Our deaf English Pointer Tyler was always a big breakfast eater but never seemed very interested in dinner. We would try different foods, mix it up in different ways, but usually he'd just nibble at dinner and leave most of it in his bowl. This was always a little upsetting to us, because Tyler is a high-energy, high-burn hunting dog who needs as many calories as we can get in him.
Then Kathryn and Beth discovered that Tyler would devour his dinner on one condition: that he gets to eat in his "boat," as we call it. This is the bottom half of an old crate that we've used as one of the beds for the dogs who aren't crated at night in Widget's House. We pile some blankets in it and they love sleeping there. Well, one evening someone -- I'm not sure who actually made the discovery -- put a bowl of food inside the boat while Tyler was lying in it. He sprang to life, checked out the bowl, and wolfed down all the food.
Thus dining in the boat became standard operating procedure for feeding Tyler. I took the first photo of Tyler this evening while he was busy eating; I took the second photo about 15 minutes later, while he was enjoying a quick after-dinner snooze on the cool linoleum floor.
Thanks to the boat, our once too-skinny Tyler is now carrying a very healthy amount of weight and looking really good!
I, too, enjoyed reading the story of Tyler's dinner routine! That last photo of him says it all..a picture of contentment!
Posted by: Nina | July 19, 2006 at 10:45 PM
Animals and their eating habits are sure a curiosity. I volunteer with an animal rescue group and there was trouble with a cat at the sanctuary. It wouldn't eat. They were almost at the point of tube feeding when some how someone put some food on a plate and the cat pounced on it. Turns out the cat hated bowls and would only eat dinner from a flat (no rim at all) plate! A few months later another cat wouldn't eat and someone jokingly said maybe another fine diner and sure enough it would only eat from plates too! One cat would only eat dry kibble that was laying on a paper towel. Wouldn't you LOVE to know how these things get started?!
Posted by: Miranda | July 19, 2006 at 03:04 PM
This is just too funny!!!
A solution was found to meet Tyler's quirk, well, good for him! No one likes to go to bed hungry. :-)
Posted by: Leilani | July 19, 2006 at 10:01 AM
That's a cute story. Tyler is looking good. Maybe in the past he was fed in a similar 'boat'?
Posted by: Roz | July 19, 2006 at 09:02 AM
It's great that someway, somehow, the solution was found to Tyler's lack of interest in dinner. He was just looking for the right ambiance. Maybe a little candle light & soft music would go nicely as well...simple pleasures in life can be the best.
ginger & Tobias
Posted by: ginger & Tobias (the greythound) | July 19, 2006 at 01:56 AM