Who We Are

Friday, August 07, 2015

Slow Down

"... you move too fast!  Ya got to make the morning last just ... "  Oh.  Sorry...

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie.  Sorry for the "Feelin' Groovy" throwback/earworm there, but it ties in to the recent torture my mom's been putting me through.  Bear with me.

Some people around here think I eat too fast.  Others just think I'm a really good eater - a nice, healthy puppy with a nice, healthy appetite - right?  I do admit, sometimes I get a little bit of the regurgitation thingie going after a meal, but I don't happen to think it's a big deal.  Mom does, though, and has gone about making me slow down.

Yes, there are all kinds of cool bowls on the market to help a pup eat more slowly (click here to see a sampling), but this is what my mom did:

IMG_9789BowlMags
"Mom?  There's something in my bowl.  And it's not kibble!"

Yep, the ol'upside-down bowl-in-a-bowl maneuver. She even used one of her nice Villeroy & Boch bowls she bought in Luxembourg.  It'd be a shame if I broke that, wouldn't it?  Relax.  Mom is still the only one who's broken anything since I got here.

Anyway - here's a video of how it works for your amusement.


(Please click here to view on YouTube if the vid won't play.)

So ... yeah.  It slowed me down.  Way down.

IMG_9823MagsBowl
"What kind of cruel joke is this?"

I didn't want to break the V&B bowl, but I showed my mom that I could have very easily if I had wanted to.  This prompted her to go through 87 million different bowl choices before coming up with this option:

IMG_0053MagsBowl
My food in a spare water bowl and my dinner bowl turned upside-down

Hmm. Well played, Mom.  Well played.  But of course, I am a Siberian Husky and it only takes me a meal or two with a new bowl choice to figure out a work-around.  The option above - the stainless steel in the stainless steel?  Oh, do they ever make a racket when overturned on the tile floor!  YEAH!    Didn't stay with that configuration very long.

Anyway, Mom keeps changing the bowl insert - it's good that I can challenge her like that.  Helps to keep her mind sharp.  And she's running out of bowls.

How about you all?  Are any of you good eaters like me?

"Doot-in' doo-doo, doo-doo, feelin' groovy..."

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

NOTE from our mom:  I just wanted to throw this out there as an idea for any of you who might have dogs who eat too fast.  There are all kinds of options (the bowls Maggie linked to, spreading the food out on a sheet pan, toys that dispense the food) but this is working quite well for us.

8 comments:

  1. Great idea! Me and Stanley take our time eating but I like to put my ball in the middle of the bowl. That way after I get done eating I can lick the ball for dessert BOL!

    Your Pals,

    Murphy & Stanley

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  2. chuckles - I tried that once with Reilly - he picked the cup up and tossed it out the bowl :) :)

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  3. I'm a "really good eater" too, Maggie! I think I learned from Wriggley... unfortunately our mom had to see this post and she likes your mom's ideas. a lot of those slow eating bowls are plastic and we don't do plastic dishes. our mom got some thing that can convert any bowl to a slow eating kind - it is a bone shaped thingy with a suction cup to stick it in the dish. Well, I ended up having to fish my stinky goodness out of my dish with my paw! thankfully mom didn't care for the mess I was making so I didn't have to use it again :D purrs,

    ~Minnie

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  4. Ha - we had the same problem with Lightning and did the upside down bowl in bowl too. Luckily he didn't flip the bowl as Mom thought he might. He has gotten better (slower) with age, but he does like to eat fast. We also had to do that for a while with the water bowl because Ciara was drinking her water too quickly and then upchucking it. We never could figure out why the bowl worked for water but it did the trick.

    Now we are hungry - we need our bowls filled too.

    Woos - Ciara and Lightning

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  5. Our sisfur Sadie was a slow eater who took her time to chew every bite so we don't know anything about slowing you down Maggie. Your mom is being pretty clever though!

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  6. We need to try this for baby belle. She eats way too fast!

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  7. Anonymous11:25 PM

    Margret, you are one smart cookie! Juno tosses her cookies after gulping down too much water after walkies so I have to make her relax in the shade outside for a few minutes with a small bowl of water before we go inside... It's good to keep moms on her toes.

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  8. We think your Mama may be too smart for her own good, thank goodness you are too!!
    Smileys!
    Dory, Jakey, Arty & Bilbo

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