13/09/2020
Why Leaving a Bowl Down All Day is Not Good
When feeding bowls are left out all day, it's impossible to keep track of how much your dogs eat. That in turn, makes it very difficult to determine if weight, behavior, or illness are being affected by diet. You'd be surprised how often that’s actually the case!
Try getting into the routine of giving your dogs access to their current food, in their current bowls, but with a new routine of 3x per day if they normally do 2, or 2 if they normally do 3, as examples.
To make it easier, put their bowls down for 10, 20, 30 minutes when you eat and pick them up when you're done. Place them in different locations every time.
Dogs are natural foragers and instinctively still use these behaviors daily. Not needing to forage for food because their bowl is down all day will not circumvent this instinct. When normal biological needs arise, that’s when those innate behaviors come into play and if they don't have a natural outlet for it, the behavior is not suppressed. Rather it’s expressed inappropriately or the dog becomes frustrated, which in turn can lead to feelings of anxiety or boredom.
Some examples would be:
Dogs that have a high drive for chasing small furry animals often injure other pets in the home when left alone, despite living together peacefully prior.
Dogs that have a high interest in smelling or tracking scents often have behavioral issues with walking on a leash and maintaining focus on their owner or training, even displaying increased anxiety towards situations with new smells (new people, places, things, or dogs). They just naturally like wandering about, taking naps, having snacks, chewing on stuff, and inspecting the world around them by nose and mouth. If we don't provide the right environment for them to behave naturally, they get sick or injured. Or they damage things that are ours, or just make us otherwise frustrated and miserable, not understanding why they don't act right!
We see our dogs in such a human way, it's hard to look at them as another species. But it's really important to learn how to separate that when it comes to providing their care and meeting their needs. Because ultimately, this is a species with its own history of evolutionary growth, biological composition, and a basic set of needs that are much different than any human being. Even though our humanization of them is done out of love, it can still cause great harm to their health and longevity.
