Hi Melissastar, I have 2 dogs with 2 of their own bowls. They go to their own bowl every night and never change sides. They just do. They even know when it is 5:30 and stare at you if you are late. They have never stuck their head in the other's bowl or been sneaky about grabbing more. Now my kid's, another story!

well, I only have one little fur ball, but he has 3 dishes. Water, dry food and wet food. The water and dry are out all day for him, but the wet, he eats and the dish goes away.

My dogs know exactly which bowl is their's and they each have a side around the water bowl. I think it may be learned as the older dog has stayed on her side and she isn't the Alpha dog. I have been preoccupied at times and haven't paid attention to where their bowls are, I fill their dishes, and they just sit and look at me. I then figure out DUH! bowls are in the wrong places! Though the one that inhales her food will wait until the other(the Diva) is done and lick her bowl clean, so her scent is on both bowls. I don't get it but obviously they do.

Our planned kitchen relocated their water/food area, I am anxious to see how they handle that.

Are you kiddin me?! I have to place each dogs bowl down and then stand guard while they eat because the first dog finished is gonna try to run and steal from another dog's dish. Mine are ravenous heathens one and all! Orderly, pretty, civil eating will never exist in my house. BTW, I have terriers.

And now you know why I call myself "pupwhipped."

pup

lol @pupwhipped!! :)

i only have one little dog, but it's been my observation that they will steal each other's food. so the posts above are pleasantly surprising!

pinch_me... sorry to hear about your sweet Golden.

"They even know when it is 5:30 and stare at you if you are late."

don't ya just hate that? I swear mine have a clock somewhere...

my dogs have to be separated anywhere around food.

We have one Hoover vacuum and one very particular princess (and it's a boy!). The Hoover will scarf his food and then watch and wait, but never pounce until told ok. The princess would take all day to eat if we let him. They each have their own bowl and if I mix them up by mistake they stare at them, but won't eat until I prompt them. Same breed. Funny little creatures, so much personality.

I've always owned multiple dogs as well (up until now, just have one 17yr.old)and I always placed each dog's dish in a separate part of the room. If it wasn't all eaten, I'd pick the bowls up later; otherwise one dog (usually my beagle mix Lena -RIP) would have eaten everything. Although they all shared a big water bowl - even the cat would drink from it. I still use just the one big bowl for both senior pup and Kitty.

We have a Pembroke Welsh Corgi and a Newfoundland. Our Corgi rules the roost. She's a b*tch. Literally. Our snugglebear Newf lets her run all over him. IF we don't supervise and intervene, when its time for chow she eats his large breed food. He then eats her small breed kibble. Go figure.

Pup, you described meal time at our house! I have to crazy beagles.

Thanks for the explanations...and the funny stories...guys!

tinycastles- I need pictures. Can you guess which dog?

We currently have two Great Danes and one Dane mix (we just lost another one a few months ago). Our dogs all know where their bowls are, and they always go straight to their own bowl only. I have one who has to eat standing up on her hind legs (she has a congenital esophagus defect, so she needs help from gravity), so nobody else could eat from her bowl, anyway, but the others are just as stuck on their routines. They are truly creatures of habit!

I have Shiba Inus - very particular about mine, mine, mine. The older dog (8 yo) is THE boss. She eats first from her bowl and drinks from her bowl. When she finishes, she eats one bite, always one bite from the other bowl and leaves. The baby (4yo) waits patiently until the older finishes and then eats. Heaven forbid if dinner is not ready on time - first they stare. Next they walk from the kitchen to wherever I am and stare. Then they stand in front of me and give the evil eye, serious staring. Finally, patience exhausted, I get one stern "woof" and more staring. On the otherhand, if I get up at dinner time and say "do you want dinner," they jump up rather like bucking broncos, all four feet off the ground then sit next to their bowls.

In my home, we use the "C" word very carefully. If someone says cookie, no matter where the dogs are, they materialize in front of the offender, sit, and hold up one paw to say thank you. There had darn well better be a cookie.

My shibas are the best dogs ever, though I am considering an Akita after the renovation.

Two dogs here: Cairn terrier (6y/o) and westie/maltese mix (2 y/o). The Cairn is a food obsessive; the westese a picky one. They each have their own bowl. The Cairn scarfs and waits for permission from the Princess who often takes her food (kibble by kibble) to a rug to inspect, toy with and eat. When she grants access, the Cairn finishes off her bowl unless we have picked it up (He is portly short and in need of calorie control; she petite).
Every morning they go out to relieve themselves and get a little milkbone "cookie" upon return. Cairn inhales it. Princess Westese brings it to a visible spot, waits for his audience and slowly licks it to death while he drools.
Life is fun with these two character clowns.

holligator - Do you have the chair for your dog to sit in? I lost my golden to megaesophagus.

ae2ga, come see my Akita shed out this spring. Might change your mind about getting one!! The nearest comparison I can think of is buffalo. You've seen pictures of hair hanging in clumps down their sides? And vast areas of shed out alongside other vast areas of NOT shed out? It takes her all summer to get the job done. And then she sheds her summer coat preparing for winter. If she were an inside dog that might not be so dramatic.

I am laughing so hard at all the dog stories. Truly
beautiful!!!
All my dogs eat separate once they become adults. They are not food aggressive just prefer their own spaces. Just
like your dogs Maggie08.

Mom2Tyklea and Kiffgirl-
all your dogs are a riot. They will sit astounded looking at you to fix the bowls. Love it!!!!

Mammadukes-sounds like he knows which is the tastiest.

Hooligator and Pinch-me so sorry to hear you both lost a deeply loved four footed friend.

Pup, that was priceless. I already love your dogs.

Dretutz-I love that one is in control with slow deliberate
behaviors to show without being mean I am in charge. I wish
to be more like your dog.

Ironcook-I used to think I could only have one dog. Even
after growing up with herds of them but it was a magical
moment the first time we brought a second (puppy) home.
The first fell in love faster than we did. I think she
always wanted to be a mama. This was her baby too.

desertsteph. I have to ask are they this way with cookies?
or just dinner.

Tinycastles-Adorable. You need to post a pic of the giant
and the tiny boss.

Schoolhouse-mine share a water bowl too.

Aezga- C.O.O.K.I.E We spell in our home too. We even
have to spell W.A.L.K. and S.Q.U.I.R.R.E. L.

Great dog stories.. now post some pictures. Here I'll
start.
my boxerpups

I have three papillons. Angel lives for food. We used to feed them together and they would share bowls, but then Angel went on a diet. Angel snarfs hers down, then gets picked up. Bob will carry his a piece at a time to a bed and eat it there. Unless he forgets. He really only likes things that move. He gets fifteen minutes to eat a scant quarter cup of food, then Angel goes down and the kibble comes up. Celine wanders and eats some and gives up. She has the brains of a pillow. Sometimes she gets some extra wet food in the afternoons just to keep weight on her.

Boxer.. My grandson is just 4. The one word he can spell... B.O.N.E.

Loving all the doggy stories!!!

we are a 1 dog/1 cat family - I toy with the idea of more dogs, but think I need to get past some of the busy kid stuff first.

My nearly 2 yr old yellow lab Maple has mastered the stare down and look of disbelief if I haven't fed her by 5pm. Time change this week - yah, only took her 1 day to adjust to the new 5:00 stare. We haven't reached the stage of spelling things for her, but our former lab Molly (still miss her like crazy!!) had an amazing vocabulary and we had to spell A LOT!!

I love watching animals interact. Our kitty has taken on the "mother" role to Maple... every night she grooms Maple down, paying special attention to Maple's ears (an issue for labs) -- Maple lays there, completely relaxed and content -- and then starts groaning in happiness.

Funny stories!

We have always free-fed our dogs and cats. None of the them have ever been overweight. It's the horses that I've had to stand guard over. Finally put in fencing for separate eating stalls!

Pinch-me - I am VERY familiar with the molting buffalo syndrome - shibas also blow their coats twice a year. Clumps of hair, bag of hair after combing, bags every single day, hair on EVERYTHING! It seems like the dogs should be bald when I see how much hair. I take them to one of those self-grooming places where I wash them to "help" and I have found that Furminator works really well. If I don't the shedding is endless.

Molting buffalo hahahaha! We have a golden retriever again and I FORGOT how much fur would be floating around and now that it's shedding time... She's good for my vacuuming program though, miss a day and we are all covered with a sheen of red. I think that fleece will have to become a thing of the past. DH has a blackish one that he grabs with his finger tips as he dashes out the front door. Wouldn't change anything-really missed that sweet golden personality!

I'm coming out of Lurkerdom to post to this thread, because I can't resist talking about my dog, haha.

I currently only have one, and he's a very meek guy who will make way for anyone interested in his food bowl.

It seems as though all dogs can tell time; I thought it was just mine! He is always ready to go out in the morning at 7 am, and we start getting the "where's my dinner" staredown around 5 pm like everyone else. We are planning a new build, and he's getting his own dining room (well, hopefully he'll share with a friend at some point) since we're tired of the post-mealtime slime patrol.

Here's a pic of my guy, whom we refer to as the Forrest Gump of dogs. He's not a smart dog, but he knows what love is. ;)

~ Mastiff

Sorry for the large photo...I can't get it to resize smaller for some reason.

"And it occurs to me...does each dog eat indiscriminately or randomly from all three bowls or do they develop their "own" bowl and go to it each meal time? And if so, how do they decide who gets what bowl...is it an alpha dog thing?"

I think this has a lot to do with how they were raised/trained, genders and maybe what breed. As you can see, each person has a different story.

My dogs are sisters from the same litter. I worked hard to make sure they had zero food aggression as babies. The result (whether from my actions or not) is that they will eat out of the same bowl at the same time, if they are both hungry. (There is only one food bowl in our house.)

They have access to food 24/7, so normally they just eat individually whenever inspired. Neither are overweight or overeat.

They do have their own dog beds/areas. They know which bed is theirs. I'm confident they would do the same if they each had their own dish.

I made the comment above about genders making a difference because if a male dog comes to visit, they share most of their toys/food freely. If a female dog comes over, they both act very alpha and guard their possessions.

At my mom's house, her pack of 5 dogs has a completely different dynamic. One dog is definitely alpha and guards all 5 food dishes. The rest of the dogs have to wait until alpha dog is done eating.

I'm coming over from another list but I always love talking about my herd. I have 3 Pembroke Welsh Corgis. A 7yr old boy, almost 2 yr old female, and a new rescue I picked up 2 weeks ago who is a 9 yr old female. Corgis will eat anything, anywhere, anytime! They start pacing the house about 4:45 pm and stare so hard at us that it hurts. My husband or I finally have to relent. With the first two we have trained them well not to beg for human food, but they also know that we have a treat schedule. They can't wait for us to leave for work because they know they get treats. They become very indignant if we go on a quick errand and do not dole out the cookies. They are in their crates faster than we can move if they see us pick up our car keys. I really have to laugh the way they have us trained. As far as bowls go it really doesn't matter becasue they are done eating in about 45 seconds when they do get their food.

Pinch me, I'm so sorry to hear about your Golden. We've been so lucky with our girl who has megaesophagus. She doesn't need the Bailey chair, because we trained her from an early age to stand upright to eat. She has to wait for a minute in that position when she finishes to make sure everything goes down. She's 7.5 now, though, so it really is second nature to her at this point.

Mastiff mom, I LOVE your pup! We just lost our 11 year old dane/mastiff mix in August, and your description would have fit him beautifully--especially the Forrest Gump part! :)

Here's my dane with megaesophagus eating upright (please excuse the messy laundry room--that's next on my remodel list!).

I'm getting the dreaded stare down...guess I'll go suit up in my guard uniform. Come on you ravenous heathens, it's Sup, SUP, SUPPER TIME!

Oh cr@p! In addition, my idiot jokster husband programmed this thing on our home phone to go off at 5:30 p.m. and it says, "It's time for dinner, it's time for dinner".....and it goes on about eight times and drives me insane! It just went off as I finished typing above. Curse words abound!

pup

Yippeeeeee.....the hopping, skipping, jumping, bucking, back flips prelude to supper is over. And with one of them this panting/breathing that sounds just like an obscene phone call is over, as well...and she's my littlest one! But now they've all had their suppers for another day. No blood was shed, all is well.

Now, if I could just shoot this pain in the patooty phone that my hubby programmed, OR find the manual that tells me how to "unprogam" the sucker. I think hubby hid said manual from me...such the jokster he is. arrhhhhhhhh!

Happy Supper Time Y'ALL!

pup

Woof! Fun thread.
Question: If you live with dogs, what's your favorite/best kitchen floor material?

I don't know if you have the same phone as I do... but mine has a "it's time to pick up the children!" alarm (several times) just before the kids are expected home - sort of as a heads up to me to be on the lookout.

That alarm also sets our lab to dancing at the front window, anxiously awaiting her people's return!

holligator, how old was she when she was diagnosed? She looks good. What do you feed?

My elderly golden was diagnosed by an intern in my vet's office purely by accident. If she wouldn't have been there that day at that time I would never have known. Everything happened so fast, I don't know what happened to her. Maybe inhalent pnumonia - or something else. I ordered the chair plans but they didn't get here in time. I found the yahoo group. They were a godsend.

Pinch me, Matilda's megaesophagus is congenital, and she was diagnosed at eight weeks. Her whole litter was taken into rescue, and the women who took them in knew immediately what the problem was. All the other pups were at least 25 pounds, and she weighed just 12 pounds. The people who dumped them thought that she was just a "runt." It turns out that, as soon as the pups started eating solid food, she started regurgitating. Of course, all the other pups thought "Yay! Seconds!!" and gobbled it up (I know--yuck!). So, by the time she was taken in, she was almost starved to death. :(

{{!gwi}}

We brought her home, fed her upright (she had to eat gruel for awhile, now she eats Orijen), and she filled right out. She's been full--and spoiled rotten--ever since. :)

Apologies to the OP for taking the OT thread so far OT!

ae2ga--I love Shibas! We had a beautiful Shiba girl, Suki:

We've only ever had one dog at a time so I can't attest to multiple dog eating habits. We have a big ole' greyhound now, Gideon who believes he's a 90 pound lapdog. He never asks for breakfast until he hears one of us speak and then he whine-yodels until we tell him to go to bed or until we get up to feed him. He has us well trained.

love all the hounds!!!

I have four dogs, two Collies and two Aussies. They eat once a day at night and always the same way. I put everyone in a down, put their bowls in front of them (spaced out a few steps) and release them when I'm ready.

When they're finished inhaling the food the bowls go away. One of the Aussies will get snarky if he's left to his own devices after eating, so he's sent to his bed right away to wait until everyone else is done.

Boarding dogs and training dogs eat in their crates.

I don't free feed because I want food to be a resource I control and not something they take for granted. It's important my dogs want to WORK for their food when we do training sessions, and they will sell their souls for a single kibble so mission accomplished there, haha.

Loving all the pics of everyone's dogs. I'd post some of mine too but I can't get pics to show up here, and usually I'm tech savvy! Go figure.

Thanks, Holligator! I adore my giant love bug. :)

Anne, I have tile, carpet, and wood in my house. I prefer the wood over the others. Carpet holds on to too much of the dog hair (and my dog sheds an extra mastiff's worth every day, I think) and my guy gets my tile grout nasty. I HATE grout. He's done well on the wood, but it's important to keep nails trimmed or they scratch.

Mikomum, can I email you privately re: your greyhound? I'm thinking of getting one or possibly a whippet, but I'm still exploring the idea.

~ Mastiff

The best dog ever!

Look up! I finally figured out how to post a picture - yay for me!

We only have two labs at a time, max. Each eats at own dish, which is put down 2 feet from him when sitting. At the signal, each eats. All finished in a few seconds. We once had an "alpha" female that provoked arguments--no messing with HER food!

Mastiff, sure, ask anything you like about greyhounds (I think my email on here works???) They are wonderful dogs, We've had Gideon for 5 years now and we're looking at doing fostering for the rescue that we got him through. He's been awesome with our kids and he's just such a laid-back soul :)

boxerpupw - "desertsteph. I have to ask are they this way with cookies? or just dinner."

anything they THINK might be food. my boy was raised his 1st yr by the local homeless guy. I don't think he got enough to eat. and my girl was an 'only child' her first 2 yrs with me. I had to work with my boy for a very long time not to lose a finger (or more) when putting his food in his dish. He got sick about 7 months ago and now always thinks he is hungry - I've been known now to toss his cookie into his pen. not chancing my fingers...girl knows to sit for a cookie.

love all of the stories. These precious critters have so much personality. Life would be so lonely without them. and so less fun!

I love all the dog pictures.

"The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too."
Samuel Butler

I just moved my dog bowls from my very crowded laundry room which doubles as mudroom to the basement where my kids play. I refused to have dog bowls out in the kitchen all day since they will become tripping hazards. My dog, a red Aussie, needs a water bowl out all day since he is mostly an indoor dog.

I am just as bad at training my kids as training my dog, it seems. My kids regularly fail to put down the toilet seats so the dog "drinks" from the toilet, I must admit..... I am sure all dog owners experience this even if they don't publically admit it! Maybe I can just accept that and do away with the dog water bowl. Alas, this is not socially acceptable.

I have a Shiba who's quite territorial about her food. The issue is the cat! The Shiba doesn't eat everything right away and so there's often a bit of kibble in her bowl during the day. Whenever the cat's around, the dog feels compelled to sit in front of her bowl and guard it. She doesn't growl or get aggressive, she's just watchful. I shoo the cat away if it seems like he's going towards the dog's food.

The cat drinks out of the dog's water bowl which is located in the laundry room, away from the dog's food. The dog has to wait until the cat has had his drink before she can have one.

Following along in an OT way... I just saw this video clip on fb - and just had to share here with all the dog lovers...

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=9CCCBMNU

in it is a very guilty looking dog being questioned by his owner.... I was laughing/crying :-). My yellow lab, Maple, certainly has her "guilty" looks as well - but none as good as this dog "Denver."

hope you enjoy it... and hope it's ok to post here. just seemed timely with this quirky doggy thread. :-)

Hey Mikomum, it doesn't look like your email is activated here. Would you mind emailing me through my page so we can talk greyhounds?

~ Mastiff

Sorry for the hijack!

I have two dogs and generally they eat within 3 feet of each other, sometimes sharing, sometimes not. Each has their own bowl and their own place...at least to start. After a little bit, they usually end up checking out each others bowl. The female came to us with mild food aggression, but we trained her to wait for her food for her food and stood between her and my other dog while they ate. Food is no issue now, except when the cat is eating...it is fun to make the dogs sit and see the yearning in their eyes while she takes her time. When she leaves the bowl it is a dash to see what gift she may have left.

Here are my pups, Chewie and Savvy:

and the cat (we call her Angel-Devil)

p.s. as far as the feeding station on the island, I look at it (it's really pretty) and wonder how messy it would look after about a week in my house. My dogs are actually pretty neat eaters, but around the water bowl is messy--they drip alot!

I really like hearing about everyone's dogs. When my grandson was born, he and my daughter lived with me. My dog, the one with the flowers, would sleep under his cradle. When the baby made the slightest squeak, she would run downstairs and get us - and we had better move! When we took the baby out in the stroller, the dog would not allow strangers near the baby.

Annkathryn, don't you find your shiba is like a person wrapped in fur?

I just wanted to say I loved reading this post. Thank you.