The Secret to Slowing Down Your Dog’s Eating
By Dr. Carol Smeja.
One of the most common concerns among Pet Parents is that their dogs eat too fast. This concern is warranted since it can lead to a whole host of health and digestive issues including choking, regurgitation, vomiting, flatulence, food bloat and more seriously (and even life-threatening) GDV or Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus. Besides the dog experiencing great discomfort at mealtime, this can also inhibit the proper breakdown and absorption of nutrients leading to dietary deficiencies over time. In order to truly solve this problem, it is first important to understand feeding from a dog’s perspective rather than our own.
In tracing the evolutionary changes from the wolf to the domestication of dogs, there was a dramatic and significant shift in their feeding ecologies. Wolves are predators who resource prey in the wild and their survival depends on protecting these resources (carcasses) from other predators. However, dogs are faced with an entirely different set of challenges in resourcing their food. The vast majority are restricted to a closed and confined area typically located in a kitchen and forced to resource their food from a bowl. How does this feeding ecology impact fast eating?
Most Pet Parents will place their dog’s bowl in the corner of a kitchen, which is convenient and pragmatic, since it is away from high traffic areas and less likely to interrupt cooking activities. Unfortunately, the kitchen corner is the most threatening food location for their dogs. Like their wolf counterparts, they are ‘wired’ with an extraordinary sensory circuit that helps to protect their food resources for survival.
When a dog’s bowl is placed in the kitchen corner, it blocks their peripheral vision. Dog’s eyes are spaced farther apart than ours, with most at a 20-degree angle, which gives them a wider field of vision to detect potential predators. With their peripheral vision blocked by the walls, they have no way to prepare for threats which can heighten their anxiety and increase the speed of eating.
Likewise, this feeding environment is also complicated by their powerful sense of hearing. A dog is capable of hearing at much greater distances (up to a mile or more) as well as hearing at much higher frequencies and softer or almost inaudible sounds than we do. This was designed so they could identify prey and potential predatory threats. So, now you have the additional sensory input of dogs hearing a plethora of sounds behind them (inaudible to us) with no field of vision which can also heighten the threat anxiety to hasten eating.
Finally, this feeding ecology is further aggravated by the dog being prohibited from movement in a corner space. Like wolves, dogs use 360 movement to have control over their feeding territory by engaging their peripheral vision & acute hearing to proactively protect their food resources. Lacking control over their feeding territory only exacerbates the threat level and promotes speedier eating.
Now, let’s take into consideration a dog’s resourcing food from a bowl. The bowl as a serving vehicle actually accelerates the dog’s speed of eating. Structurally, the sides of the bowl create yet another barrier to the dog’s peripheral vision, which adds to the threat anxiety. Additionally, the food is contained in a small circumference piled high so the dog can gulp large amounts and as they work their way down. Then they use their lower jaw to push the food against the sides of the bowl which acts as a backward conveyor into their mouths. In sum, the bowl offers one of the fastest ways your dog can eat!
Caution should be exercised when considering slow feeding options to bowls. Slow feeders with projectiles & barriers hitting into a dog’s nose is punitive because it can swell the mucus membrane in their nasal cavities which becomes painful. This creates a negative and frustrating feeding experience for the dog. Additionally, lick-type mats are not conducive to a dog’s tongue picking-up food which leads to rapid, and many times obsessive-compulsive licking that can promote behavioral disorders and even aggression.
Our purpose in developing the Original mine Pet Platter was to allow dogs to eat the way nature intended, solving all of the common feeding problems caused by the ‘bowl in the kitchen corner’ including fast eating. We celebrate our dog’s sensory circuit by allowing 360-degree vision and movement, so they have complete control over their feeding territory which eliminates threat anxieties. Moreover, the Pet Platter naturally slows eating by providing a feeding territory without sides that dogs can explore and is designed to allow them to access every speck of food without frustration.
By Dr. Carol Smeja. You can go to https://minepetplatter.com for more information the dog’s feeding ecology. You can now explore a number of new ways to slow down your dog’s eating naturally!
