Earning a Paycheck – Mealtimes for your dog

Food is the most important resource your dog receives in his life. It is extremely helpful if your dog views you as the provider of this resource. It can help to establish you as the leader in the household. If food is always available, your dog’s desire to earn it will not be very high. If you control access to the food, this will help your dog to be more motivated and interested in earning his meals. Ideally all dogs would earn their meals during many short training sessions throughout the day. However, I understand that not everyone can make the time to do this every day. At mealtime (usually 2x/day for an adult dog, 3x/day for a puppy) I measure out the food and then ask the dog to do something for me such as sit and stay. When I release the dog he is then allowed to eat. I leave the food available for no longer than 5-10 minutes. If it is not gone at the end of that period, I pick up the meal and do not offer another chance to eat until the next meal.

If your dog is used to having food available all the time you will probably find that it will take your dog a few days to figure out the new system. Unless your dog is already underweight or has medical issues that require specific feeding instructions, it will not hurt your dog to miss a few meals. It is very unusual to find a dog that will not eat when it gets hungry enough. If you are feeling guilty about your dog’s lack of food when you first change the system, you can offer the meal to your dog more than twice a day, however each time you offer it you should only make the meal available for 5-10 minutes before removing it.

There are many benefits to having meals available only for short periods:

- It will help your dog to view you as the provider of the meals. This makes you much more important to your dog!

- It’s a great training opportunity and allows you to help establish yourself as the leader of the household. Ask your dog to do a command for you before allowing him to eat. I like to ask for a sit or a down stay and release the dog when I am ready for him to eat. I also frequently have a dog earn his meal for walking nicely on a leash when I am working on that skill.

- It allows you to control when your dog is hungry and use this to create a motivated dog. It can be beneficial to do training sessions before your dog eats or use their meal as reward. If you are planning on a training session in a new and distracting environment you might want to feed your dog his meal after you complete the training session.

- It allows you to control your dog’s weight. By measuring the meals out you can increase or decrease their meals to adjust their weight as needed.

- It allows you to notice changes in your dog’s appetite. A change in your dog’s appetite can be an early signal of medical problems.

- Visits to kennels or boarding places will be less stressful for your dog. Many kennels offer food for short periods and if your dog is not used to this schedule he will have the additional stress of being hungry as well as being in a strange place.

Requiring your dog to earn his paycheck at each meal is a great way to practice training and will help your dog see you as the provider of this paycheck. It also provides many other benefits that help you maintain a healthy and happy dog!