# Feed puppy with toys (kong/premier pets) or in a food bowl?



## storysunfolding (Aug 26, 2008)

I'm finding conflicting advice in books, forums and online articles regarding how to feed a puppy. In one section the advice is to put the food bowl away and feed the puppy from toys to help with chewing, from your hand to help with hands and keeping some aside to feed throughout the day as treats. When reading those sections they sound great, and then they hit me with the next part.

In almost every book/article they mention that puppies need to eliminate 10-15 minutes after they eat. However, if you're having them work for their food from their toys or feeding them food as treats for training then what happens to that schedule? If I hand feed, feed from toys and use them to reinforce training, will I have a puppy that poops nonstop?


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## Cracker (May 25, 2009)

Yes, it certainly sounds counterintuitive..lol. 
I think you can do both. If you think about it: if you put 1/3 the daily rations in a kong for the dinner meal, you have some time after to go do a potty trip...the idea is to keep it simple to get the food out in the beginning, so loosely packed at first won't take long to eat. The handfeeding you can do at breakfast time and for a baby puppy 1/3 rations is not much, put some in the bowl after you've hand fed ten or fifteen pieces of kibble. At lunchtime use a bowl. Or whatever works for your schedule. There are no hard and fast rules, you have to play it by ear...what you can do reasonably with your schedule, the age and physical maturity of the puppy and what their own little body schedule is like.

As for training, you can do the handfeed thing as short training sessions at meal time and then use treats for the real training sessions. Also keep in mind that training sessions for puppies are like, five minutes long, if that. So you shouldn't have a constantly pooping puppy...


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

As Cracker said - learn from your puppy's cycles. 

I think that this advice originated from Ian Dunbar - Fill a Kong with kibble and peanut butter, give it to the puppy in the crate when you leave for work, and the puppy will chew the Kong, get fed, tire out, and go to sleep. Then, you go potty when the pup wakes up... depending on maturity .... Take this as a rough rule of thumb to build the potty schedule.


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## kpdeej (Nov 19, 2010)

I've tried both. I've settled on the "feed in a bowl" method and a fraction of kibble in his toys (by fraction, I mean he won't be lacking in the day's requirements if he doesn't eat them). It's a whole lot easier to keep a poo schedule ESPECIALLY when you're house breaking.


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## Whittyb958 (Jul 24, 2011)

Great thread- as I was questioning this myself in my research. 

From what I gathered- you do bowl + hand feeding in the am/ bowl at lunch/ bowl + kong type toy with 1/3 of food in the evening?

Most of the resources that have suggested this have no really specified how LONG you do this for? Any suggestions? 

Thanks for asking the question!


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## Charis (Jul 12, 2009)

We personally feed our dogs entirely out of the kong wobbler for their meals (although they are not puppies so it may impair your timing). It adds to their exercise and training and slows their eating down. It works better than the bowls to slow them down, them seem to enjoy it more. I don't see any reason to cut out the puzzle toys or decrease them with time. Our dogs end up eating their entire meals from puzzle toys and training.


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## Maggie Girl (Feb 27, 2011)

I would feed about 95% in the bowls, to keep the bowels predictable. I think if you only leave a tiny portion in a treat dispenser for alone time/play time it'll be okay.


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## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

For the sake of housebreaking you can feed the bulk of their meals out of bowls for now. But after you've passed that stage, and especially as your puppy gets older, you can feed a larger portion of its meals through a toy.


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## Greater Swiss (Jun 7, 2011)

> Most of the resources that have suggested this have no really specified how LONG you do this for?
> 
> 
> > We have had this problem when it comes to SO many different puppy care questions. All I can tell you from everything I've gathered is that it depends on the puppy how long for anything.
> ...


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## iheartmarcus (Jul 27, 2011)

I actually opt to feed my 12 week puppy entirely by dogzilla treatball (plan to switch to a buster cube when I get my hands on one) and as treats for obedience training. I include hand-feeding as a part of training since it's supposed to be good for bite inhibition.

But like Greater Swiss' dog, mine never needs to go 10-15 minutes after eating. I just need to take him within 1.5 hours and he's set. If he's not tethered or crated, he will actually run to the door and sit there. When he does that I take him out and 3 out of 4 times he actually needs to go. Not sure how this happened, but I guess my dog is just really food-motivated and wants the treats after going outside. So, potty scheduling wasn't much of a concern when I made the decision.


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## HerdersForMe (Jul 26, 2011)

My 14 week old collie eats out of her bowl on days where she goes to daycare and out of her Kong days she's at home and we're at work. I plan to get her some more feeding toys soon. They are good for keeping her occupied. 

I feed her by hand once in a while. She's already bite inhibited so I don't stress the hand feeding much anymore.


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