Every dog parent wants to feed to their dog nutritious food. However, they may not know where to start. Nutritious food not only keeps your dog healthy but also cuts down medical expenses. Nutritious dog food is a huge and a controversial topic. Hence I think every dog parent must use their best judgement to figure out what’s best for their dog(s).

I’m only here to share my two cents on getting your feeding ritual right.

5 Dog Feeding Tips

1. Turn meal times to train your dog impulse control. Allow your dog hold himself in a position like sitting or lying down before you cue your dog to eat. Building this self control will help your dog to hold horses in arousing environments.
2. The 5 minute rule. Remove your dog bowl in a reasonable time no longer than 8 minutes (ideally 5 minutes) after your place your dog’s bowl to eat. Dogs quickly realize that food is a controlled resource and it is not available at all times. Sticking with this 5 minute pattern stops your dog from becoming picky eaters. Also, microbes in food multiply with time causing sickness in dogs.
3. No leftovers from earlier meals. Avoid feeding your dog the leftovers from his/her earlier meals for the same reason — microbes multiply with time in the leftovers causing illness in dogs.
4. No food swapping. Swapping out meals when your dog stops eating his/her food will only make your dog to become a picky eater. Instead remove the food bowl even if there’s food left and feed your dog as per the schedule. Unlike humans, two meals a day is ideal, for young and adult dogs (> 9 months in age).
5. Gut diet once a week. Feeding nothing but greek yogurt or chicken broth, once a week will help improve your dog’s gut health. This is more or like a fasting day for dogs.

I hope this post was insightful. Do you have any feeding ritual with your dog? I would love to hear about them in the comments.

Today, I’m grateful to my wife for respecting my choice of raising a dog.