[Dori]

Actually a dog the size of Sadie, carrying around an extra 2 to 3 pounds is a lot of weight. Isn’t there any way that they can have Sadie eat all her meals away from the other dogs. Would your parents be open to the idea of not free feeding the dogs. Put their food down, feeding Sadie in a separate area and leaving it down for 15 to 20 minutes and then pick up the bowls regardless of how much they ate. Even if they ate none of it. If they do that for both their meals they can have them retrained in a few days to eat their food as soon as the bowls are put down. Then there is no worry as to who’s eating whose food or how much each are getting. They can put their food bowls down as soon as they get up, leave down while they are getting ready for work and just before they leave pick up all the bowls. Do the same at dinner time. The dogs are taking their time eating because they know there will always be food around. Once they realize that when there is food available if they don’t eat, it’s going to disappear. Really is the best way to feed dogs regardless of any situation.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 8 months ago by Dori.