Here’s a question for you.  Has your dog developed bad oral behaviors such as chewing, pica (eating non-edible, non-nutritional things) stealing food or begging at the table?  I’ll bet there are a lot of YES’s out there.  Here’s some food for thought - pun definitely intended!

Dogs in the 6 to 18 month age range may no longer need growth nutrients as they enter this maintenance stage of life which requires only half of the growth nutrients of earlier months.  

As dogs enter this stage, owners usually experience the dog turning up it’s nose at the morning or evening meal so the owner begins to think the dog  only needs one meal a day when what it really needs is just half as much food.

If the dog is then only fed once a day, the dog is left with an empty stomach for most of its waking hours. This could cause hunger tension which in turn can cause chewing, stealing food and so on. See the connection?   Owners continue to mess up the equation by beginning to give the dog tidbits at the “missed” meal time. 

While some dogs do well with one meal a day, others do not. The difference is their metabolism rate—yup, the dreaded metabolism!  Other stressors in their environment like exercise and temperature can weigh heavily on a dog’s appetite as well.  When it’s hot a dog’s appetite can decrease.

It is still best to feed two meals a day and remember - require they work for their food by performing sits and downs before the bowl goes down.

Jim Burwell