Working for food

[rogertb]

Hi chaps our Bella (5 months) is pretty hyper, not impossible and we're getting there, but we're exploring all the possibilities she gets plenty of exercise but one of the things a behaviourist suggested was making her 'work' for her meals - maybe letting her have her 1st meal of the day in a bowl but then 'hiding' the other meals throughout the day in a kong or spread around the garden etc, I've never come across this and wondered if anyone else has come across this technique ... best Roger

[Eve]

It will certainly mentally stimulate her. Have your looked at any of the food topics, some foods made dogs more hyper than others.

[rogertb]

Thanks Eve, she gets a fair bit of 'stimulation' - on the food side we've had so much 'conflicting' advice it's untrue ... someone said "RC is really high protein and will make her hyper" - someone else said that was "total rubbish" so it's difficult, we're weening her off the high protein onto a lower protein adult feed from Burns so we'll see in a few weeks how that goes ... thanks for taking the time ... Roger

[SuperCat]

Royal Canin is really high in protein, especially the puppy food, just look at the break down of the food and compare it to others, expensive and cheap alike. It certainly made Murphy hyper, as soon as we fed him Salters adult  (at about 8 months) he totally changed and was much calmer. Now he's on Green Dog because he wouldn't eat the Salters and the only thing that has changed is his weight.

[rogertb]

Thanks Supercat - that's encouraging, we shan't change her straight away but look forward to her calming a little - don't get me wrong we really enjoy her enthusiasm and her high spirits but she does get a bit OTT sometimes ... Roger

[SuperCat]

I totally understand that. It's great to see them rushing around really happy. But it can't be good for them having that excess of energy ALL THE TIME, and if a more balanced, more appropriate feed can be fed it has to be better for the dog. And the owners of course! 

[waggytails]

I used to put Hatties food in a food ball and she would have to roll it to get her food out, when she got to good at this i then started to put her food in a thing that looks like 3 balls moulded together with a hole in the top so she would have to push it over.  I did this just to slow her eating down a little as she would eat to fast.  I think i bought them from pet@home.