i have no clue how to keep my daughter out of the dog's food. i know i am not the only mother who has a crawling baby and an indoor dog. so... seriously.
how do you do it? it seems like literally every single time i turn around she has dog food either in her hand or in her mouth. if we place her in her nursery, blink once and she's in the kitchen getting into the dog food, give her tons of new toys to play with, look away for one second and she's ignored those and is instead playing with the dogs food. place her in the other corner of the house as far away from his food as possible and you guessed it, in the dog food.
i'm not abandoning her for long periods of time, we're talking seconds and she just bolts her little crawling body toward that protein goodness. i have started telling her no and trying to discipline her but she's only 8 months old, and while i can get her to obey and stay away from it for a few minutes, it's like she has short term memory loss and is into it all over again and genuinely surprised when i tell her "no" again a few minutes later.
so, here's the question. do we re-train the dog, or train the child? and honestly, i really don't know how to do either.
so, here's the question. do we re-train the dog, or train the child? and honestly, i really don't know how to do either.
i don't have a baby, obviously, but i DO have a dog. and i would imagine that if you just don't leave the dog food out, she won't have anything to get into. dogs are supposed to be eating their food in meals, just like humans. check the side of the dog food bag, and it will tell you how much baxter should be eating, per day, based on his weight. that way, you will only have to hold bayli back from the dog food for a minute or two while baxter eats his meal, and then put the bowl out of her reach. the plus side to giving your dog the food in servings, like the bag says, is obviously a healthy dog! it helps them digest better, and helps them absorb the nutrients from the food better. leaving a bowl of food out for a dog at all times encourages weight gain and can lead to health issues (we are crazy puppy parents and have done a crazy-weird amount of research, haha! if you have any questions, ask me! i would love to give you more advice :) )
ReplyDeletewe are already feeding him in meals and have been since we got him, the problem is when we give him his scoop of food he doesn't eat it right away... he eats it in little mini feeds throughout the day. :(
Deletealso... the vet says he's too skinny, so, we don't really have a choice but to let him keep eating that way... right? i dont know
Deleteoh, i also forgot to mention, that if your worried about not having time to feed baxter 3 meals a day - most older dogs can eat just twice a day. i think that depends on the breed. but just check the bag of food!
ReplyDeletei would say the best thing to do would be to train baxter to eat his food at once. it's not really a meal if he's eating it in small amounts throughout the day, you know? cooper has the same problem sometimes, but he is starting to understand what we mean when we say "eat your dinner" and he will eat it all gone. as for your vet saying he's too skinny - i'd take that up with the vet! maybe he needs bigger servings? i don't know. training dogs is hard, but it's worth it! you just have to be patient and SUPER consistent, or it's totally pointless.
ReplyDeleteWe had the same problem. Baby + Dog that has food left out since he doesn't eat much. Honestly, it just takes a lot of patience and repeating "no". The novelty will wear off although I will say our fresh-flowing water dish and dog food dish still get some baby love occasionally. It did take at least a week of constant - make me crazy to say no 1 million times- but it will pay off :) I think its better to expose them to stuff and teach them limits rather than keep everything away from their sight. However, when I got tired from saying no repeatedly or was busy doing something else i would put the dish up for a little while to give myself a break. Good luck :)
ReplyDelete