Free Feeding

[Wanamsmith]

Victoria in your book you say you are not in favor of free feeding. I understand the reasons you say in your book, but what if it works well? They reason I say this is because when I fed my dogs twice a day it was fine, but when I went into the hospital for a week my dogs would not eat at all, I know they were missing me, but they know my mom & they would not eat for her either, not even treats. When I got home I put their food down & sd "Eat" they scarfed their food. It worried me as what if I was in the hospital longer? it could have turned out really bad. When I was home my mom put their food down & sd "eat' & they ate fine. Anyway I started letting them free feed & when I had to go into the hospital again they ate just fine. Had to go out of town & again there was no eating problems. I also am working on training a puppy & when I first got her she ate food at 90 miles an hour well now w/free feeding she eats some when I fill the bowls in the morning then later in the day she goes back, no more gulping her food. I am a very concerned dog owner & I do not have over-weight dogs so just wondering is there times that you have seen free feeding was a good thing? (by the way, love love love the show & your way of training, while working w/ the puppy my older dogs are picking up items too) Wana

[Nettle]

You have to feed the dogs you have, and not dogs in a book, a TV programme or on the Net. If it works for you it works for you and is not intrinsically "wrong".

People come on here with problems, and at the root of many of those problems is the dog's daily routine, which is why we always ask for it Often, those problems stem from, among other things, free feeding.

But if your dogs don't fight over food, aren't overweight, are trained to the standard you want and are healthy - there's nothing to fix so do what suits you and them.