Controlling Canine Obesity

Luckily, there are a number of ways for pet owners to encourage their four-legged friends to slow down on the chow.

Feeding By Hand
One of the easiest, albeit most pain staking, methods of slowing your dog's food consumption is to simply feed the dog yourself. Some dog owners opt to hand-feed their canines during meal times. This requires a great deal of patience and free time, however, and should only be attempted with smaller breeds of dogs – unless you want your hungry Rottweiler to take a finger or two with her!

Modifying Their Food
Another way to slow a dog's food intake is to add a bit of water to your pet's dry food. This works in two ways. First, the water makes the food stick to the sides of the food dish and causes the dog to have to work harder at getting those bits free. Second, because the food is in more of a paste form, the dog must work the food in its mouth first before swallowing, lest it get stuck on the way down. Of course, this method can raise concern among pet owners who don't want their loved-ones choking on a moist piece of kibble. This method is also fairly ineffective for picky dogs. If your pooch has a prissy food preference, it might not take too well to this wet alternative.

Make Food Less Accessible
The most successful method of preventing a dog from eating too fast and thus saving it from a life of obesity and indigestion is to make the dog's food harder for it to get. The traditional way to feed a dog is based on our own eating habits. We put food on a plate and take slow, deliberate bites until the meal is finished. Dogs, however, still possess the predatory instinct of gobbling up a meal before another vying stomach comes calling. By making the dog's food less accessible you can help keep its eating in check.

One of the oldest and most basic ways of making your dog's food less accessible is to place something in the dog's food bowl. Most owners who practice this technique use large rocks, though this can be a risky venture. First, you have to make sure that the rock is big enough that the dog won't eat it, as well. Second, you have to make sure the rock is heavy enough so the dog can't simply knock it away to get to the food. And third, the rock must be smooth and clean; you don't want your dog getting an infected cut on its teeth, tongue or gums because it tried to take a bite out of an improperly selected rock.

A more modern technique is to modify the dog's food dish. Some companies produce silo-esque contraptions that only allow your dog to eat so much food at one time. The problem with these containers is that the effective ones often run on batteries or require an electrical outlet. These machines are programmed with timers and dispense a certain amount of food at a specific time each day. These can be, of course, quite expensive, and if the battery dies or the electricity goes out, quite unreliable.

The latest innovation in kibble containment dishes are bowls with separate partitions. These are the next step in the evolution of the dog bowl. The partitioned -based bowl allows the dog to see and smell the food at the bottom of the bowl but the partitions only allow it to consume half a cup at a time. The dog can finish its full meal easily but is forced to slow down by the limitation of space created by the partition. But it simply takes longer to do so. The DogPause bowl is a member of this group of products.

Overeating and eating too fast are common but easily rectified problems with today's canine population. With a few simple precautions and the latest in dog bowl innovations, your pup can live a healthy, happy life.