# Training puppy to use a slow feeder bowl?



## Rumple’s Mom (Apr 1, 2015)

I'm not sure if this thread should go in the training forum, or the puppy one...sorry mods if I'm posting in the wrong place. 

Anyway, I bought Rumple a slow feeder bowl, this one to be exact. The problem is, he won't eat out of it. Now the ridges are pretty deep, so I'm not sure if he's just too young for it still? He's 14 weeks today (3 months). Or is it just that he'd have to work too hard to get the food, so he's not interested? 

Right now he eats out of a stainless steel bowl, not a dog dish, but one I already had that is the same size as a standard dog dish. He scarfs his food down in about two point two, and I'd like to slow it down, hence buying the bowl. Any suggestions?


----------



## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

Put something in there besides dog food, something high value. Or wipe a little peanut butter on it. You can always try again in a month. To slow him down, you can feed kibble out of a kong or put some small, non edible toys in his bowl. Or use the kibble as training treats and use meal time as training time, that's a good way to make sure you get in plenty of practice sessions.


----------



## Rumple’s Mom (Apr 1, 2015)

I've been using kibble for training, which has worked out well. But there are days things are busy, plus he's fed 3 times a day. Maybe I should put some non edible toys in his food dish, I didn't even think of that, thanks.


----------



## rabernet (Feb 24, 2015)

I scatter Noah's breakfast on the floor to slow him down. His dinner is mixed with steamed veggies and he eats that much slower.


----------



## Cosmo (Mar 27, 2015)

I use a large glass casserole dish to feed Cosmo. It spreads his kibble out in a single layer. When he used a bowl, he would eat in maybe 15 seconds and puke it up from eating to fast half the time. Now it takes him a couple minutes to eat and no more puking.


----------



## Skyedog (Apr 2, 2015)

We also did the scatter method for feeding our Skye. We would toss down 10-12 bits and he would have to hunt. Every...single...meal..! Then we got the same slow feeder. Went from 5 seconds to 5-7 minutes. Rumble will eventually get it. If you don't want to scatter, put a 1/4 of his food in, he eats, another 1/4 etc. It will slow him down a bit, and not add that much time to your day. Or just leave him with the slow bowl, he will eat it...eventually.


----------



## Rumple’s Mom (Apr 1, 2015)

Well the peanut butter did the trick in the end. At first when I put his food down, he went to dive bomb into it, then stopped when he realized he couldn't just scarf it down. He then lay down in front of it giving us the worst woebegone look ever. After a few minutes, he started to bark at it. That's when I put a little peanut butter spread around the food and dish, and he went to town on it. It took him about 20 minutes to eat, but he finally got all the kibble. This morning when I put the food down, he ate it in 10 minutes, which is much more reasonable. I'm glad to have slowed down his eating, that's for sure.


----------

