should you feed your dog last?

i was told that should feed your dog after you have eaten, is this out of date or is it true?

Out of date as far as I am aware. Moo always eats before me as her dinner time is set where as mine isn't

Yeah I was always told this but as Janey said I like to keep Daisy to her routine which means she nearly always eats before me.

very very out of date!

My two get fed once a day mid afternoon ish and that's it!

Don't do it either, but I think it can be useful if there's any doubt about who the boss is ! And you can take that whichever way you want !

I have heard it before but I don't do it. I don't think it could be true personally. It would only be the case if he felt in competition with me and we surely are in no competition lol.

I normally feed Logan first then clean up after him while mine cooks so I can eat my dinner in a clean house

i'l stop doing it then, because i feel sorry for him sitting there looking at us while we eat, i think he understands his place now.

So out of date. The dogs really don't care who eats first. Either way, they'll still want to eat your dinner!

I used to do this as a pup mainly to show I was the boss but not any more as Vinnie gets fed at 4.30pm on the dot every day and we eat around 5pm. He doesnt beg or wait for food he just lies down on the sofa. I do give him a treat after we have got up from the table but in the Kitchen and not at the table.

rainny/bruno wrote:i'l stop doing it then, because i feel sorry for him sitting there looking at us while we eat, i think he understands his place now.

If he's anything like Mia, it won't make a blind bit of difference

There us always someone eating in our house no matter what the time of day so it wouldn't work.
I don't agree with feeding them after humans , I doubt it makes any difference .

The only feeding issue I have is ... We are ' trying ' to focus on holly having manners , so that she doesn't try to pinch or snatch our food . I always sit on the sofa with my lunch , she jumps up and tries to grab something from the plate , so we are being firm and making her stay down .

sash has always had her's first and then she'll go in her bed and pretend to be asleep whilst we eat ours,soon as we stand up to take our plates out she all of a sudden wakes up and runs in the kitchen to see if just may be some ones kindly left her some thing

We feed darcy at 6:30pm regardless of whether we've eaten or not that's just her tea time, And as Eleanor says they always want ours anyway

Out of date!

Katy always has hers at a set time, we often eat later she will lie down pretending to sleep with one eye on us, what gives her away is the wet patch where she is drooling

Feed your dog whenever it's convenient to you and your dog.

Your dog doesn't give a hoot if you eat first or not as long as he gets fed! It won't make any difference at all to whether he respects you or not, but it might make him slightly less inclined to drool over your lap when your eating!

As a young puppy I always fed Tommy after my children. Whether or not you believe this is out of date if there is the remotest chance that the dog thinks it is higher up the pecking order than the kids then I want to do everything possible to remove that perception. If it meant feeding him after my kids for 4 months then I was prepared to do it.
Now he knows exactly his place in the family and he's only fed twice a day it isn't an issue.
PS - he lies in his bed now while we eat and he's never begged for food. To be honest he is raw fed and has never had any "human food" but I'm sure the early feeding regime has done some good.

Feeding first or last won't make your dog feel any further up or down the 'pecking order'.

He knows you are the food provider, and as long as you have control over when he's fed, that's sufficient. I always advise getting your dog to sit & wait for a few seconds once his food is down, and then giving him a 'release' command such as "ok" before he's allowed to eat it.

It also helps if you can touch/stroke your dog while he's eating, and even take away food & put it back again - that way, even if your children try to take his food, he won't bat an eyelid!

My 2 are fed after the kids on weekdays, then when hubby gets home - he and I eat around 7pm by which time the pooches have full bellys and are flat out snoring !

well out of date, they will see you as a "provider" whenever you feed them which is all they care about.
feed last has its foundations in a study on captive wolves and alfa status which doesnt exist in wild wolves.
I always feed mine after night walk and then cook and eat myself. but I do believe in getting the dogs to do something for there food even if its just a sit or high five as it appeals to there nature to please and then get rewarded.

Caryll wrote:Feeding first or last won't make your dog feel any further up or down the 'pecking order'.

He knows you are the food provider, and as long as you have control over when he's fed, that's sufficient. I always advise getting your dog to sit & wait for a few seconds once his food is down, and then giving him a 'release' command such as "ok" before he's allowed to eat it.

It also helps if you can touch/stroke your dog while he's eating, and even take away food & put it back again - that way, even if your children try to take his food, he won't bat an eyelid!

Agree, I know that he knows I AM the provider but my kids don't provide his food so there's the difference. I'm not being funny but we can't read a dog's mind so back to my original comment if there's the remotest chance it can affect the dog's perception of my kids then it's worth the inconvenience for a couple of months.

Bloomooner wrote:

Caryll wrote:Feeding first or last won't make your dog feel any further up or down the 'pecking order'.

He knows you are the food provider, and as long as you have control over when he's fed, that's sufficient. I always advise getting your dog to sit & wait for a few seconds once his food is down, and then giving him a 'release' command such as "ok" before he's allowed to eat it.

It also helps if you can touch/stroke your dog while he's eating, and even take away food & put it back again - that way, even if your children try to take his food, he won't bat an eyelid!

Agree, I know that he knows I AM the provider but my kids don't provide his food so there's the difference. I'm not being funny but we can't read a dog's mind so back to my original comment if there's the remotest chance it can affect the dog's perception of my kids then it's worth the inconvenience for a couple of months.

You'd get better results, food wise, if you'd involve your children in the meal time. Let them put his food down & tell him to wait. Let them stroke him while he's eating (with you strictly supervising, of course!) and of course teach the children to respect his space when he's eating.

A dog really won't get any more respect for a human just because they eat before he does. It might even cause a little resentment because he's starving hungry & you have food on your plate!

My wife finishes work later than me so often eats after me but is still the boss.

So I would say out of date!!!

thank you for all the good advice, he is a really good dog, we can all take his food from him and stroke him while he eats, i'm sure he would even let us eat out of his bowl while he eats, he's just happy we feed him, i'm going to let the kids feed him too, thats a really good idea, and set a dinner time for him, you have people tell you all these things about how to train a dog, i sort of knew it didn't feel right

reuben wrote:My wife finishes work later than me so often eats after me but is still the boss.

So I would say out of date!!!

reuben wrote:My wife finishes work later than me so often eats after me but is still the boss.

So I would say out of date!!!

Quite right too!

Bloomooner wrote:

Agree, I know that he knows I AM the provider but my kids don't provide his food so there's the difference. I'm not being funny but we can't read a dog's mind so back to my original comment if there's the remotest chance it can affect the dog's perception of my kids then it's worth the inconvenience for a couple of months.

your quite right you cant read there mind but you can read their body language. breaking away from alpha theory is the best thing you can do, if you do follow it your only teaching the dog to be possesive and instilling a need to rise up for the best bits. They know whats a dog and what isnt, what they can and cant do, its the reason bite inhibition works so well with humans yet they can still play with other dogs in a rough way they wouldnt dream of doing with us.

Alot of the Alpha theory comes from David Mechs book from the 70's and others study of captive wolves, for everyones info here he is debunking that books alpha status https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNtFgdwTsbU he has asked for the book to be stopped being published because of the innacuracies but to this day its still on sale. to counteract it he has published a new book with modern day scientific knowledge on wolf packs. and of course our dogs arnt full on wolves either so basing behaviour on truely wild animals is never going to work, over thousands of years we have domesticated dogs and they have learnt our ways to a large extent, treaing them as true wild animals, while romantic is never going to work in our homes.

Caryll wrote:

Bloomooner wrote:

Caryll wrote:Feeding first or last won't make your dog feel any further up or down the 'pecking order'.

He knows you are the food provider, and as long as you have control over when he's fed, that's sufficient. I always advise getting your dog to sit & wait for a few seconds once his food is down, and then giving him a 'release' command such as "ok" before he's allowed to eat it.

It also helps if you can touch/stroke your dog while he's eating, and even take away food & put it back again - that way, even if your children try to take his food, he won't bat an eyelid!

Agree, I know that he knows I AM the provider but my kids don't provide his food so there's the difference. I'm not being funny but we can't read a dog's mind so back to my original comment if there's the remotest chance it can affect the dog's perception of my kids then it's worth the inconvenience for a couple of months.

You'd get better results, food wise, if you'd involve your children in the meal time. Let them put his food down & tell him to wait. Let them stroke him while he's eating (with you strictly supervising, of course!) and of course teach the children to respect his space when he's eating.

A dog really won't get any more respect for a human just because they eat before he does. It might even cause a little resentment because he's starving hungry & you have food on your plate!

Not sure what "better results, food wise" means. Again back to my original post, Tommy doesn't beg or even bother sitting near the table while we're eating. He also allows all of us to stroke him while eating should we wish to. So I'm not really sure what better results I could wish for. All I'm saying is that it worked for me. Take it or leave it. The poster asked a question and I gave my opinion, which is based on recent experience.

All I meant was that feeding dogs after humans will make no difference whatsoever to the way they see their human family. In fact it could create resentment, as I said.

Teaching a dog to be non possessive with food, and to be happy with any humans (adult or child) around him while he eats, is a better method than feeding them last.

Out of date. Dogs know that you're the one that gives them food, so right from the start you already have a certain amount of control over things and the dog is aware of that. Plus I read that even if the pack leader theory is correct, 'pack leaders' don't care to eat before the rest, everyone knows they're the boss, so they don't need to bother with making sure they eat first. So it doesn't matter if you eat first or last. I eat whenever, sometimes before, sometimes after.

Ours eat twice a day - 8am-ish and 5pm-ish. I keep them to their routine but we don't really have one for ourselves.

I feed before us , we have our tea and hopefully nature will of taken place for the after tea walk!
!

There would be a natural pecking order if the dogs where in a pack.. as they are now a domestic animal 'we' are its pack, and it's important to let the dog know who is in charge. Molly defiantly sees her dad as leader and me second as I feed her. She usually eats after us, on a few occasions I'v put down her food early, she may have a nibble but she usually leaves it until we have eaten, and as soon as our knives and forks hit the plate she is up and at it.. Each to their own I spose.

I feed Pixee around 10am after her walk, and around 6pm, often she will eat before us, as we have no set time to eat. She will lie on her mat when we eat, and knows theres always some scraps for her when we finish. The amazing thing is, we can leave a sandwich on the floor and she will not touch it. She does get rewarded for it.

Staffy lover wrote:The amazing thing is, we can leave a sandwich on the floor and she will not touch it. She does get rewarded for it.

That's fantastic! Trust at its highest!

Caryll wrote:

Staffy lover wrote:The amazing thing is, we can leave a sandwich on the floor and she will not touch it. She does get rewarded for it.

That's fantastic! Trust at its highest!

I know . Pixee is good as gold.