A Dog’s Guide to Happiness

Part Two - Living a Fulfilled Life : Feeding Time

Feeding our dogs an appropriate, balanced diet is key to their health and longevity. But we can’t forget that variety is the spice of life! 

For us humans, not only does it get boring to eat the same meal over and over (even if it is balanced within itself) but we risk missing out on certain nutrients if we never add variety to our diets. We also get bored if we eat the same way every single day! The same goes for many dogs! Just like you don’t want to eat all of your meals in smoothie form, dogs enjoy when we mix it up sometimes, too.

The first way we can “mix it up” for them is using different foods rotated in their diet over time. A rotation between different formulas or types of balanced foods throughout their life offers more benefit both in the form of an evolving and robust gut bacterial ecosystem, and in the assurance that they’re getting everything they need through variety. Plus, you can get to know your dogs likes and dislikes if you try different types of food such as kibble vs baked food vs air dried vs home cooked! Keep in mind that some pups do better than others on a rotation diet, and for many, medical needs require a specific diet to be followed. Check with your vet or a qualified pet nutritionist if you ever have any concerns about what to feed your pup!

If you otherwise have a healthy dog to feed, try offering more than their kibble alone, or “boosting their bowl.” This simply means adding supplements or special additions to their normal kibble to spice things up! But not literally - dogs shouldn’t be eating (most) spices! Some safe ideas for boosting your pup’s bowl may include adding fish oil, eggs, steamed veggies like broccoli, over-the-counter supplements for joint or immune health, berries, even just some water to increase palatability and moisture content. 

Once the contents of the meal are figured out, you can take a look at your presentation. There is a fun little psychological concept that’s been studied in many species called contra freeloading. This is when us hungry little organisms show we’d rather eat food we worked for than food we were given freely. Sounds a bit silly, I know, I’d happily take some free food any day! But in multiple studies, animals have shown to prefer food they had to complete a simple task for, like pressing a button, even if the same exact food is available freely in a bowl next to them! This is the big idea behind enrichment, which we will get into deeper later. 

One simple way to mix up your presentation is to hand feed the whole meal to your pup. Not only will your dog better connect those feel goods from eating his meal with YOU, but you can use it as a chance to bond, build trust, and work on tiny little tricks and skills into their feeding time. You can work on impulse control exercises or homework from that puppy class you took! 

If you don't have time to hand-feed, stuff the food into a puzzle toy and give it to your puppy in his crate or ex-pen to help him learn to rest calmly and quietly while in there.  This is a great one for the morning meal.  I’m not the sharpest in the morning and I need to get ready for the day, so stuffing the food into a toy and giving it to my puppy in the crate while I prepare for my day is typically what I do.  If you’re the opposite, you can do this one in the evening so that you can have some down-time–but don’t cheat by doing this at every meal! 

Bon appetit, everyone! Next week we'll be looking at communication with our dogs and how to best meet their needs for clarity and understanding so they can be living their best life possible alongside us!

One simple way to mix up your presentation is to hand feed the whole meal to your pup. Not only will your dog better connect those feel goods from eating his meal with YOU, but you can use it as a chance to bond, build trust, and work on tiny little tricks and skills into their feeding time. You can work on impulse control exercises or homework from that puppy class you took! 

If you don't have time to hand-feed, stuff the food into a puzzle toy and give it to your puppy in his crate or ex-pen to help him learn to rest calmly and quietly while in there.  This is a great one for the morning meal.  I’m not the sharpest in the morning and I need to get ready for the day, so stuffing the food into a toy and giving it to my puppy in the crate while I prepare for my day is typically what I do.  If you’re the opposite, you can do this one in the evening so that you can have some down-time–but don’t cheat by doing this at every meal! 

Bon appetit, everyone! Next week we'll be looking at communication with our dogs and how to best meet their needs for clarity and understanding so they can be living their best life possible alongside us!