Do you leave your dog's food out all day? Are they so-so about eating it?

What you'll learn in this edition: how to reignite your dog's enthusiasm for food.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Teaching a sit or a come when you call is a lot harder with nothing to reward your dog with, and a bowl that sits out all day is how food stops meaning anything to your dog.

When Azuki, my Shiba Inu, was a puppy, his bowl used to sit on the kitchen floor at all hours of the day.

He was never that excited about food. But he was even less excited when food was available 24/7. He would eat a few pieces, take a long look at me, then saunter off to the couch. I'd come back at lunch and the same little pile would still be sitting there.

So I did the thing that felt kind. I left it out. If he wasn't going to eat on my schedule, maybe he would eat on his.

This went on for months.

Two things were happening, and neither one occurred to me at the time.

Dry food that's been out since breakfast doesn't smell like much by dinner. It goes a little stale and the smell flattens out. Every hour it's left out, it becomes something slightly worse, and he had all day to decide it wasn't worth eating anymore.

The second one was the clock. Or the missing clock. That food was there when he woke up. There at lunch. There when I got home. There at 10pm. Nothing about it was urgent.

Food became background noise. Meal time became optional.

You know the bowl of candy that lives on somebody's desk at the office. First week, you take one every time you walk past. By the second month you don't even notice it anymore.

Then, I would ask him to come across the room for some treats, and he would look at me as if I had offered him a rock.

You might be asking right about now,

I started putting a time limit on meals.

A dog who can eat at any hour has no reason to eat at this one.

So put the bowl down and give your dog 10 minutes. Whatever's left, pick it up.

If it's dry food, it goes back in the bag. Wet food I'll toss or cover for the next meal.

Then the part people find hardest. The next meal is the same portion size and same food. If a normal meal is 1 cup and the dog eats half, the next meal is still 1 cup. The leftover doesn't get added on top. Do not start adding goodies to entice them to eat if they refuse.

Rolling it over teaches your dog that picking at breakfast makes dinner bigger. Adding goodies teaches them that holding out gets better stuff next time.

It is normal for your dog to skip a meal. Maybe 2. Most healthy adult dogs will start eating with real interest by the third one, and they rarely hold out past that once the bowl starts leaving.

What you get, usually within a week, is a dog who stands there watching you scoop. A dog who's a little hungry will work for a piece of their own food, which turns dinner into 3-5 minutes of training.

For everybody else, put a timer on the bowl!

Let's go train some Good Dogs 🐶

P.S. Hit reply and tell me how many meals it took before your dog ate within the 10 minutes. I'm curious how much it varies. I read every single email!