# When is one meal a day appropriate?



## Canaqua (Sep 27, 2011)

This could go under general or food, but it is primarily a training issue. Our 9 month old BC mix has NEVER been very food motivated, which poses a challenge in training her. She was doing pretty well for a while, but now that she's solidly in the throes of "teenagerhood", she's sometimes blowing us off and treats do not provide sufficient motivation. Recall is the biggest problem, until last month, she was interested in "coming" for a treat. Now, she could care less about the treat. 

Our dog trainer suggested feeding her a bit less, so she is hungry enough to find a treat motivating. Her weight is good, just about right. 

Our older dog was eating only one meal a day (dinner) for years, until the puppy showed up. Puppy got three meals a day until about six months and has been getting two since. Old dog now gets a tiny breakfast (taken from her dinner ration) so she isn't upset when the puppy is fed in the morning. 

I'm wondering if moving puppy to one meal a day (dinner) would provide a little more food motivation during the day, when we need it, without actually cutting back her total intake. 

When are they old enough for one meal a day? I know some dogs don't do well on one meal, but our ACD mix always did. Won't know about BC mix until we try it, but I'm worried she's still too young.


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## Inga (Jun 16, 2007)

Honestly, I feed my adult dogs 3 times a day as well. Actually, 2 meals and a just before bedtime snack. I think eating more then one time daily is healthier for us as well as the dogs. You can however, hold the meal back until after training. Don't feed her right before you are going to take her to class. If you intend to train for an hour at 1:00 plan to not feed her until after. Also, if she isn't food motivated, there are other ways to motivate her. Loud squeaky toys, extreme excitement from you or even a lure on the end of a stick. Many different ways to treat. Tossing a ball or small toy as a reward for coming helps a lot of dogs. Try different options and find what works for her. It sounds like she is just at that age where she is getting a mind of her own. Hang in there, that too shall pass.


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## Poly (Sep 19, 2007)

Canaqua said:


> Now, she could care less about the treat.
> 
> Our dog trainer suggested feeding her a bit less, so she is hungry enough to find a treat motivating. Her weight is good, just about right.


I suspect there are at least two things going on here. 

First, there is the usual adolescence training resistance. There isn't much you can do about that except to train through it. 

Second, you _may_ be feeding her too much. Try cutting back a bit and see what happens - believe me, you won't hurt her. 



Canaqua said:


> Our older dog was eating only one meal a day (dinner) for years, until the puppy showed up. Puppy got three meals a day until about six months and has been getting two since. Old dog now gets a tiny breakfast (taken from her dinner ration) so she isn't upset when the puppy is fed in the morning.
> 
> I'm wondering if moving puppy to one meal a day (dinner) would provide a little more food motivation during the day, when we need it, without actually cutting back her total intake.
> 
> When are they old enough for one meal a day? I know some dogs don't do well on one meal, but our ACD mix always did. Won't know about BC mix until we try it, but I'm worried she's still too young.


I doubt if going to one meal a day will matter all that much insofar as training is concerned. However, I would suggest cutting back on the daily amount of food to compensate for the extra calories in the training treats. 

We've always fed all our adult dogs twice a day, even when we had small adults around. It is definitely better for larger dogs to feed them twice a day. And it just made for a more placid meal time if all the dogs were fed on the same schedule. When we did have little dogs around, they were often small terriers who can get quite scrappy at meal times if they aren't occupied with at least a nominal feeding. 

If you measure out the food carefully, you can feed any dog on a twice a day schedule.


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## TxRider (Apr 22, 2009)

Canaqua said:


> This could go under general or food, but it is primarily a training issue. Our 9 month old BC mix has NEVER been very food motivated, which poses a challenge in training her. She was doing pretty well for a while, but now that she's solidly in the throes of "teenagerhood", she's sometimes blowing us off and treats do not provide sufficient motivation. Recall is the biggest problem, until last month, she was interested in "coming" for a treat. Now, she could care less about the treat.
> 
> Our dog trainer suggested feeding her a bit less, so she is hungry enough to find a treat motivating. Her weight is good, just about right.
> 
> ...


I wouldn't worry about one meal a day for 9 month old. Most of my dogs would eat earlier in the day if the food bowl was sitting full all day and eat in the evening anyway. Hope never eats until I get home from work, and out on my acreage she sometimes doesn't eat for 2-3 days even though she has a full food bowl available.

I used a tennis ball or tug with my BC mix for a reward far more than I did food rewards. A ball or tug obsessed dog is putty in your hands..


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## SassyCat (Aug 29, 2011)

You need to time feeding properly, ie. training right after the meal would obviously not work well. This is a subjective matter really and you need to choose timing and feeding pattern that works for you. One meal a day should be ok if she'd be resting after that, physical activity after a big meal can cause issues. Also, try better treats such as dried liver, kibble and biscuits often just won't cut it.


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

In general, from 1 yo to about 7 yo you can feed one meal a day if desired. A BC is usually motivated to work (rather than be trained). You might explore a different tactic and discover what motivates her. Also, train her to do things that she's interested in... Not as permissive as it sounds...

My dog will sit, stand, shake, and bark on cue all day long. However, he's not very interested in Stay, Fetch, or Rollover. So, I picked the times to train Stay and Fetch... but never taught Rollover.


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