my vet recommended this to combat ultra-quick snarfing down of food.

For three days we gave Jackson as much food as he wanted for 20 minutes - at each meal. The first time was dinner and he ate and ate and ate ..... and then had some pooping issues that evening. The following morning he was eating markedly slower. Now he eats at what I would call a "normal" pace, not too slow and not too fast.

Sounded weird to us, but it worked!

I don't know how old your Jackson is, but I would never try this with Cooper. He would eat himself sick. The amount of food he would ingest would be frightening. He can easily inhale 5 cups in 2 minutes.

While this may work for some dogs, it definitely would not work for all.

at that time I think he was 10 weeks. So we're talking probably an extra 2/3 to 1 cup of food. Quite a bit to a little guy like him, but not cups and cups. Possibly I exaggerated a bit ....

At any rate, he seemed to learn after that initial meal that there would always be enough food for him to eat and that he could relax and slow down a bit.

As with everything, this method would probably not work with every dog.

Even at 10 weeks, my guy was a greedy little porker. But, that is just my experience, my last dog, a border collie mix, was most definitely self regulating, and always was.

I wouldn't even try that with Daisy! Since she was 8 weeks old she acts like she's starving at every meal. I think she'd try to eat a 40 pound bag if we left it open in front of her. My shepherd, on the other hand, could care less about food. I'm sure she'd be fine if we free fed her. If she doesn't feel like eating, we have to pick up her food or Daisy will eat both of their dishes then lick them twice to make sure all the crumbs are gone. :rolleyes:

Akasha is a starvin' marvin' also. She acts like she has never been fed! Anubis loves the goodies and treats but will not over gorge herself at meal time. Akasha finds it necessary to lick both bowls clean after meal time and then again right when we come inside from going potty afterwards.:D

My yellow lab Shadow eats, leaves for a while, comes back, leaves, and repeats the process, I think for 2 months it has pretty good self control. This technique wouldn't work for my dog unless I absolutely FILLED the whole bowl with food, but I don't think I would because he seems to be at a good level of eating. :)

Jackson doesn't still get as much food as he can eat, that was a three day exercise and for us, it worked. He overate the first time, didn't like the consequence and learned that he didn't need to be a piggy and gobble up his food so quickly.

I would never try this...and can't believe that a veterinarian would EVER tell someone to do this. I wonder how many cases of Gastric Torsion/Bloat your vet has seen...

The best thing I have heard to do in this situation (fast eater) is to put large rocks or some sort of objects in the food bowl so that the pup/dog has to eat around them...or hand feed if necessary.

I tried a suggestion I found in a previous post tonight and that worked pretty well. I gave bailey his two cups of food on a cookie sheet instead of in a doggie bowl. This prevented him from taking gigantic bites and therefore slowed him down a bit. I definitely would be too afraid to try to feed him unlimited food for a day because he literrally would eat himself to death - I am convinced. But I am glad that worked for you kebba! You would think labs never ever got fed! GEEZ! They are piggies.

I certainly would not recommend any one leave an unlimited food source out to stop a dog from snarfing its food down quickly either. I too fear how many bloat problems this will cause if more people would try such a thing. I'd skip such an idea and most certainly try putting stuff like chain or larger sized rocks in the dish for the dog to eat around so it'll slow 'em down. Or I'd use the cookie sheet idea, I know plenty of people who would scatter the dogs food on the floor to slow them down also.

Glad you said that Tammy I have been thinking the same thing, very odd advice for a vet to tell a puppy owner. Sometimes adding water helps to slow these guys down as well.

Hi. This is my first post, because it is a subject that I have some experience with. We rescued a choc lab named Snickers at 11 months and her previous owner had only fed her twice a day and we were told she GOBBLED her food. After we adopted her we found it to be true. It was like Miz Pack Man.

A co-worker of my husband's used to breed Labs for many years and she told him that Labs do not become heavy and food obsessed if they are "free fed". Snickers did not have much of a waistline when we got her but soon after trying the new method, she slimmed down and will eat small amounts through out the day -- so bloat is not a big issue. Also, she eats a a much slower rate. It has been a win-win in our house.

My motto is: Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

The downsides I see to free feeding is you don't know how much the dog is eating. If a problem arises and the dog stops eating, you may not realize it and catch it as quickly as you could of.

In my opinion, after expierencing one of my dogs bloat, I can't see how free feeding will prevent bloat. Being you don't know how much the dog has ate and at what times, how are you supposed to not exercise them before and after eating. With dogs that are prone to bloat (Labs are one of 'em), I want to be able to know when and how much my dogs have ate so I can plan their exerise around their meals. It's recommended not to exercise the dog an minimum of an hour before eating and atleast 2 hours after eating.

I take meal feeding seriously, as this gives me more chances to attempt to prevent bloat. Bloat is nasty and I hope that no one ever has to exerpience bloat in one of their dogs.

I also don't believe that if Labs are free-fed that they won't over eat and they won't gain weight. Labs are chow hounds, they love to eat. Granted not all Labs will eat more than they should and gain weight on free feedings, but it most certainly is hard to control their weight. Sandy was free fed up until she was around 7 months old. She had started to gain a bit of weight, there is no way of controling a dogs weight with free feeding - so I had to switch over to meal feeding. All three of my dogs are meal fed and I won't feed a dog a different way again.

Not saying every one should meal feed, but these are my :2cents: on the subject.

I certainly agree YellowDog in the strongest manner! While this might work with a few Labradors, it will not work with the majority and you WILL BE creating health issues.
As was pointed out, the main indications of how a dog is feeling can be determined in two easy ways, how they eat, how they poop. If you miss either one, you can be in trouble and not really know it. Certainly Bloat is a serious issue and free feeding cannot decrease the risk.
Vets worry me with their advise because they are not breed specific. Each breed is different and vanila advise is not good advise. They need to stick with health problems and leave breed specific issues to breeders.

Luckily, my vet is known for being a large breed AND a lab vet. He has had labs his whole life, and several breeders in the area recommend him and several other vets as those having the most experience and knowledge with labradorks.

While I have never asked him a question specific to what started this thread, he has made it clear that regardless of what you feed, MOST labs (and yes, I know, not all) will eat themselves absolutely sick if given the opportunity and most of them are not self-regulating, and most of them gobble their food in seconds flat and then sit there looking sad and starved. In other words, it is up to US to decide how much they need to eat.

Maybe I should have noted in my other post that I am a stay at home lab mom. And I can always tell when my lab has eaten because when I brush her each day (at different times ) I note what her tummy feels like when it's full. So before any exercise takes place I feel her tummyand know and I watch the food bowl- to be sure that a stomach flip will not occur. Also, Snickers has adopted the habit of eating only when my husband and I are home and after her morning and nightly rounds of frisbee. So my point was that for this dog and this owner (who doesn't have kids and can pays A LOT of attention to her dog) free feeding works.

Wow, I must be fortunate. I have never experienced a bloat problem with my dog. He is big, about 100 pounds, but not overweight. I feed him twice a day, he eats a total of 3 3/4 cups of food a day. He is a fast eater but has never had a stomach problem. One thing I do is place the food in his bowl, however he does not start eating until comanded to do so. This has help me with any discipline problems.

We have never had this kind of problem with ryely. In fact sometimes i can put his food out and he won't eat until dinner time.

i feed him 2 cups in the morning before i leave for work then he gets 2 more cups at dinner time. lots of times he may not eat until after dinner. or he will nibble here and there. then again sometimes he will eat as soon as you give him his food

Originally posted by Snickers' Mom
Labs do not become heavy and food obsessed if they are "free fed".

Oh Lordy! Most Labs will eat a complete bag of food a day if free fed. Most experts don't recommend free feeding as it usually does mean a dog will become heavy.