my dog eats when she is hungry, how could I get another dog?

You let your dog blackmail you into feeding her the way she wants nad although she may seem "passive" to you, she's really the boss in your house. Until you get her on a schedule and establish with her that you are the boss, getting another dog will present you with a lot of challenges. You're very wise to try to resolve this first.

I would start by dividing her food into four portions and four times a day, putting a portion down. If she refuses to eat when you put it down, pick it up, don't give her any treats, and at the next feeding time, put down just a portion. She may dig in her paws at first but eventually, she WILL eat.

Then I would divide it into three, and then eventually two portions, doing the same thing. Most dogs do well with two feedings a day, although it's certainly not a problem to feed larger dogs only once.

One of the reasons that she may not eat everything is you may be feeding her too much, thinking she needs more than she does. Once puppies get to be about a year (give or take a few months) and stop their most active growth, their caloric needs diminish dramatically. She might not need nearly as much as you are offering her. You're very fortunate that she seems to have the ability to walk away when she's sated. Many dogs, given the way you feed, would eat their way to obesity.

You can get an idea of what her caloric needs are here: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+1659+1...

But this is only a guide. What I would do to start is keep a diary and really assess how much she eats over the course of a week and average it out per day.

Also, right now she doesn't "seem" food aggressive but remember, she has no other dog to challenge her. Another dog may bring out some aggression that might shock and dismay you. Do some reading ahead of time and prepare for it and everything will work out fine.

With regards your first question, as my Dog got older, he stopped eating when I put his food in front of him. For this reason, I will leave it down for 15 minutes, and remove if not eaten. Don't worry, the dog won't starve, and will likely eat the next time you put food down. If he's persistently leaving the food, I'd take him to the vet.

I also have a 13 week old pup, who would literally eat until he explodes! I measure his food, as recommended on the pack (weight to age ratio.) I feed both dogs in separate areas, behind a closed door. This is super important, as I made the mistake of feeding them at the same time, which resulted in the pup having the top of his ear bitten off :( No worries, he's all recovered now!

You don't mention the breed of your dog. Do a bit of research to see what kind of dogs are compatible, but remember, regardless of the breed, each dog has their own personality! When you get a new dog, be sure you supervise them together at all times during the first few days. After that, neither will remember a time that they weren't together!

Enjoy! 2 dogs = double the love!!!!

My family and I have three dogs; 2 big Aussies and 1 small Havanese. The little dog could probably do as your dog does, as she does this when I take her with me to my grandparent's, but the bigger ones eat it within a minute or two. Therefore, if you were to get another dog, I believe it would have to be of bigger size and know that it will eat it all in one sitting, otherwise both dogs would do as your one does now.

Also, if you have not talked to your vet maybe you should mention your situation just to double check that there is nothing wrong.

By the way, my little dog typically eats all her food in one sitting and knows to keep an eye on it when she isn't. Good luck

I have always free fed my dogs. My first dog has been free feeding for over 5 years when I got my pup he just followed suit and he is free feeding.

The past 2 years my 5 year old dog has gone to Vancouver for 24 days and was staying in a hotel with my friend and her three dogs so she put my dog on a schedule he had no problem going onto a schedule feeding with her dogs. He is now home and back to free feeding my pup ad my dog both eat the same food so I keep the bowl full.

You sound like a brilliant owner !

If she doesn't seem interested in her food first try and make it more interesting you wouldn't want to eat the same things over and over, Trying mixing it with little bits of chicken or meat, try it with gravy, or left overs or try a mixture of wet and dry food anything you can think of. Then put it down infront of her and see if she eats it, if she doesn't take it away from her and leave it for half an hour then put it infront of her again if she doesn't eat it leave it for another half and hour and try again. Also make sure she doesn't get treats during the day or bits from your meal then she will be looking out to just eat those little treats now and then, Hope this has helped ! x

The only thing that I could suggest is start your dog on a schedule. My Dalmatian would eat the entire bag if I left it out but our Border Collie tries to eat when he wants, like your dog. We have a set schedule for when they get fed. Sometimes our Border Collie will get distracted and try to leave but we found that by standing next to him and telling him to eat and praising him has really helped. We praise both dogs when they eat and after they eat and it works perfectly.

Good Luck!

no breed of dog will eat another dog, but if a dog isn't socialized properly it can kill another dog, but i wouldn't count on it eating it. maybe an undomesticated dog like a wolf or coyote would but no dog would eat another unless under some extremely weird circumstances, a starving dog would eat another if the other dog was all ready dead.

I free feed my Pomeranians since they like to eat a little all day (measured amount of food put out each day)

My Collie on the other hand is a bottomless pit.

I have taught my Collie that she is not allowed to eat out of the Pomeranians dish without express permission from me. She will stand over the bowl and until I say to her "ok" she will just stand there.

She leaves the bowl alone and only occassionally go stare at it.

if the next dog you get is the same size it is likley they will have simaler eating habbits. I hav a Chiuahua and a Dane the Dane will woof down what ever she sees and the Chi eats a bigh here and there. So I put the Chi's food under the Danes food stands and she cant reach them. I cant free feed my Dane becouse they can get bloat.

She would soon change once her dinner disappeared down another dogs neck........it would only take a couple of days for her to realise that unless she ate, she would lose the opportunity to eat........as long as you don't continue to save her and train her not to as you have http://k9aro.webs.com/