Free Feeding Facts
A Method That Can Be Successful

Bringing up the subject of free feeding your dog can often start up a heated debate on dog feeding methods. It's not unusual for people to have a strong opinion on free feeding a dog as they have been told and continue to be told that you should never use that method to feed your dog. However, I find that if you'll look through the history of a dog's eating habits, you'll see that the horror stories about this method are probably an urban legend.

For starters, I have never been a fan of limiting a dog's food intake on a regular basis. Sure there are occasions that qualify for a change in diet but those are the exception. In general, I think that you should evaluate your dog's individual needs and make a choice that works for your dog.

To understand better how and why free feeding your dog is a viable feeding method, you need to understand the feeding history of a dog. Long before the days of superstores and the internet were available for our every need, both people and dogs had forage for their food.

As dogs scavenged to feed themselves, from whatever they could catch such as a small rabbit or to feed off of a larger animals kill leftovers, the modern world of convenience was making huge strides. With the industrial revolution came amazing new products and an abundance of food and excess income for the first time in American history.

With these changes, there were many great inventions and amazing new products that made our lives easier. Everything from boxed cakes to packaged foods. These made the new life of a nice little home and a yard with two kids even more appealing for the overworked housewife. Just one thing missing, the hungry dog waiting at the door.

This left an opening for ag companies that had plenty of leftover animal waste and by-products along with grain meal to use up these leftovers and squeeze a little more money out of consumers. So they mixed up all of these leftovers, packaged it up and called it dog food.

It didn't take long for families to take advantage of this new convenience and soon everyone was feeding the new packaged dog food and believing that if it was made specifically for dogs and if the clever marketing of the products claimed it was perfectly balanced nutritionally for our dogs, then why wouldn't it be the perfect food for our dogs?

This is how we stopped free feeding our dogs natural, healthy foods like raw meats and vegetables and table scraps. Not because we decided that a dog feeding themselves when they were hungry was bad or that eating natural foods was bad but because the dog food industry told us it was bad. They were suddenly the ones telling us what and how much to feed our dogs.

With that in mind, it's easier to understand why people have been afraid to return to free feeding their dogs real food or allow them to feed on a natural schedule or free feed. Imagine what could happen, people might stop buying commercial dog foods and their dog's might start getting real nutrition again.

The only good thing that has come for the recalls is that it has made pet parents and dog lovers everywhere very aware of paying attention to the importance of what they are feeding their precious pets.

Although it has brought about some changes within the industry, there are many more that are necessary and will require your voice as a pet parent and pet lover to ever see the light of day. Don't be afraid to speak up and make your voice count.

Make your purchases count and switch to a premium dog food, raw dog food diets, homemade dog foods, organic, natural and holistic dog foods and on and on and on – you get the idea. Always read the label on anything you purchase and understand what you are feeding.

Now that you understand a little bit more about how we came to start feeding our dogs out of a bag, you will understand why I think a free feeding program can be very successful if implemented correctly. They'll be plenty of people who will disagree with me and they are right in that it does not work for all dogs. As I said earlier, you need to evaluate your dog's eating habits and make the right choice for your individual dog.

To start a free feeding program, start by putting a full bowl of food down for your dog and just allow them to eat until they are full. Your dog may initially be pretty excited about the access to the additional food, so don't be surprised to see them eat more than they should those first 7-14 days. For a dog that's been malnourished or underfed, expect that that period may last longer.

Just remember it's completely normal behavior. They have been limited in their food intake up until now and so they have been trained to eat everything put in front of them because they aren't getting anything else until the next feeding. So the idea that there will be extra food in the bowl all day long is a completely new concept for them.

If they continue to eat all of the food in the bowl after a few days, wait a couple of hours and then refill it for the first couple of weeks, then you can refill it right away. If they are being absolutely nuts about overeating, be sure you get them out for exercise after they eat and set the food bowl up for a few hours but then set it back down again. Use common sense and gradually re-introduce them to the available food.

Gradually your dog will begin to realize that you are allowing them to have additional food available to them throughout the day. This will alleviate their anxiety that they have to eat everything all at once, fast and beg for more because now they're not going to have to wait until their usual next feeding period.

They will begin to understand that there is food available for them at all times. This way they will just eat a little at a time and come back later when they are actually hungry again.

I just adopted a 1 year old female Border Collie from a rescue shelter a few months ago and she had been fed once a day(if that) before we got her. When we first started feeding her she ate unbelievable amounts of food. Some of that can be attributed to the fact that she was underweight and had not been eating a quality dog food, but mostly she was not used to having food available at all times.

It took her about three weeks to stop cleaning out the dog food bowl every time she ate but she gradually started realizing that we were willing to refill that bowl each and every time she emptied it. She would follow me into the utility room every time to make sure I was filling that scoop up to refill that bowl.

Now she generally only eats once, sometimes twice a day. Her bowl is always completely full of quality dog food but she knows that no matter what she eats, it will be refilled. So she is no longer compelled to clean it out in one setting. She now only eats when she's hungry and only eats what she needs. She has gained about 25 pounds since we adopted her and is now at a healthy weight and has a beautiful, shiny coat and with all of the exercise she is getting now, her muscles are just rippling.

I would never say that free feeding is right for every dog or every situation. It is something that I have practiced over the years with all of my dogs and I've only had one dog that struggled with free feeding.

She was a dog that we took on from another family and they had limited her food and had been under feeding her for a dog of her size. They were not intentionally doing this, they just didn't know better. The poor girl fought her eating habits and her weight until the day she passed because she just couldn't overcome that fear she might not have enough later.

So make your own feeding plan and make it work for you and your dog because each dog is unique and you know your dog better than anyone else.

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