Food, Glorious Food: How a Vet Feeds His Dog

Slow food dispensers are an absolute boon for suburban and urban dogs who are generally left inside homes or apartments for long stretches of the day.  photo: AdobeStock

As a veterinarian and animal behaviorist, I’m often asked about the best way to feed our furry friends. When it comes to dog dining, I’m a great believer in trying to mirror how canines eat in the wild: a varied menu, small meals, irregular mealtimes, and lots of nibbles throughout the day.

In the wild, dogs eat meat when they're lucky, but they are far from exclusive carnivores. Instead, they spend hours scavenging for vegetables, snails, worms, insects, and the occasional fallen fruit, as well as partially digested veggies, usually in the form of herbivore poop.

For wild dogs, this search for food fills their days, though the actual consumption may be done in a flash. That’s why feeding domestic dogs just a couple of large meals a day can often steal their raison d'etre, prompting them to seek some other form of amusement to pass the time, especially if they’re left at home alone. Dogs on a regular feeding schedule may also become anxious if you’re late coming home, and they’re left wondering where their next meal is coming from.

Slow Feeding Is Best

Slow food dispensers are an absolute boon for suburban and urban dogs who are generally left inside homes or apartments for long stretches of the day. My personal favorite tools for slow feeding include stuffable cow femur shafts, Kongs, and Big Kahunas for moist food, as well as Squirrel Dudes (with the Treat Meter) and Planet Dog Snoops for dry food.

Of all these slow food dispensers, the stuffed Kong reigns supreme because it encourages your dog to settle down and shush. The dog holds the Kong steady with the crook of their wrist, bringing their elbows, chest, and rump to the floor for a relaxed posture while they work to pry the food out piece by piece. Each morsel extracted from the Kong rewards the dog for what it is doing: calmly lying down (not hyperactivating themselves into a frenzy), working quietly (not barking), and chewing on an appropriate item (not your furniture).

Plus, the Kong food delivery method is easy for owners. You simply stuff a Kong with food, give it to your dog, and they all but train themselves. In fact, if you’re an apartment dweller concerned about your dog disturbing your neighbors, you might be interested to know that using a Kong for all your dog’s feeding decreases the number of steps and barks per day by 90% within just two days, as measured by my trusty Premier Bark & Activity Counter, still counting after 23 years.

Of course, it’s true that gulping, gorging, and regurgitating food is common in the wild on the rare occasion that a dog manages to catch and kill a rabbit or some other tasty prey. But they seldom are lucky enough to catch a rabbit and certainly not at the same time every day. It's hardly as if a dog sees a rabbit and says, "Yo, bunny, could you come back in an hour? I eat at 6:00 p.m." Slow feeding much more accurately mirrors how dogs were meant to eat.

Elimination on Cue

Some people believe in feeding the same food, one, two, or three times a day at regular mealtimes for fear of upsetting the dog's gut and causing house soiling problems. But any change in diet might well cause house soiling if a dog is only exposed to a limited number of ingredients every day. Instead, I use an hourly confinement schedule to teach all new puppies or dogs to pee and poop on cue during their first few days at home. Empty dogs don’t soil the house. Moreover, cued elimination is a boon when visiting friends or traveling with your pup.

I have always been amused by the throngs of people I see ritually carrying a bag of dog poop through the streets of Manhattan each night at 11:00 p.m. Far more convenient would be to stand outside the apartment building and wait until the dog pees and poops on cue, bag and dispose of the stool in the building trash can, and then reward the dog for timely elimination by starting a leisurely walk with an empty dog and empty hands.

Silly faces add fun to mealtimes - if not for your dog, then for you.  photos: Dr. Ian Dunbar

The Question of Treats

I don't feed my dogs typical commercially produced treats. Instead, I use air-dried food as the base staple, usually the Ziwi Peak brand because of its balance of exceptionally high-quality ingredients and its shape.

This air-dried food is rolled flat and then cut into centimeter squares. Each square may then be broken into eight smaller pieces, so that 12 squares result in 96 small training treats. When classically conditioning dogs to accept unfamiliar people, other dogs, or the hubbub of Main Street, I often use a couple of hundred of these tiny training treats per session. But I mainly use nibbles throughout the day as food lures to expand the dog's vocabulary by teaching the meaning of useful words, such as Shush, Settle, Steady, Hustle, Heel, High Five, or Find your Kong.

Finally, I must admit I love making my dogs different snacks throughout the day or on special occasions. Sundays were always memorable times for me and my beloved dog ZouZou. That’s when I would go overboard, often bringing out the smoked salmon for a mid-morning “Happy Face” brunch. ZouZou would sit and watch me intently while I carefully crafted a smiling face using small bits of salmon on a plate. Then she’d sniff her approval as I set it down and savor it slowly.

After all, if you can’t spoil a dog every once in a while, what’s the point of food?