Have a dog that eats to fast for it's own good?

[hslogger]

One of our dogs is a border collie McNabb cross. I got him second or third hand. He had been abused, no question. It took him a long time to get civilized, poor guy. We changed his name from Ruger to Rover. The one thing is he chows down like he is starved. Well, he surely was starved at times in his life. Same thing with bones and biscuits. He destroys them like the last supper. I never had a dog that was messed with before.

 

[TractorTYMe]

E.V.E.R.Y dog I know about inhales it's food, and then keeps looking around for more, if there is none. They go to the horse pasture for a smoking yard oreo.

 

[GeneV]

Dogs by design inhale their food, and as much of it as they can. It's a canine thing.

 

[nisaacs]

We have a Red Heeler that eats slow. You haven't seen fast till you watch a piggie eat

 

[bigtiller]

I don't know, maybe it's a Maltese thing?
We have had 3 and my parents 2.
All 5 of them had their food bowl full all the time.

Everyone of them would get a mouth full of food, walk into the next room, spit the food out and eat it one piece at a time. Then go back for another mouth full and do it again.

4 of the 5 dogs weighed between 4 and 8 pounds.
The big guy was 9 pounds until he got sick and he grew to about 12 lbs because of a tumor the size of a grapefruit on his liver.

 

[MTGreen]

Dogs, like other canines, are pack animals with a definite dominance hierarchy. All modern dog breeds in the world are descended from the European gray wolf. When they get a community kill like a large animal they have to gulp it down immediately or else a more dominant dog will take it away and they don't eat. When you give a dog a bigger bone or piece of meat that they can't swallow immediately the dog instinctually takes it away from the pack (dogs AND humans) to prevent it from getting stolen.

As mentioned breeds that humans have bred to be deeper chested are prone to stomach torsion which cuts off blood supply to a portion of the stomach which subsequently dies followed quickly by the dog unless it gets emergent surgical intervention. I lost a dog that way a number of years ago.
There is a prophylactic procedure that can be done as puppies to prevent this from happening in dog breeds that are susceptible to it

***Edit: oh and before anyone quibbles about the European gray wolf bit I'm deliberately excluding the Siberian research lab experimentally domesticating and de-domesticating the local Siberian canid as that's not really a "domestic breed"

 

[cqaigy2]

I've had many dogs, only one of them would inhale the food, a blue heeler. I don't know if that's heeler thing or not, but his buddy wasn't near as food oriented. He's wait till you patted him on the head then he'd proceed to a leisurely dinner.

 

[Rockbadchild]

***Edit: oh and before anyone quibbles about the European gray wolf bit I'm deliberately excluding the Siberian research lab experimentally domesticating and de-domesticating the local Siberian canid as that's not really a "domestic breed"

what is the Siberian research lab experiment ?

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Similar thing applies to cats. Our two cats do very well regulating their eating volume on an always-full bowl. They are normal, healthy cats. We babysat for one of our grandcats for a month. The pig gained 2 pounds! Kid came home and first thing she said was "What did you do to my cat?!"

Very smart way to make sure you never have to cat sit again.

Well done.

 

[Jstpssng]

He has numerous toys he transfers in and outside. He never brought that golf ball back inside.

He did being in a rabbit hind leg once and left it on our bed. He wasn't called smart when that happened. Lol

My last dog was one of the smartest I’ve seen. I wish that she hadn’t been my first because she could have learned a lot had I known how to train her. As it was she taught herself to retrieve grouse; and was great at finding birds people thought they had missed.
One Sunday when she was a few months old I was down at the lake throwing a racket ball into the water for her to retrieve. After a while she grew tired of the game so took it off and hid it. The following Sunday we were back and I was throwing another racket ball. When she got tired of that, she went and retrieved the one she’d hidden the week before.