[GoldenDreams]

Hello Everyone.

We just recently opened our home to a Golden Retriever rescue who is a love, but undoubtedly had a rough life. He loves mealtime and gets really excited by it, but he eats way too fast. If he eats too fast he begins to howl and will throw up what he just ate. To make matters worse is that he then will consume what he expelled. I find if we talk calmly after a meal and rub his chest, he will calm down and usually burp. LOL Besides burping the dog, does anyone else have any experience or advice for this? Our other Golden Retriever never had this issue and I suspect this guy ate like this in case someone else took it or ate it.

Thanks!

[Whirling Dervish]

My little Japanese Chin did that for awhile, and I had to split up his feedings. It's all that would work. I also burped him after every meal (and he was so small I just picked him up and put him over my shoulder like a baby, lol!) and that helped a lot.

Nothing really slowed down his eating except small meals. I was told that dry food slows them down a little because they have to chew it, where moist food they can pretty much inhale.

[Curbside Prophet]

It's a dog's instinct that motivates a dog to "wolf" down it's meal. You can't change a dog's instinct. Instinct is engrained in their brain. The term "wolf", as in wolf down a meal, comes from the study of wolves in nature. Wolves, would devour their meals in the manner you described because they didn't know when their next meal was going to come. You can curb his excitement at meal time though. You do this by making the dog wait before you allow it to eat. The dog needs to earn the meal with patience. So, until he's calm don't allow him to approach his food. Have him sit or lay down, and watch his posture. You'll be able to tell the difference between an excited dog and a calm dog. The more you practice this exercise, the quicker your dog will settle down to eat. This will also help to establish you as his pack leader. Hope this helps.

[RJMARTIN]

That’s a good idea about trying to pace them.
My dog gulps down water so fast that she ends up vomiting. In the winter she eats snow, and will actually refuse fresh water. However I did notice that even when she chomps down tons of snow she doesn’t vomit.
It’s not a huge problem, but I don’t want her to choke, and I imagine it’s not all that healthy.

RJM

[GSD lover]

The best thing to help would be to teach it to "settle" before giving it it's food. This is a good command for any dog to learn anyway.

[dog_whisper]

Originally Posted by Curbside Prophet

It's a dog's instinct that motivates a dog to "wolf" down it's meal. You can't change a dog's instinct. Instinct is engrained in their brain. The term "wolf", as in wolf down a meal, comes from the study of wolves in nature. Wolves, would devour their meals in the manner you described because they didn't know when their next meal was going to come. You can curb his excitement at meal time though. You do this by making the dog wait before you allow it to eat. The dog needs to earn the meal with patience. So, until he's calm don't allow him to approach his food. Have him sit or lay down, and watch his posture. You'll be able to tell the difference between an excited dog and a calm dog. The more you practice this exercise, the quicker your dog will settle down to eat. This will also help to establish you as his pack leader. Hope this helps.

curb stop reading thoes books....your wrong!!!!!

[bigdawgs]

I have a rescued bloodhound that was starved when we got her. She never wolf her food. My great dane was raised by us from puppyhoodand was never starved. She is the one with the eating too fast problem. It is only certain foods, as in special treats or anything that she loves most. perhaps it could be an issue from when your rescue was before, Although Chloe (rescue) does not wolf her food, she insists the bowls always be full, even if she doest want anything.
I have tired, with minor success to give her the foods she will vomit in small doses and that helped some.

[Mastiffmom]

Aw, poor thing. Bless your heart for taking in the sweet boy and giving it the life he deserves .
I have read that when having a problem like this you can also try...this sounds weird....but a very large linked chain in it's food so it has to eat around it and cannot wolf it's food down (and it washes up well). I have also read where people have even put large rocks......
I am not sure if you are familiar with the term bloat, or gastric torsion. It is when their stomach twists, preventing the release of gas and fluids. It is a very serious thing and is fatal if not treated! There has been lots of studies/controversies on this, and they have found that dogs who gulp their food/water especially before/after exercise pose a much higher chance of this.
We had a bloat scare a few weeks back with our female. After an very early Saturday morning run to the ER Vet in a nearby city THANK GOD she wasn't....Just a very sick girl. She is fine now....The ER Vet said she has seen many bloat cases. Most of them happen when it is hot out, and dogs have been playing and then gulp their water/food.
Just please do some reading on it and know the signs. It never hurts to know ! I'm sure not trying to scare you, but I just wanted you to tuck that in the back of your mind too. Just stuff us big dog people need to know for the safety of our "kids".
Give that sweet one a hug for me

[bigdawgs]

Mastiffmom,
good point about GT. If the dog is a rock eater though unless it is a very large rock softball size or bigger, I would be careful. We have done numerous surgeries for obstruction on dogs that eat rocks.

[Mastiffmom]

Bigdawgs,
I thought the same things about the rocks.....
When we got our female as a pup, she was always wanting to eat the gravel in our lane . I had read that Mastiffs can be rock eaters and watched her like a hawk! Thank God she grew out of it....OR got sick of her freak mom following her all the time
Our Rescue gulped his food for a while. But he soon figured out he was going to get all the food he needed here, and stopped in no time. He was pretty thin when we got him . GoldenDreams, I hope yours does the same