Teach a dog to feed itself?

[nonameo]

I was thinking about this, and it seems to make sense. Dogs don't go apeshit when they see food because they're hungry, they do it because they can't feed themselves.

If they could, perhaps they wouldn't be like that and wouldn't get overweight(due to food access) in the process?

 

[Q]

Originally posted by: nonameo
Dogs don't go apeshit when they see food because they're hungry, they do it because they can't feed themselves.

Sig worthy

 

[Born2bwire]

Take a 50 lb bag of dog food and open it up on the floor. BAM! The dog can now feed itself, can you guess how long that will last?

 

[BudAshes]

You apparently need to do less thinking.

 

[Dirigible]

I think you need to learn more about dogs.

 

[JS80]

You mean like teach it to hunt?

 

[Throckmorton]

You must be a Republican. Just tell the dog to voluntarily regulate how much it eats. Call it "The Healthy Dog Trick"

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: nonameo
I was thinking about this, and it seems to make sense. Dogs don't go apeshit when they see food because they're hungry, they do it because they can't feed themselves.

If they could, perhaps they wouldn't be like that and wouldn't get overweight(due to food access) in the process?

So, we need to teach our dogs how to open the refrigerator and make themselves a sammich?

Or am I supposed to stock my backyard with livestock for them to hunt?

 

[nonameo]

Originally posted by: Born2bwire
Take a 50 lb bag of dog food and open it up on the floor. BAM! The dog can now feed itself, can you guess how long that will last?

God dammit you people are NOT interpreting this right.

What I mean is to teach a dog to feed itself from BIRTH. Of course, take this opportunity to teach good eating habits as well.

edit: you could have a feeder mechanism that dispenses food when pressed with a paw or something like that. PROBLEM SOLVED!

 

[Dirigible]

Originally posted by: nonameo

Originally posted by: Born2bwire
Take a 50 lb bag of dog food and open it up on the floor. BAM! The dog can now feed itself, can you guess how long that will last?

God dammit you people are NOT interpreting this right.

What I mean is to teach a dog to feed itself from BIRTH. Of course, take this opportunity to teach good eating habits as well.

edit: you could have a feeder mechanism that dispenses food when pressed with a paw or something like that. PROBLEM SOLVED!

Excellent angry comeback to the yahoos of ATOT. :thumbsup:

I fear I still don't think it has a snowball's chance in hell of working.

Take a labrador. Try to train it to "feed itself" from birth. Watch it chow down all day long and turn into the fattest lab ever.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: nonameo
I was thinking about this, and it seems to make sense. Dogs don't go apeshit when they see food because they're hungry, they do it because they can't feed themselves.

If they could, perhaps they wouldn't be like that and wouldn't get overweight(due to food access) in the process?

lolwut?

 

[DrPizza]

I have 3 dogs. Oddly, none of them over-eats. They have food available nearly 24/7. In fact, I just opened a 50 pound bag a few minutes ago. If you saw them, you'd think one of them was actually underfed.

Now, if I left 20 pounds of steak or something laying around, then they'd over-eat!

 

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
I have 3 dogs. Oddly, none of them over-eats. They have food available nearly 24/7. In fact, I just opened a 50 pound bag a few minutes ago. If you saw them, you'd think one of them was actually underfed.

Now, if I left 20 pounds of steak or something laying around, then they'd over-eat!

I think it really varies between all dogs of all breeds. Some dogs are just really food-obsessive and some aren't.

 

[jaqie]

I have grown up in a house with german shephards as pets, and not a single one would actually eat enough dog food to keep itself at the proper weight, we always had to feed them bits here and there of more tasty food to keep them eating, and it wasn't crappy dog food, we tried all the kinds under the sun. I dunno if we kept getting undereaters, but I do know the german shephards Ive been around (including my own) just don't want to eat enough to keep themselves at a good weight. We always had to change their diet to include bits of bacon grease and such because as they grew up they would get so thin the vet would ask if we had been feeding them enough. Now, the sheltie and cocker spaniel we had would overeat like mad and get quite fat if we were not careful - with the same dog food. Dogs in general are not good at discearning how much food they should eat to maintain a healthy weight.

 

[coldmeat]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
I have 3 dogs. Oddly, none of them over-eats. They have food available nearly 24/7. In fact, I just opened a 50 pound bag a few minutes ago. If you saw them, you'd think one of them was actually underfed.

Now, if I left 20 pounds of steak or something laying around, then they'd over-eat!

That's exactly what our 2 dogs are like. We just make sure that their food dish is kept full and they just eat when they need to. Neither has ever over-eaten.

 

[EGGO]

You want us to train our dogs to ignore their mother's milk and feed themselves with dogfood once they're born?

 

[MotF Bane]

My old Golden Retriever fed himself, and it worked out fine. He was a bit overweight, nothing too severe, but then again he was always one of those lethargic dogs that likes to snooze the day away, rather than do anything else.

 

[destrekor]

Dogs are more or less scavengers. They'll eat what is available, when they find it, due to not knowing when the next meal may be.
My last dog, and my current dog, got used to having food constantly around, as we'll put food in their bowl in the morning and at night. Not sure how we started with my first dog, but this one, we started by getting her to eat all of the meal twice a day, so we could kind of regulate her need to crap, which is good as a puppy. But she's grown in to just eating here and there, and rarely will eat all of what is in her bowl in one sitting. She knows its there, and doesn't need to devour it.

She was born on a farm, and her mom was definitely the scavenger. Got some food when she could, and even regurgitated some for the puppies.

Oh, and there are food dispensers that let the dog push a button to get food in the bowl. It's not actually hard to train a dog to make use of these, and if it gets comfortable with it, it'll just eat when it feels the need and, in effect, it feeds itself. Just need to pour a bunch of food from the bag into the container.

+

 

[ZzZGuy]

You can already get dog food dispensers where you teach the dog to paw at a leaver to drop food into the dish.

Try that and see how it goes.

-edit- didn't read the last post before posting.

 

[OhSnap688]

Get them one of those automatic feeder, that won't let the bowl be empty.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
You must be a Republican. Just tell the dog to voluntarily regulate how much it eats. Call it "The Healthy Dog Trick"

And you must be a loony liberal if you need to bring politics into a thread about dogs learning how to feed themselves.

 

[Dirigible]

Learn something new every day. Apparently some dogs don't eat themselves to obesity. I've never had a dog like that though.

 

[WisMan]

I have 2 black labs and they eat everything and anything they can get as fast as they can. I'm fairly sure it would be impossible to train either of them to feed themselves in moderation.

Also, it's amazing how fast the male can devour a full loaf of bread that he steals off the counter. Hes a tricky bastard too, somehow he figured out how to open the refrigerator and some of the kitchen cabinet doors. Needless to say we have to keep him in a kennel or outside when we are not home, which i hate doing.

 

[SonicIce]

cats rule

 

[Raduque]

My dog is a pig. First thing she does when she goes outside unsupervised is eat the cat food. I get mad at her every time but it doesn't help. She finishes her own food within minutes, it's probably not healthy for her to eat that fast.