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My 4 1/2 month old dane insists on chomping down all of her food in one sitting. She also makes a huge mess and refuses to eat the food that she dropped on the floor and I swear she hides food in her lip because she is all of a sudden eating food in the living room. I have no idea how to stop her from doing these things. Does anyone have any suggestions.

>>My 4 1/2 month old dane insists on chomping down all of her food in one sitting. She also makes a huge mess and refuses to eat the food that she dropped on the floor and I swear she hides food in her lip because she is all of a sudden eating food in the living room. I have no idea how to stop her from doing these things. Does anyone have any suggestions.

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Scheduled meals are usually the best way to feed dogs, including pups. So her eating the meal in one sitting is good. Make sure the amount is correct, and divide the food into the number of feedings per day your vet recommends. That will be at least two feedings a day and possibly three. Great Danes are very prone to gastric torsion, a fast killer, and a growing Dane requires huge amounts of food. So it is going to be necessary to do multiple feedings a day.
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Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series at www.veterinaryforum.com

try getting a bigger/deeper bowl & also you want to elavate the bowl. don't know if they make a 'stand' that is adjustable as she grows, but have heard that large dogs don't need to have to put head down to eat. you can also get her used to you handling her mouth, always a good idea to start young, so you can check for anything she gets in there that doesn't need to be (or bits of food).

Thanks for the replies. I will try the deeper bowls and handle her mouth more. We have the adjustable stand and unfortunately it is as high as it will go. We also feed her twice a day with the recommended amounts of food.

Until she is at least 6 months of age, she needs to be fed 3 times a day. Also, do NOT elevate her food bowl. There are now two studies out that have shown that elevated food bowls INCREASE the chances of bloating or of torsion (2 different things). Purdue did one study and at the moment (I am tired, sorry), I can't remember who the other study was through.

No one really knows what causes bloat and torsion, but there does seem to be a tendancy in some lines to produce bloaters. Stress is also a big factor in bloat and torsion, but by no means are "all" danes prone to bloating and torsion.

To get your dog to slow down while eating, you can do several things. Hand feeding to slow down works well, but is time consuming for the owner. The BEST way to slow down a fast eater is to buy a large shallow pan (not a smaller deep dish) and put a handful of food in it. The dog has to work to get each kibble as they will slide around the pan as the dog eats. It can't just vacuum everything up from a small pan where the kibble is all packed together. Continue dolling out food a handful at a time until the portion for that meal is consumed.

Give her 15 minutes. If she refuses to eat, pick the food up, and wait till the next feeding. Obviously if this goes on for more than one day for a small puppy there is something else going on and a visit to the vet is in order to rule out any medical issues.

If you are only feeding 2x's a day right now that may be why she is eating too quickly. She's getting too hungry between meals.Bump her up to at least 3 meals a day.

Caroline Smith
FarView Great Danes

elavating the bowl. I've 2 whippet ?(mix) & 1 gobbles so I have her bowl raised/attached in her crate. I guess I felt like she'd be less likely to swallow air/& or she'd be able to swallow her kibble better. just trying to imagine how it'd feel if I were eating with head down? seriously, I'd like to hear more on this topic, cos have heard of dogs choking to death (when you get a chance) thanks!

>>elavating the bowl. I've 2 whippet ?(mix) & 1 gobbles so I have her bowl raised/attached in her crate. I guess I felt like she'd be less likely to swallow air/& or she'd be able to swallow her kibble better. just trying to imagine how it'd feel if I were eating with head down? seriously, I'd like to hear more on this topic, cos have heard of dogs choking to death (when you get a chance) thanks!

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I don't think they've been able to figure out why dogs with elevated dishes show an increased incidence of gastric torsion. It may be that it causes them to eat even faster, or it may change the mix of air and/or liquid with the stomach contents? All we know for now is that unless the dog has an orthopedic problem that would make it painful to eat from floor level, it's best to feed them with the dish on the floor. I have a dog who does have a neck problem, and he has never hesitated to eat from a dish on the floor, so even then I'd be reluctant to raise the dish--unless the vet recommends doing it.
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Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series at www.veterinaryforum.com

Many dane people believe that the elevated food dishes do not give the muscles in the esophogus and stomach as much of a "workout" as dishes on the ground. When you feed off the ground, the interior muscles of the digestive tract must work harder to get the food from the mouth into the stomach. Feeding from elevated bowls doesn't require as much work because the food is already at "stomach level", if that makes sense. In addition, because most giants much crouch a little bit to actually get to the food, this tightens up additional interior and exterior muscles and provide additional toning.

While this may not seem like much "excercise" or much of a "workout", it might be enough to tighten up and tone muscles to help prevent bloating and torsion.

Additionally, at my last dane club meeting, a friend of mine (who is a vet and also our Health and Welfare chairperson) quoted an article in one of her vet magazines that was about bloat/torsion following surgeries. I have asked for copies of this article, but haven't gotten my copy yet. The vet who wrote the article said that 90% of the cases of bloat/torsion he saw in his clinic were presented between 24-48 hours after the dog being anestesized (for any reason from dental cleaning to major surgery). He hypothisized that while the dog is under anestesia, the muscles inside the dog relax, causing them to move around as the dog is moved, specifically if the dog is flipped from one side to another while on it's back. This sliding around of the organs may be enough in some cases to cause organs to be misplaced enough or twisted enough to cause bloating or torsion. He recommended that all giant breeds be flipped by rolling the dog on it's stomach and not it's back during medical proceedures which he believes will not cause as much "sloshing around" of the organs, keeping them in place better.

Caroline Smith
FarView Great Danes