Feeding Multiple Dogs Without Losing Your Fingers or Your Mind, on Thursday's Nutrition Beat

If you've spent any time at all around dogs, you know that feeding time is a Big Deal. And if you've spent time around multiple dogs, you know how easily that Big Deal can turn downright nasty without some order in the chaos. Everything is heightened when the food bowl comes out, so here are a few tips on how to make meal times safer and more pleasant for everyone involved.

(1) Stay calm. Want a recipe for disaster? Combine three parts kibble, one part anxious owner, and two parts food-aggressive pups. Add to that your excited "OOH, it's food time!!! Everybody come on and jump around, time for puppies to chow down!" and you could have a real problem on your hands. Feeding time should be a zen experience - approach it as such. Getting your dogs excited before eating only exacerbates an already heightened experience. Stay cool, stay calm, and be in charge.

(2) Divide and conquer. Even if your dogs have always eaten together and there have been no problems, it may be a good idea to consider separating them. Competition over the food may develop over time, or there may come a time when one pooch requires a special diet, medication, or a specific amount of food - all of which are much more difficult to deal with when you have another mutt muzzle in the kibble. At feeding time for my pups, Killian gets fed just outside the kitchen while Adia gets her food down the hall. There's not an acre (or even a dividing wall) between them, but it provides the mental segregation necessary to ensure that they aren't swapping bowls mid-meal. If you have food aggressive dogs, consider feeding them in separate rooms, or using crates to keep everyone safe and sound.

(3) Stick to a routine. Try to keep a feeding schedule, so that your pups aren't starving by the time feeding time comes around. Likewise, make it clear to them what your expectations are of their behavior - no jumping up while you're delivering dog bowls, no food stealing during prep time, etc. Keep their bowls in the same place every time, so that there is no confusion about whose bowl belongs to who when chow time arrives.

(4) Use your power (for good, not evil). Feeding time is prime training time - when else do you have a more powerful motivator than a full bowl of food? Make them work for their meal, by sitting or lying down and waiting politely until you put the bowl down. Mix it up a little, so that your pups aren't merely following the routine to get their meal - if they sit automatically, try a down instead. Keep them focused on you, but don't torture - a lengthy training session while you hold their dinner hostage isn't appropriate, but a command or two will make it clear that you're in charge.

(5) Be vigilant. Leaving a room of feeding dogs is not the best idea ever, particularly if you have any that are prone to food aggression. Especially when first establishing a new feeding routine, it's critical that you remain on-hand to provide guidance as to what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior. When one dog is finished, pick up the empty bowl and do not allow him to crowd or steal any food from the pups who are still eating. If this is impossible, consider crating the dogs to provide a more concrete boundary, or feeding them in separate rooms.

For more information on feeding time in your multi-dog home, check out this article. For many guardians of food-aggressive dogs, chow time is the one they dread the most. Follow these simple steps and consider working with an obedience trainer or behaviorist to curb unruly - and potentially life threatening - behaviors. Your dogss meals should be a happy time for you and your pups, just brimming with potential training opportunities - approach them as such, and your entire pooch pack will respond in kind!

How to Walk Multiple Dogs. Workout Wednesday: Creative Strategies for the Dual Dog Walk

Workout Wednesday!
Life with your dual pooches may be smooth sailing most of the time, but double dog walking duty can make for stormy seas, if you don't take the proper approach. Here are five tips to make walking your doublemint pups a pleasure, not a chore.

(1) Start with one pup, and build from there. Walking puppies is simple enough, because they're... well, little. But if you have more than one medium- to large-sized dog, try walking them singly first to determine what collar will work best and how they react to distractions like other dogs or cats running across the path.

(2) Use the right equipment. If you're walking with pulling pooches, try a head collar or no-pull harness to keep them in check. Stay away from extendible leashes unless you are completely confident in your ability to control both dogs, working instead with sturdy four- to six-foot leashes. There are also a number of tandem leashes on the market for walking multiple dogs, which are built for safety and comfort.

(3) Try a safe test run first. Before you head for a busy city street, try walking around your yard or a fenced area nearby first. Are you being dragged from one end of the yard to the other? If so, you may want to try some more individual leash training before taking your pups into the wide world.

(4) Can you handle the ultimate distraction? Most dogs have an Achilles' heel - one thing in all of the world that makes them sit up and take notice. Whether it's a cat, squirrel, bicycle, or another dog, can you handle both pups when that one, ultimate weakness is just down the road? During your test run, try adding as many distractions as you can and see how well you do.

(5) Invite a friend. If you have a walking buddy to hand one of the leashes off to if things get rough, it will make a big difference in your confidence level and, thus, the way that your pups respond to your commands. During your frist few walks in the world, bring along a friend. Do your best to walk your pups yourself for the entire trek, so that by the time you're ready for a solo flight, you'll know you can handle it.

Follow these simple tips and before you know it, you'll be a master at the dual dog walk. Your pups will be better behaved, you'll all be healthier, and the world will truly be yours to explore.

And We Have a Winner!

The winner of The Dog-Ma's first monthly Petsmart gift card giveaway is Amie, who left a great - and very insightful - comment on the Workout Wednesday post, "Pit Bull Leash Training - How to Walk a Whirling Dervish." Though the winner of the raffle was chosen randomly, Amie did have some great points in her comment relating to my phrase, "...a tired pit bull is a well-behaved pit bull." Amie disagreed with my phrasing "...because it suggests they (pit bulls) are ill-behaved otherwise, when that isn't necessarily the case. What IS the case is that they have tons of energy and tons of smarts and those can often be a disastrous combination in a strong animal whose idea of a good time is running after things (cars, deer, other dogs...)

A well-exercised bully is a mellow bully!"

Amie had an excellent point that was well written and happily received by this blogger, and I'm very happy to send her the $50 Petsmart gift card to use as she will. Amie also has a couple of great blogs you should check out: Rose By Any, and B-More Dog, both of which contain some great information, fabulous photos and videos of Amie's own animal tribe, and some very fun animal anecdotes. So - June's contest was a success! Don't forget to read and comment in July to be eligible for another $50 Petsmart gift card, to be given out on August 1.

Training Tuesday: The Importance of Individual Training in a Multi-Dog World

So, you've decided to populate your home with not just Dog, but Dawgz. My life with one dog was amazing - Moonshadow was my boon companion, my best friend, and I was pretty much her universe. Now, three years after sweet old Moon left this mortal coil, I am the proud keeper of two pups - Killian and Adia - from the same litter. I am no longer the center of anyone's universe. They love me, of course - I feed them, walk them, and give them lots of hugs and cuddles, what's not to love? However, my dynamic duo has been together since the womb, and that's a pretty powerful bond. Because they are both fairly well-mannered, it's easy enough to take both of them wherever we may roam, but I also do my best to give each pup some individual attention whenever possible. Why, you may ask? If they do well together, why bother separating them at all?

There are three primary reasons I have for working one-on-one with my pups. The first is that it strengthens their bond with me, in much the same way a parent's bond with human children is strengthened by spending quality time independent of siblings. Secondly, obedience training - particularly leash training and agility - is also much, much simpler working with one dog at a time. And finally, I want to avoid creating codependent chaos by making sure my pups know how to live without one another. Dogs are social animals; as such, they establish very strong bonds with the other beings in their world. If they aren't acclimated to time spent apart, it can be an incredibly stressful experience. So, here are a few tips for making time for each of your furry friends.

(1) Start early, start often. If you get two dogs at the same time, make a schedule right away that allows a fifteen minute block alone with each of them. This is very simple if you have a partner; hubby takes Pup #1 for a walk one way while you take Pup #2 in the opposite direction - you meet back fifteen minutes later, and switch off. Or, take a walk together in the morning with both dogs, and alternate between Pup #1 and Pup #2 in the evenings. If, however, you - like me - are a single owner of multiple dogs, you may need to get a little creative. For short training stints, your pup should be able to survive on his own, particularly if it becomes part of a regular routine. I find that fifteen minutes a day of individual training for each dog is more than adequate to keep us all in check.

(2) Expand your dogs' social circle. When I was at Clean Slate, I enrolled Adia in puppy classes. While we were gone, I would leave Killian in his room with a couple of the other dogs from the rescue - by the time we returned home in the evenings, he would be exhausted and not the least bit concerned that he'd been left behind. If you go to a local dog park or meet other pups in your travels, try to make friends with the owners. Make puppy play dates. Offer to watch their pooch for them, if they'll take one of yours for an afternoon. This frees you up for an individual class, or just a special one-on-one outing occasionally. It's also a great way to keep your dogs socialized and part of a larger, dog-friendly community.

(3) Play to your pup's strengths. Killian is a rallying fiend these days. Adie, on the other hand, despises heeling but would play frisbee until she dropped. There are so many classes, clubs, and activities for dogs these days, you should have no problem finding something that your pup will love. And what better way to build that one-on-one bond than by sharing an activity that fuels you both?

(4) At the end of the day, Integrate! Regardless of whether you walked Pup #1 for fifteen minutes and Pup #2 for thirty-two, whether Pup 1 is excelling at agility while Pup 2 is failing basic obedience... Whatever the circumstances might be, don't forget to enjoy your whole pack at the end of the day. One of my greatest joys is watching Killian and Adie roughhouse before bed, or curling up on the couch between the great woolly pair of them for a little light reading. Always appreciate the individual eccentricities of each of your pups, but don't forget to revel in the primal flair of belonging to a pack.