Food Bowl Alternatives
When a client comes into the Veterinary Clinic with a dog who is vomiting, often the questions are first centered around what the dog may have eaten out of the ordinary but often the questions would wind down the path of, “how quickly does your dog eat?” Everyone knows that you need to actually chew your food for proper digestion to happen, and this absolutely applies to our dogs as well!
There is a growing movement and plethora of products being developed to battle the fact that many of our canine companions are kibble vacuums at mealtimes. Slow feeder bowls such as this bad boy (that is ceramic, not plastic) have grown in popularity over the past couple of years and hot diggity dog it’s a great start, but it’s time to LEVEL UP dog parents—I’m going to let you in on a hot tip: You don’t even need a food bowl at all.
Are you rolling your eyes? Stay with me. Dog’s noses are 50x more sensitive than ours. Dogs hang out in our boring, quiet houses all day, just waiting for us to get home at the end of the day. Your time is limited but your love for your dog isn’t (right? right?!) so make dinner time the highlight of their day. They love food anyways, so use that to your advantage. Tire their adorable little brains out with a loaded food puzzle like this one from Nina Ottoson (a.k.a. the boss babe of food puzzles) or go DIY by getting a muffin tin, pouring their kibble over it and plugging the holes with tennis balls. Expecting a hot day? Freeze those kibbles in a little bone broth in the tin and let them work on that on the back porch while you blissfully watch from your Adirondack chair. Another great option is the snuffle mat. You can even make these yourself if you’re crafty, there are dozens of DIYs online but here is an example.
One of my favorite feeding time enrichment DIYs I’ve seen going around is the towel method.
Start with a bath towel you don’t care too much about, lay it out flat
Pour your dog’s kibble across the towel
Roll the towel up from a corner (so kind of diagonal, not like a taquito)
Take your two ends and tie them in a knot
Present it to your pup and watch them dig, sniff, and snuff their dinner out of the towel
Does your dog like to sniff outdoors? Gather their portion of food and sprinkle it like birdseed all over the yard! Or sprinkle half and when they’re done start chucking it one piece at a time out into the yard to let them hunt it while you enjoy a cocktail in the other hand. Relaxation—check! Canine enrichment—check! *This is not the best method for multi-dog households, obviously.
There are so many great ideas out there nowadays, but the point is, mix it up! The more you can pair mealtime with enrichment and engage the dog’s brain and senses, the better. Mental exercise is just as effective as physical exercise. Heck, walk your dog and throw their kibble in the grass a few pieces at a time along the way! Be creative, your dog will be brighter for it. :)
My dog Chip working on her Level 3 Nina Ottoson Treat Puzzle. For reference, Chip weighs 12 lbs which is why it looks GIANT.
