the same) when we picked up Pochi from airport cargo just a few weeks after Mitka passed. You are gonna do great. Thank you for sharing that first photo. I'm going to be shipping my boy Pavlov across the country, as part of my own move from California to Philadelphia. I am, of course, stressed out about the entire process. It's going to include moving him to a kennel for a couple of days while the movers empty out my house, going to a pet-friendly hotel, waking up at 4AM on the day of the flight, dropping him off at the airport, returning a car, then checking in myself for the same flight. And hoping like hell the flight doesn't get delayed or canceled. I bought a new (gigantic, to my eyes, but what the airlines require) travel crate for him, and stuck his bed in it, so he can start working on acclimating.  If y'all have any flying-with-dogs stories you want to share, please do!
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Jan 22, 2024 22:57
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Thank you for sharing that first photo. I'm going to be shipping my boy Pavlov across the country, as part of my own move from California to Philadelphia. I am, of course, stressed out about the entire process. It's going to include moving him to a kennel for a couple of days while the movers empty out my house, going to a pet-friendly hotel, waking up at 4AM on the day of the flight, dropping him off at the airport, returning a car, then checking in myself for the same flight. And hoping like hell the flight doesn't get delayed or canceled. The common sense approach, and what most people online say, is that dogs cannot handle air travel and only to do cross country drives. I think that makes sense and I understand it. But moving is a special situation which just requires certain sacrifices sometimes. When we decided to take Pochi in, she was sent to us on American Airlines from NH. I think it was a 2hr flight to DC, 3 hour layover, then 1 hour flight to us in NC. She honestly did not seem terrified at all - she was out of water but otherwise seemed fine. We had already been told she is skittish (which months of day training and us taking her to training classes have totally helped) but she seemed to do OK on the airplane, especially since someone she had never met was taking her home. When she arrived, we went up to her crate, put our hands on it and she started licking us immediately.  I put her in the car, we got home and put her crate at the end of a long hallway and put water by us. She came and got water, and she was skittish for that evening, but even that night she was cuddling me on the couch and playing with toys. I can say American Airlines did not harm her at all physically, and seemed to have no effect on her mentally. I bet she just laid down in her crate for the whole trip.
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Jan 22, 2024 23:56
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Plenty of dogs get shipped all over the country in air cargo with no adverse effects at all. Working dogs, show dogs, breeding dog, dogs moving interstate or internationally, it happens every single day. It’s scary but problems are very rare and sometimes there’s just no other way to get your dog where they need to go. I have a puppy being shipped from Slovakia to Ohio in the next couple of weeks and of course I’m still nervous but the transport company has literally never had a major problem transporting a puppy.
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Jan 23, 2024 03:51
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Honestly, the bit that has me worried now is ground transport at the other end. Pavlov needs a big crate, and he's not great with strangers, so I can't really imagine trying to take him on a shuttle to a car rental place. It's unfortunately looking likely that I'll have to ask one of my family members to drive two hours to pick me up from the airport. (stealth edit: the other bit that has me worried is that in the last 8 days, Alaska Airlines has cancelled this flight 4 times and had it arrive 2 hours late once...they've really been screwed over by the grounding of the 737Max. I wish I knew of a way to be safe from that issue short of just putting all my plans on hold until Boeing gets their poo poo together)
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Jan 23, 2024 04:06
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jellyfish i cannot wait to see your new slovakian cattledog  all the best wishes to all the dogs as they journey through the skies!
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Jan 23, 2024 07:35
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Man what a great dog, he looks like a total sweetheart. Sounds like you guys have some work ahead of you but you are prepared for it. Please keep posting updates. I was also a nervous wreck for the first couple weeks with Newton, and he was too, but he showed it differently. Didn’t leave his crate, sleepy all the time, and tail always down. No whining or pacing or barking at all though. Then we kind of fell into a routine. I didn’t realize how crazy I was about him until I had to leave for work for a few days and was a nervous wreck. I also didn’t realize how much progress he had made until other people like our trainer told me. He’s more confident, more affectionate, and happier now. He still has a lot to learn but I am so glad I adopted him. 
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Jan 23, 2024 16:14
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Speaking of, we haven't have a newton update for a bit now
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Jan 23, 2024 16:44
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Newton ate Bionicle and is now posting as them. Rip
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Jan 23, 2024 16:46
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getting puppy on SUNDAY aaaaaaa
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Jan 23, 2024 17:54
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Shugojin posted:getting puppy on SUNDAY Aaaaa
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Jan 23, 2024 17:59
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Ragnar Gunvald posted:Speaking of, we haven't have a newton update for a bit now Tayter Swift posted:Newton ate Bionicle and is now posting as them. Rip Newton is doing great on his walks now. He barely pulls. I actually measured it, and it’s .2248 lbs of force, or exactly 1 Newton  I will post a real update shortly
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Jan 23, 2024 18:22
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Shugojin posted:getting puppy on SUNDAY aaaaaaaaAAA
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Jan 23, 2024 18:52
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an egg posted:jellyfish i cannot wait to see your new slovakian cattledog Have a sneak preview. His name right now is Gambler.  This is where he’s from which frankly seems like heaven and I was tempted to just move there instead. His dad is the spotty one standing up and his mom is the one lying down closest to dad. 
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Jan 24, 2024 00:36
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What a beautiful couple + child. Speaking of puppies, I can post pics of my dog's puppies now that they've passed the important survival milestones and are in their foster homes, beginning their preparation to become seeing eye dogs.  Her face here cracks me up. Idk what it is about this girl but every time she poses for a picture she just looks haunted.  When I met the pups I had every intention of really carefully noting down who was who when I was taking pics, but that went out the window immediately so I have no idea who any of these puppies are.  And the first dog I raised who is now a working service dog is staying with me for the week! The two of them are getting on ok. My dog would like to do more playing.
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Jan 24, 2024 04:42
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So do puppies have another shithead stage after 1 year old? My good boy turned 1 in October and for the past week and a bit he's been...difficult. Started pulling more on his walks, would start playing a bit rougher than usual, he's needy but can't decide if he wants play, hugs, walk, food, toilet, or all of the above, so he gets sooky at me, but won't be receptive to anything I offer to fix whatever's bothering him... He's sleeping the same amount, he's eating and pooping well so I feel like he's perfectly healthy, he's just...difficult all of a sudden.
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Jan 24, 2024 11:43
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Congrats, you have a teenager!
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Jan 24, 2024 12:38
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Organza Quiz posted:Congrats, you have a teenager! Ahhhhhhhhhh bugger. I thought the teenager phase was right before they turn 1. Glorious. How long are they a teenager for? (Note: For epmhasis, he's still the most beautiful best fluffy good boy)
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Jan 24, 2024 12:52
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Forever
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Jan 24, 2024 13:37
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HootTheOwl posted:Forever We're not talking about my levels of maturity here, we're talking about the good boy...
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Jan 24, 2024 20:50
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Some great dogs ITT OK so another Newton update: I said earlier I had to leave him with my parents for a bit last week and was able to get him to walk on the leash like a pro. He got over his fears really quickly. It helps that my parents live in a better area for leash walks than I do (no sidewalks, but big shoulders and very little traffic, and a lot more trees). In the time they had him he started to get really excited when somebody put on their coat or got his leash and harness. When I picked him up I took him for a walk with my mom and he was having a blast...bouncing around, sniffing, tail up, he really enjoyed it more than the sidewalks near my place. He learned leash physics really quickly. He won't tangle around trees or telephone polls, and if he gets the leash under his chest instead of over his shoulders he'll spin around and straighten it out without a second thought. He's pretty smart when he's not nervous. Now our daily routine is instead of just going out in the back yard for play and bathroom breaks we do a walk around my block and end it in the back yard for play and off-leash freedom, and then more training. He seems to be most comfortable in my room and in the back yard. So I've been doing most of the training in the back yard. Once he's done sniffing and looking for rabbits he seems pretty interested in earning treats. I can yell his name and he'll come to me (unless there's something more interesting). As he got more comfortable in the house and in the yard I found he would sit down of his own choosing more often. Yesterday I held a treat barely out of reach for a frankly inhumane 30 seconds until he finally sat down. I clicked, he got the treat. After a few more sessions he's doing it fairly consistently now. So far he knows to come when I say his name (when he's in training mode...when he's just been let off the leash in the yard he's still in rabbit mode, or maybe zoom mode, or maybe playing with sticks like a clown mode), Look At Me, Nose Touch, Sit, and Receive Pets..For a long time he was too skittish to take pets when he was off the leash in the yard. He liked it in his bed inside, but if you reached to pet him in the yard he'd run off or play-bow and run off because it was making him nervous so he had to turn it into a game. Eventually he got comfortable enough to take pets so I started clicking and treating whenever he didn't run off when I reached to him. I still have to be slow and crouch a bit but he's a lot better. Honestly when he finally did that it made me a bit emotional. He's regressed a bit about coming inside on command. But I think this is because I haven't been consistent about my messaging to him. He would usually come inside if I said "Inside!" and was close enough to him for him to easily follow me. Then one evening something spooked him on the way and it broke the habbit...and he realized if he stopped, I would keep trying to get him to come in, which meant more time outdoors. And saying "inside" so much has worn the meaning off. At least now he usually doesn't run away any more when I need to put the leash on him, and I can walk him in with no drama. He's also pretty comfortable on the stairs and deck now since I dropped some treats on there and he will go up and explore. So hopefully by the time he's really firm on the "come" command he'll have no issues coming in for food. Maybe I'll switch to saying "house" when I clip the leash on and walk him in in the hopes I can do it without the leash, then I won't have to worry about wearing the meaning off the "come" command like I did with "inside." Even though he's coming out of his shell and gaining more confidence he's still super well behaved. He hasn't destroyed anything. He did steal one of my socks before I put it on yesterday morning because he was so excited about walkies, but he gave it right back.  
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Jan 24, 2024 21:16
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H13 posted:We're not talking about my levels of maturity here, we're talking about the good boy... Goldens are bred and defined by their ability to never mature, it's what makes them loveable goofs abd also means they stay brats forever
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Jan 24, 2024 23:06
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Instant Jellyfish posted:Have a sneak preview. His name right now is Gambler.
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Jan 24, 2024 23:11
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| # ? May 14, 2024 23:43 |
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I like how their eye patches mirror
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Jan 25, 2024 02:12
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