Free feeding offers few advantages - for your dog’s health or his training.

How would you feel if you had a small selection of the same foods in front of you ALL day, EVERY day?  Many of us would be totally uninspired, even by our favorites, after the first few days.  Others would overeat and become lethargic as a result.  This is essentially what is happening when you free-feed your dog.

Free feeding is the practice of leaving your dog’s food out and available to him all the time.  It is the dog’s choice when to eat and how much to eat.  The main advantage to free-feeding is that it is easy.  Presumably, in the ideal situation, the dog gets what he needs when he needs it.

However, in practice, free-feeding has some major drawbacks, health-wise and behaviorally.  Why then do some pet food companies recommend free-feeding for your pet?  Basically for the same reason your shampoo bottle says ‘rinse, lather and repeat’ - to sell more of their product (shampoo or dog food).

The Natural Dog

From an ethological view, free feeding in no way emulates the way a dog, whether scavenger or hunter, would historically access its food.  Under very few circumstances would food be available on a consistent basis daily, much less every moment of the day.  In its natural healthy state a dog’s digestive system needs long breaks between eating to give the digestive system a chance to rest and prepare for the next meal.

Equally important is the fact that high quality fresh food is not conductive to free-feeding.  Food that is good for your dog probably could not sit in a bowl for hours without effect.  Also, many dogs simply do not self-regulate well, many will be overweight or underweight on a free feeding regime.

There are also some physiological disorders, such as hypothyroidism and diabetes, to which free feeding would be highly dangerous.  In a household with multiple dogs, it is often difficult to tell who’s eating and who’s not.  This scenario could allow problems to go unnoticed until they reach a crisis point.

Free-Feeding and Training

From a trainer’s standpoint, free-feeding causes many more problems of even greater severity.  For starters, free-feeding is basically contrary to housetraining.  Dogs with free access to food have constant activity in their digestive tract.  All of that activity makes it difficult for you to predict your pet’s cycles of elimination (in order to prevent accidents) and makes it harder for the dog to exhibit self control.

In addition, in your pet’s life, food can be the #1 motivation and used correctly can help you guide your dog to being the best pet he can be.  However, free fed dogs can be sluggish, lethargic and passionless about their food.  This means, that by free feeding, you have effectively removed the most natural and most productive incentive from your training arsenal.

Food can and should be used by you to train behaviors and develop leadership with your dog.  At its best, free feeding is neutral to training, but at its worst it is highly counterproductive.  Put more strongly, free feeding is NEVER helpful in training at any stage.

Personalities and Free-feeding

If your dog is strong-willed, food that is given with no strings attached, no work involved and no interaction with you strongly reinforces your pet’s feelings of self-reliance.  You, the owner, receive no benefit from feeding your dog because he does not see you as the source of his food.  In the dog’s view, the source of the food is the leader and the leader feeds and cares for his pack.  The leader receives respect.

Alternately, if your dog is shy or lacking in social skills, free-feeding allows him to eat alone with no social interaction.  You are not ‘caring’ for him by feeding him from his point of view.  In this case, eating which is a very primal and should be a very social activity, reinforces the dog’s fearfulness or antisocial behavior.  Free-feeding takes away the “food comes from person - person good” connection.

Overall, free feeding is certainly not the healthiest way to feed your pet.  It also takes food, a great training tool and relationship developer, out of the learning equation.  And it takes away the absolutely best times to work with your dog each day.  Mealtimes!

Switching from free-feeding

So how do you go about making the switch from free-feeding to feeding once or twice a day?  Simply put the filled bowl down for fifteen minutes and then pick it up after that time whether the food is eaten or not.  Then wait until the next mealtime and try again.  Your pet will quickly conform to your new schedule and become more impassioned about his meals.