Can you hear dat????

[doxielady5569128]

Dis is Porky Pie and my mama and I are habing a big party about somefing.  I don't know why she's making such a big deal outta of it, allz I did was sit down on the linoleum floor and eat my kibble one piece at a time.   :idiot:  Hoomans are stwange!!!!   Da way she reacted, you'd fink da 6 o'clock news would need to cober da stowy.     Anyway....I'll let mama tell her side now.  Oh, I did get a cookie right after breakfast, da happy voice and she let me do my happy laps around da house so it wasn't all bad.   

I have been working with Porky on chewing his food for YEARS!!!  He never seemed to understand the command "slow down."  He would choke at least once a day on his food; sometimes badly enough to need the doggie heimlich.      So I finally got an idea to have him go potty and then as soon as he gets in making him sit by the door.   Then I would go into the kitchen and fill his bowl.  The whole time giving him the command "Wait."  He took forever to learn that if he didn't wait in that spot, he wouldn't get fed.   Once he had that down, we started working on slowing down to eat.  I would give him the command "Go ahead" to signal that he could come eat.   He quickly learned that one. Big surprise, since he loves to eat.     Then as soon as he started scarfing or inhaling the food, I would pick up his bowl and make him go sit on the spot and "wait" again.    Disclaimer: Please do NOT try that unless you know your dog will not be aggressive or possessive over their food.  You could get bitten!    He didn't seem to connect the two events at all and would just sit there whining and choking.   And then today, I let him in after potty time and he sat down without being asked.  I told him good and gave him the "wait" command.  Then filled up his bowl and told him "Go ahead." He came in, took one little bite, sat down to chew it, waited till he swallowed and took another small bite.   :apls: I immediately started praising him and he got so excited he forgot about his food and started racing around the house like he does when he's really happy.      Then he came back and took a few pieces over to the carpet, laid them down and ate them one by one!!   The little stinker has been pretending this whole time to not understand what I was teaching him.  Hopefully after all the praise and the cookie he will make a habit of chewing his food.      So proud of my little guy!!  I sure hope the choking is a thing of the past!  We're going to use one of his favorite rewards if he does it again at suppertime.   My grandma is going to come visit him.  They adore each other.    

[DeeanDave]

Go Porky Pie!!!!! 

[Spanish Teckels]

Well done Mummy and well done Porky Pie for patiently working this out together.

[BonniesMom]

 :thumb: Porky Pie! 

Bonnie is a nibbler.  My other dachshunds have always been inhalers, especially Dolly.

That's awesome that Porky is getting it.

[Rich]

When we got Sam after he had been in a shelter for several months, he gulped his food like crazy - accompanied by choking, gacking and some refunding. We then put a tuna can in his bowl with a bit of kibble at a time. This made it hard to gulp. Then we actually bought him a bowl designed for gulpers with partitions to make it harder to get at the kibble. Now after two years (!!) he will let kibble sit in the dish and eat it slowly a bit at a time.  Gulpers are hard to break. Kudos to you and Porky.

[Barb]

Good job Porky !!!!  That is awesome !

  I put a golf ball in Hollybear's small bowl....because she would snarf in one bite !

[auntydoxzz]

merion used to put chew toys in the bowl, like those nylabones, gallileobones and that kind of thing. If its a standard doxie I would be a little afraid they would figure out how to gulp down a golf ball!!  But I am sure it works great for minis and a lot of tweenies!!

[Merion]

Someone else has suggested that people put the food in a muffin tin.   :thumb: Then it is spread out so they can't get it all in one gulp.
Merion & the ZZ's

[papbouv]

Someone on Doberman talk says use a cookie sheet i had to get a Breake bowl for Patches, buddy is a poky eater.

[Brekkesmom]

Hurray for Porky Pie!  Brekke and Robinton eat reasonably without choking, but Bastian and Rowan are Hoovers!  I got two of the pans with the large silver balls to help them slow down - Bastian picked it up three days in a row, set it out on the floor and proceeded to gobble.  I shopped a week later and found the partition ones and that works well 98% of the time, but every once in a while, Bastian can still choke up on his dinner.

[auntydoxzz]

Just had a crazy idea cuz I like to do things differently at times.  I bet a ice cube tray would work fine,    None of the openings would hold many pieces of food!!  When I was heavily into doing beaded ornaments, I loved ice cube trays, cuz I could put the right amounts needed for an ornament and did not have to stop and do it later.

[doxielady5569128]

Great ideas!! Thanks!  Porky is still doing really well with his nibbling as opposed to gulping it down.  He has the nickname of lizard because of the way he used to eat.     We had tried the break-fast bowls and the golf ball idea.  The little stinker would just lift up the bowl and dump it out!!     The ice cube idea might work though. I'll keep that in mind if we should have this porblem again.   

[Dr. Beau Leaky]

I can almost hear them thinking, "Poor, silly Mom/Auntie/Dad/Uncle. He/she put this tuna can/golf ball/steel ball in my dinner. Let me just get THAT out of the way. There! :thumb: NOW I can inhale!"

Auntie Keren