Feeding your dog is more complicated than just putting a food bowl in-front of your pet. You might not be consciously aware of it, but there are broadly three ways that owners tend to feed their pets: they either give the dog the freedom to feed itself, they restrict feeding time or they engage in interactive feeding. The chances are that you will do a bit of all three.
Self Feeding (i.e. giving the dog the freedom to feed itself)
Self feeding is about giving your dog the freedom to eat when it wants. This usually involves leaving a source of food out for your dog, which is most likely to be dry food simply because it lasts longer. Dry food can be very nutritious, and giving your dog the freedom to feed itself is thought to curb some nuisance behaviour.
Restricting Feeding Times
The most common form of feeding is restrictive feeding, which isn’t as negative as it sounds. Basically it just involves feeding your dog at an allotted time every day. It’s thought that pets like routine, and will eat healthier if they eat at the same time every day.
Engaging in Interactive Feeding
Interactive feeding subverts the normal passive behaviour of your dog at meal times. I.e. in order to obtain food your dog might have to, for example, perform a certain positive behaviour which is then rewarded with pet food. Interactive feeding, therefore, is a great way to train your dog.
