So the past 3 days didn’t just teach Cutie a few things but also taught me on how to deal with her. I learnt a few things that I wouldn’t know have I not gone through this mission with her. Here is what I learnt:
It’s very important to start a dog’s day early. Wake up at 6 – 6:30, take him / her for the morning business and a short walk.
Provide the first meal early in the day. 7 or 7:30 sounds like a perfect time!
Play afterwards. Dogs really need to spend energy so they get hungry. Remember whenever you go swimming you get hungry so bad that you can’t wait to get out of the swimming pool or the beach to run to your sandwich? Dogs feel the same when they exercise.
Keep a long time between the 2 meals 9-12 hours. But Cutie has an exceptional case, that if she eats in the evening then she will not feel hungry the next morning, I keep 9-10 hours between her morning and evening meal.
Make their day full of activities. When I let Cutie sleep as much as she wanted and let her exercise for the 4 times only that I took her out for about 20 – 50 minutes each, she didn’t feel like she was doing much and it felt like her day was passing too fast that she didn’t have that urge to eat. In the past 2 days, I make her exercise. A lot of running, fetching, climbing the stairs up and down and tug of war. It really gives her a sense of achievement and that she deserved a good rest and a nice meal.
So on our 4th day and after both of us learned many things about life and food, now we were ready to try out the new discipline! and it worked out perfectly!
6:30 wake up
6:40 go out to let her do her business, and a walk with some running
7:10 back home and the food bowl down. Guess what she’s eating!
7:35 she finished her meal
7:35 playing with the cat, chasing each other. Yes the cat likes it, if Cutie sits down, Delilah will come and start making eye contacts and smell her until she gets up again
8:15 some rest and sleep time
10:30 wake up and roam around and do their thing
12:30 doing business time!
1:30 go out for a visit
4:00 back home
4:30 food bowl down and she’s eating again. WHOA!
5:00 fast asleep lol
Yay, such a victorious feeling. It’s the first time in our history together that she had her 2 meals like a normal dog, one in the morning and one in the evening and almost her full amount of 1 cup!
Cutie is the best!
If you want to see why I started this whole starving technique, you might wanna check out the series:
Great job both of you. Now I’m going to try this out on Maury.
It’s SO worth it Kim, now it’s the 3rd day that Cutie’s eating in the morning 7:30 and evening 4:30! Hoooraaaaaaaaaaaaah
Great news :O) I have a top tip for owners with fussy dogs add a little hot/very warm water to the dried food let cool and give to dog. It worked for us. Seems to release the smells in the dried food and becomes more appealing.