The Point of Scatter Feeding?

This morning I paid a visit to a lovely little spaniel who among other things loved to gulp his food down, they said it was gone within seconds. Then he had a mad energy spurt. Granted the food was highly processed, full of sugar, salt and preservatives which would have contributed to his sugar rush after eating. But with a change of food and some other tweaks you can very simply adjust your dog's eating habits quite quickly.

For me, the idea of scatter feeding is a great one. When I mention it to clients, they either love the idea or hate the idea - its usually dependent on how house proud they are!

The premise behind scatter feeding is to make the dogs meal time last longer, make them eat slower, make them work for their meal which in turn acts as a mentally stimulating activity. So it is great for dogs that are high energy, dogs that gulp their food, dogs that get bored and need entertaining but most of all as an owner, it gives you some breathing space from your dog without them hassling you for a walk!

Many of the dogs rehoming kennels use scatter feeding in the kennels to make their meal time last that bit longer. I use it with Henry at the moment, he's the type of dog that is raring to go from the moment I wake him up. So I use scatter feeding to buy me some time to get ready before I take him out on a walk.

The ideal with scatter feeding is some kind of dry food although you can use wet or raw, you just need to do more of a hide and seek scatter. I don't feed dry food, I'm not really an advocate of it but I do have some kibble for this very purpose. Depending on the size of your dog will depend on how much you use. For Mr Happy Henry I take a cup and a half and fill it up with the biscuits. I then make him sit and wait at the door whilst I scatter it on the patio, on the decking, under the table and around the kitchen floor. I then release him and let him go searching for it. He loves this game.

I have a teeny tiny garden but if you are lucky enough to have a big one then you can scatter it in grass and the flowerbeds if your dogs are allowed in those bits. Make it as hard or easy your dog can manage. When you are first starting out with doing it, make it simple, so your dog understands what you want from him.

You don't have to restrict it to the garden, you can do this in the park or if you have wooden floors like I do, you can scatter around the house so they have to be a detective and hunt it all out. It is a brilliant game for anyone who owns a dog with a fair bit of brain power or for a dog that never sits still!

Remember, if you have a dog that is aggressive around food do not do this type of feeding around other dogs. Even with Cookie and Henry I do Henry outside and Cookie in the living room. Better to be safe than sorry and prevent a problem forming or dogs competing over food.

Comments

[Kirsten]

Another great alternative (not great for giving you a break, though!) is to hide one bit of food and direct the dog with 'yes' and 'no' - like 'hot' and 'cold' when playing with a human. It reinforces 'no' as a direction rather than a 'punishment' - stop doing that, and do the things I say yes to and you'll get something good!