You Want Breakfast?

Breakfast:
the most important meals of the day.
If you ask Louie, this is fact. Although he would probably say the same thing about dinner. Actually, I only call it breakfast when speaking to him.

"You want breakfast?"
Louie has a schedule. We feed the dogs twice a day. At about 7am and about 6pm. The 'about' part is what Louie does not understand. I don't know where he keeps his pocket watch or how he reads it, but Louie always knows when it's mealtime.

When Louie was an only dog I didn't give too much thought on where I fed him. I knew to keep the cat food out of reach, up on a special bench just for cat feeding, or else. The or else part is Louie would eat all the cat food and have raging diarrhea for two days. He thinks it's worth it apparently because he'll do that any chance he gets.

The current eating arrangement, 2012

When Louie was a solo dog, I had a bowl of food next to a bowl of water up against a wall. Louie knew where it was, and when it was time to eat I would measure his food and pour it into his bowl. Pretty basic. Our first cat, Jack, loved to eat dog food out of the bowl with Louie. Louie would fully tolerate this, but he learned to eat quickly. The quick eating never changed. Louie loves food. He has a sensitive tummy and gets the runs easily, but he knows somethings delicious are also painful and he'll run the risk without hesitation.

When my husband Paul and I moved in together, each of our dogs came with us. Package deal.
They were both used to eating alone. Louie has no food aggression. I'd love to say I was such a great mom and trainer, but I really just give credit to Jack for forcing him to be so tolerant. On the other hand, Snorp did not like being bothered when he was eating. We found this out after the dogs first feeding in our new home.

The dogs bowls were side by side. We put the food down and Snorp began eating. Louie smells and hears food and goes for what he thinks is his bowl. Unfortunately he was just a little too far right toward where Snorp was eating and he bumped heads with him and was trying to get in on his bowl. Snorp was not having it! Can you believe this new guy Louie? What manners! He let Louie know with some nasty sounds of his disapproval.

This happened a few times, so we decided to change the eating arrangements.
We fed them at the end of a semi-narrow hall. Now, instead of putting the food and water against the back wall next to each other, we put Louie's bowl against the right wall and Snorp's against the left wall. I began always feeding Snorp first and saying his name as I put his food down. Louie's bowl always sat in the same place, in a corner where it couldn't slide around. I would pour his food into the metal bowl, he would hear the sound and since he knew where Snorp was already chowing down he could feel free to go ahead. Add a water dish next to each bowl and problem solved!

When we all moved into our current home on 'the farm', there wasn't an ideal eating space for the dogs inside.
We moved into a 600 square foot house. Yup, that is small if you didn't know that. There isn't even standing room for two dogs and one human in either the kitchen or the bathroom. The rest of the house is carpeted. The dogs are sloppy eaters and drinkers and I wasn't crazy about feeding the in our carpeted little living room.

Our covered porch was the best solution we could think of. We have an outside storage room where we keep the food in a metal garbage bin with a tight fitting lid. Now that the dogs have been living together, eating in the same room back to back everyday for a few years, would this work any better? Only one way to find out!

Test it out.
So we put a big water cooler in between the two bowls on a carpet. Louie's bowl is next to the house while Snorp's is next to the railing of the porch. The bowls are also shaped a little different, although I'm sure Louie could tell them apart just by smell alone. The wall is a good indicator for Louie, he can lean against it so he'll know where to turn when he's done eating. This really allows him to lose himself in the moment, and fully revel in the act of romancing his kibble. Snorp eats on the right. He can see, it's no miracle. I put his bowl down and he goes to it. What is the miracle? Louie never tries to eat from Snorp's bowl anymore! He knows his place. Only after they are both done eating and Snorp leaves the area does Louie do a full inspection and cleaning of Snorp's bowl and it's proximity.
Louie had a motto 'No crumb left behind.'

Nap time with Louie, 2009