Food Bowl Happiness

Puppies love their food - mealtimes are for sure one of the highlights of their day!

Whilst it's understandable that puppy may not naturally want you, or anyone else!, around either them or their bowl whilst they are eating, it's vital that they learn to be perfectly comfortable with this.

It's generally not a good idea to attempt to achieve this by taking puppy's bowl away whilst he is eating - this will often just teach him to guard his food more than ever! How would you feel if someone did this to you?

So, how best to achieve this?

There are a few different useful exercises here,  

• slowly approach him whilst eating, reassure him and gently put a really special treat into his bowl
• feed him a really special treat from your hand whilst stroking him
• put his usual portion of food into three different bowls and once he has finished with one, take away the empty bowl and give him the next bowl in exchange

Puppy will then soon look forward to you approaching him whilst eating! 

For further advice on food bowl happiness or any concerns here please come and see us.