my dog eats when she is hungry, how could I get another dog?
My dog only eats when she is hungry, so I keep her daily amount of food out for her to have access all day. I know you should get your dog to eat when you put the bowl down, and even though I tried this thinking she will get hungry enough to eat when I put it down she never did. She didn't eat for 3 or 4 days as a puppy so I started leaving it out for her to get as she wants. Some days she eats all her food while in her cage during the day, sometimes she only eats at night, and some days she doesn't eat anything. How would it be possible for me to get another dog and get it to not eat her food since it sits out, or how could I get my dog to eat when I put her food down not just when she wants? She is also quite passive as I taught her to not be possessive over food or toys, so she wouldn't protect her food and set the limits. Anyone else have this same issue and how did you overcome it? I would really like a second dog, but my current dog, of course, comes first.
Thanks for everyone's quick responses! My dog is an almost 2 year old flat-coated retriever mix. She is super energetic, and hates to miss out on what we are doing which I think is part of the problem. She doesn't want to waste 5 minutes eating while my wife and myself are up and doing stuff in the house. As to mixing gravy and things like that in her food, I prefer to only feed my dog dog food, but she has had gravy mixed in at my wife's parents house. She ate a little of it and then didn't eat until the next day. I have tried 3 or 4 different types of food and she eats like a traditional dog for the first few days and then it's back to her style of eating. She has been socialized very early on and knows not to be aggressive to other dogs over food or things so I'm not real sure she would eat if another dog ate her food regularly. We have talked to our vet about the way she eats, and were told not to worry about it its just how she is. She is a very good weight, incredibly he
I understand that I should have fed on a schedule and stuck to it, but when your 12 week old puppy doesn't eat for 4 days I felt it was more important to get her food than work out a schedule. As to the free feeding, she does not free feed. She gets a set amount of food once a day, and she can eat that amount as she likes. If she eats all her food for the day I don't give her more until the next day. I'm sure in the winter as neither of us is as active she needs less food and thus eats less frequently, and I do keep track of how much I give her and how much she eats, and she typically eats what has been determined to be a normal amount of food each day given her particular activity level.