food aggression?

[BIGINNER]

recently i got two weims, a pup and its mom,  mom is a great hunter, and i've been working on obediance with her,  she is an amazingly quick learner.  one problem i have with her is her food aggression.

she does not snap at you or at other dogs when she eats,  i can ceep my hand inside her food bowl while she wats and she doesn't snap. the thing is she really isn't "aggressive", she just eats like its the last meal in her life and she has to inhale everything at once. 

usually she starts to gag and throw up when she eats too fast,

what i've been doing for the past week is: i bring her her food, make her sit and wait,  once she's calm i put down her food,  i'll have her stay and wait a little and wait till she is relaxed, then i'll let her eat,  but she still eats like a maniac, so i take her food away after a couple seconds to let the food she inhaled go down, then i'll go through the whole process again several times till her bowl is empty.

the thing thats got me worried is i think my techneque makes her want the food more  and makes her even crazier, did anyoone els have experience with this?  what did you do to solve it?  did you solve it? 

thanks for any help

[BIGINNER]

I think you're correct in your assumption that it's making it worse.  Think like a dog: you bring her food but won't let her have it, that asserts dominance which is good, but in a dog pack the junior dogs eat last right?  Then you take it away, further proving your dominance but setting in her mind that while the food is in front of her she'd better gulp it before you take it away again. 

Most likely she learned this while eating with and around other dogs.  If she's the wallflower of the litter, she likely had to try to sneak in bites around the other pups.  Try giving her food in a laundry room or somplace where she can be closed in and eat alone for a while.  Put the full dog bowl down so she knows where it is and walk away.  Shut her in and let her eat.  If you do this in the garage you can start out at the far end and once she knows where her bowl is just let her in the garage with her full bowl at the far end.  Just let her in and let her eat alone.  She'll eventually get the idea that she doesn't have to rush.  Then you can let her rejoin the household.

Also, make sure you feed her at the same time every day religously.  Dogs are creatures of habit and if you change their feeding times, it will confuse and annoy them.

couple thing i forgot to clear up.  the problem is with the adult weim,  she's 4 years old.  she always eats alone, and at the same time every single day.  the problem is that if i let her eat everything at once she starts gagging and throwing up,..
i guess instead of taking the food away and making her calm down i can put i little bit in her bowl at a time and put more when she finished what she had in there. 

[Happy Gilmore]

buy a bowl that has a raised center. It will slow them down and made just for that reason. I think every pet food store around has them. You can also try floating the food for a while. (add water, not a lot but, just enough to soak the bottom half of the food)

[huntnfmly]

My two year old Springer does the same thing I let him out of his crate he sprints to his  dog bowl and sits automatically and waits for me to say ok then he inhales it.he gets so excited when he eats if your standing by him his tail wags and actually barks while he taking mouthfuls of food

[newbs55]

My Lab/ Springer Mix does the same thing. He was a rescue pup and the foster house he was in when i got him had 8 dogs there ( 5 of which were his littermates). He also had Giardia so everything he ate ran right through him. Got rid of the giardia but he still ate like it was the first thing he had seen in months. He is now 15 mos and still eats like that. If i didnt control the amount he ate I think he could get down at least a 20 lb bag and maybe a 30 lber. Haha.

[wraithen]

I have a BIG food bowl for my mastiff and put a medium sized jolly ball on her food before she eats. If she ever decides to remove it on her own there is a large stainless steel ball with sand in it (from petsmart) to help block her way. This makes her have to pick around with her food more. She doesn't vomit food very often anymore. Another trick is getting a food game. They make balls and other shapes where the dog has to manipulate the ball just to get a few pieces of food at a time. It also prevents dogs from getting bored. I tried it but my mastiff is too lazy to bother figuring it out so she could never eat out of it unless she crushed it with her jaws, but your weim should be able to catch on pretty quick. The good news is you don't have to worry so much about gastric torsion. Hope you get it figured out. Oh, and once you get her to slow down she won't fart and burp as often. 

[wildweeds]

Actually Food aggression is not the correct term,she  just eats aggresively and food agression is when the dog tries to kill anything that gets near it while eating,most generally a cause of not feeding enough feed to keep everybody happy as pups imo.Actually the best thing to do for your chow hound is chuck her portion out on the linoleum,it'll spread out all over and the dog will have to snarf up her feed one kibble at a time.Put your pups in lockdown and chunk it out on the floor,Don't worry there won't be anything left behind.

[newred]

A really simple and cheap fix that we used for our lab is feeding him in a cake pan. The food spreads out on the bottom and gets into the corners. Slows him down enough to keep him from vomiting. I am sure you have some sort of cake pan or casserole. Also we feed him twice a day.

[fatslinger]

My mutt used to do the same thing. I bought a bowl called "Brake Fast"  and it worked well. It's just a plastic food dish with 3 big bumps on the bottom of it. Dog has to work around the bumps to get his food.

[flinger]

when i am hungry i eat I have access to my food 24/7
my dogs get hungry they eat I keep food in their dish 24/7 no gulping no aggresion no reason

[Happy Gilmore]

when i am hungry i eat I have access to my food 24/7
my dogs get hungry they eat I keep food in their dish 24/7 no gulping no aggresion no reason

Puppies cannot and should not be free fed. They'll gorge, grow too heavy, grow too fast by eating too much which causes joint damage and can result in bad hips and elbows.....Not to mention be at risk of bloat/torsion. If your dog can eat whenever it wants, you don't know when it's eaten most of it's meal. Therefore, you can't know when it is safe to work the dog. A dog worked on a full belly can get torsion and die right in front of you.

[jackelope]

when i am hungry i eat I have access to my food 24/7
my dogs get hungry they eat I keep food in their dish 24/7 no gulping no aggresion no reason

Puppies cannot and should not be free fed. They'll gorge, grow too heavy, grow too fast by eating too much which causes joint damage and can result in bad hips and elbows.....Not to mention be at risk of bloat/torsion. If your dog can eat whenever it wants, you don't know when it's eaten most of it's meal. Therefore, you can't know when it is safe to work the dog. A dog worked on a full belly can get torsion and die right in front of you.

 

No control...no good. Torsion and bloat are bad bad stuff.

[wildweeds]

Yeah and weimeraners are notorious for it ...................I've met half a dozen who have been surgically repaired.

when i am hungry i eat I have access to my food 24/7
my dogs get hungry they eat I keep food in their dish 24/7 no gulping no aggresion no reason

Puppies cannot and should not be free fed. They'll gorge, grow too heavy, grow too fast by eating too much which causes joint damage and can result in bad hips and elbows.....Not to mention be at risk of bloat/torsion. If your dog can eat whenever it wants, you don't know when it's eaten most of it's meal. Therefore, you can't know when it is safe to work the dog. A dog worked on a full belly can get torsion and die right in front of you.

 

No control...no good. Torsion and bloat are bad bad stuff.

[BIGINNER]

Yeah and weimeraners are notorious for it ...................I've met half a dozen who have been surgically repaired.

when i am hungry i eat I have access to my food 24/7
my dogs get hungry they eat I keep food in their dish 24/7 no gulping no aggresion no reason

Puppies cannot and should not be free fed. They'll gorge, grow too heavy, grow too fast by eating too much which causes joint damage and can result in bad hips and elbows.....Not to mention be at risk of bloat/torsion. If your dog can eat whenever it wants, you don't know when it's eaten most of it's meal. Therefore, you can't know when it is safe to work the dog. A dog worked on a full belly can get torsion and die right in front of you.

 

No control...no good. Torsion and bloat are bad bad stuff.

Yeah. Im extra careful with them, I feed them small meals twice a day. And always make sure not to run them right after eating. 

I started useing a big bowl with the dog that eats fast,.. and pit a little at a time in it.  Works good so far.

[huntnfmly]

Happy

I feed my two yr old Springer in the morning then we run around outside can he get torsion from that? Should I let him do his business first then feed him? Thanks jim

[Mike450r]

Happy

I feed my two yr old Springer in the morning then we run around outside can he get torsion from that? Should I let him do his business first then feed him? Thanks jim

The bigger the dog the bigger the risk of torsion (deep chested dogs are the highest risk), running right after eating isn't recommended because the food is sitting in the bottom of the stomach and it can flip over and twist off the entry and exit.  They bloat up, try to vomit and crap but nothing happens,  ever see that get to the vet immediately.  Had it happen to a german shepherd once,  very scary and expensive.

[wildweeds]

Had springers myself many years ago,IMO they do not have the extreme deep chest that weimeraners/setters/pointers have I'd say the chances of it happening to a springer are  alot less than the aforementioned but it's still possible.When you say run around do you mean a pretty lengthy romp around some fields or in the yard? If its a 15 minute rip around the yard that includes a whiz and a crap your ok IMO.I wouldn't feed the dog and then go hunting that's the one thing I know for sure.
  The other thing is that bloat is directly related to genetics,it's a conformation thing.
In the weimeraners its a shallow genepool, results will typically be the same kind of thing,thus it's passed on from generation to generation as a flaw  IMO.

As a general rule................ going hunting/strenous exercise ................ no feed

Happy

I feed my two yr old Springer in the morning then we run around outside can he get torsion from that? Should I let him do his business first then feed him? Thanks jim

[huntnfmly]

Thanks guys. Y es it is just a run in the yard for about a half hour

[wraithen]

Shouldn't worry too much about it. If you guys reading this are thinking about ANY surgery for your dog, Including neuter but especially a spay, you may want to do a gastropexi as well. They tack the stomach lining to the abdominal wall. If your dog is out for any reason there usually isn't much additional cost as anesthesia is usually the most expensive aspect of anything. Dogs are put under for dentals as well.

[huntnfmly]

Fyi
 For anybody curios just. called our vet dog should relax for half hour after eating to prevent. Torsion sorry for thread jack

[Happy Gilmore]

I lost my first Chessie to tortion.