Why Does My Dog Go Mad for Mealtimes?

Does your dog know exactly what time their dinner is served? Are they whining hours in advance? Or do they hurl themselves at the cupboard where their bowl lives, unable to control themselves when they see you heading that way? 

Supporting Your Frustrated Feeder

While you may consider your dog’s frustration around food or their obsession with mealtimes to be a simple quirk, there may well be more going on. There are a number of reasons why your dog might seem to be permanently hungry and will literally lose their mind when they think you’re about to feed them - from poor diet, to learned behaviour, a history of food deprivation, or underlying health problems.

First things first, let’s start with health issues. If your dog’s hunger levels suddenly change or you feel something’s not quite right, the first step is to check in with your vet. Cushing's Disease, Diabetes, and Thyroid issues are just a few physical conditions that can affect our dog’s hunger. In senior dogs, we also have to consider cognitive decline. While for many dogs with memory challenges, we see weight loss and a lack of interest in food - for some it can go the other way, forgetting that you’ve already fed them and becoming obsessed with food.

Diet-wise, if your dog is being fed meals that don’t fully support them at a cellular level, they might be searching for those missing ingredients. For dogs on high-carbohydrate diets, we can end up with a dog who becomes caught in a carb crisis - whereby their body is constantly looking for that next hit of starchy, sugary carbs. Feeding a nutritionally balanced and species appropriate diet can help reduce a dog’s food cravings, although in the very short term they might find the transition a little tricky - just as if we were completing a detox diet. 

Puppies that have been free fed from one large bowl, sharing with their siblings, can learn from an early age that food is a resource that needs to be fought for. If you hang back, you are less likely to eat what you need - so the desire to eat quickly and frantically is born. Combined with the fact that puppies, especially large breeds, are doing so much growing - you can end up with them hoovering up every scrap of food offered in mere seconds. 

Street dogs who’ve had a history of food scarcity, may take a long time to adjust to the fact that food is now presented daily at regular intervals. Some may even take this memory (of food being a highly sought after commodity) with them throughout their whole lives, even when rescued and rehomed at an early age. This may also show itself in hunting and prey behaviours, even when they’ve been fully fed at home. 

A dog who has been poorly treated in the past and has found itself being rehabilitated and rehomed, may also not trust that meals are going to appear. Feeding time might become quite a stressful event, as they feel they need to protect anything that’s provided to them. Even dogs who come from mainly wonderful homes, perhaps could have had young children taunting them with food (in what was deemed an innocent manner) and now feel they too need to protect food around them. And well-meaning guardians who still follow outdated training methods, purely through a lack of re-education, might create issues around food by continually removing their dog’s food bowl mid-meal to “show them who’s boss”. 

And finally, larger breed pups whose bodies are using fuel to do huge amounts of important growing at an early age, may have never felt their bodies were fully satisfied. Just as a teenage human can “eat you out of house and home” - so too can a fast-growing puppy.

So, should we just accept the fact that some of our dogs will always feel this way about food? Or are there ways we can help to support them - to both ease frustration for the dog, ensure they don’t end up with gastric issues such as bloat, and keep the humans safe around feeding time? If you have a frustrated feeder, here’s some ideas to get you started.

Get Vet Checked

As always, we want to start with the physical wellbeing of the dog. If you are concerned about any potential underlying health issues then ensure you get your dog checked out. 

Seek Behavioural Support

If your dog feels they need to protect their food bowl (or any other important resources) - especially if this has progressed to growling or snapping if someone comes near them - reach out for support to a force-free behaviourist to work through this. Excitement or frustration around food being presented is very different to the more serious situation of guarding behaviours - and these would need a more considered approach.

Change the Diet

As we mentioned, if your dog is getting a high-carb, over-processed diet, swapping out to a fresh food diet could help resolve at least part of the challenge. By feeding a natural, species-appropriate diet you will be providing all the nutrients your dog needs.

Feed Little and Often

Feeding smaller, more frequent meals can help - especially in the case of dogs who have either learnt that resources are something to protect, or those who come from a food-deprived background such as street dogs. By feeding more frequently, your dog can start to relax in the knowledge that food is provided at regular intervals. You can then, over time, slowly build up the size of each meal and reduce the frequency.

Feed Separately

If you have a multi-dog household, your dog might feel more comfortable eating on their own - without the worry that their canine companion might be about to steal their food. Using stair gates to separate dogs during meals can be a good option - or feeding one in your garden and one in the house.

Be the Provider, Not the Remover

If your dog has learnt from an early age that food is something to protect - either due to the way it was fed as a puppy or perhaps as, without alternative knowledge at the time, you removed your dog’s bowl while they were eating to teach them “manners” - then we want to switch up their way of thinking. Start by throwing a high value treat towards their bowl every time they are eating a meal - keeping a good distance between you and them. Then you can start to split their meal into smaller portions - and place each into the bowl as the last one was finished (keep the bowl on the floor the whole time) until the full meal is finished. Again, if your dog is showing stress signs when you approach the bowl then seek the help of a force-free behaviourist to ensure this doesn’t progress. 

Work on Frustration around the Bowl

If your dog becomes over-excited whenever it sees its bowl appear, there are a few simple steps you can take to reduce that level of overwhelm. Firstly, try having the bowl out on the floor all the time - instead of hidden in a cupboard. And, on occasion, at mealtimes, practise this food-bowl frustration exercise:

1. Start by feeling your dog their full meal, so they aren’t feeling frustrated or hungry.
2. When you pick up the bowl (after they’re finished) to clean it, ask your dog to sit/down/wait and practise lowering the bowl back to the floor without them jumping on top of it. If they go to pounce, remove the bowl and wait a few seconds, then try again. This time only lower the bowl a very short distance towards the floor - and if they stay in position, pop a treat into the bowl and put it immediately onto the floor for them. Build this up until your dog could hold the position on first request while you can move the bowl the whole way to the floor before their treat goes in it. There’s no rush here - this might take days or weeks.
3. When your dog can cope with the bowl being lifted and returned to the floor, following a full meal - then you can start to feed ¾ of their meal to start with and then work on the remaining ¼ being presented once you’ve removed the bowl and returned it. Remember NEVER take the bowl away while your dog is actually eating! At this stage, we would wait for them to finish their meal, then throw a little of their food (or a high value treat) away from the bowl so they move away from it to eat the goodies. Then you can safely pick up the bowl and return to stage 2 of this process. However, this time, once the food bowl is on the floor you can fill it with the rest of their meal.