Hi, I have a GSD that is nearly 11 weeks old, and I have got him switched over to a raw diet. It seems he enjoys eating more now than he did before, and he starts whining and yelping and acting out of control (in his crate) while I'm preparing it. He never does this any other time. I wait till he calms down to give him his food. Should I do anything else? or will he grow out of this?
Thanks.

Have you tried having him out of his crate while preparing his meal?
And, are you waiting until he is calm and quiet to give him his meal once you have prepared it?

My Mal pup is crazy for her meals as well, and I have her tethered to me. If I leave her in her crate while getting meals ready, she barks her fool head off, but if I have her out with me she sits or lays quietly and intently staring at me.

I feed in her crate so the second I pick up her dish, she tries to beat me to her crate, goes in and sits quietly for her meal.

Since I want her to be "quiet and calm" in the house, this is how I do it, and I am sure she will get over her barking in her crate.......since I ignore it and wait for her to be quiet before I go over and let her out or give her a treat.

IME it's pretty normal for the dogs to be excited to be fed raw. However, I think crates during dinner prep make them more crazy than normal. We have 3 inside dogs and 4 outside kennel dogs.

When we prepare to feed the inside dogs, if they are out they just sit there and wait and watch. If one of them is crated at the time, then that one will bark and whine and dig at the crate...pretty intense.

So, I agree with Carol. Try bringing the puppy out and letting him watch the meal prep. He might be more calm about it.



Edited by Jennifer Hart (01/06/2008 03:45 PM)
Edit reason: I wrote "she" instead of "he". Corrected gender. :)

The last time I had him out, and it's awful! He is whining constantly and actually jumping up on the cabinets, which is not acceptable....those nice sharp puppy nails really leave their mark on the cabinets.

You can:

-stand on the lead so he cannot jump up
-cover the crate with a blanket so he cannot see
-put him outside while you get his meals ready
-move his crate so he cannot see you preparing it
-ignore his behavior, get food ready, and wait until he calms down and then feed him.

Several things to try, but he is only 11 wks so he is young and does not know any better yet. You have to teach him which behavior you want at feeding time.

High value Food + http://www.leerburg.com/podcasts/markertrainingdogs.mp3 = high speed puppy

Hi Chris,

I think you have a wonderful opportunity here. You have an 11 week old pup, which means that you have it in your power to have a life-time with a dog that's well-behaved at meal times. It's so much easier to prevent problems as opposed to trying to talk a dog with 4 years of this behavior out of doing it. Both can be done, but with a pup it's so much better...

First thing...be patient. This is really important. You have a baby here, so it's completely normal and natural for him to get nutty at meal times. ALL dogs get excited at meal times--the ones that seem calm are only that way because they have LEARNED that calmness = food, it's generally not an inborn trait to be calm at mealtimes.

So let's take baby steps here, and watch him improve...not overnight, but he will get better as he gets older and more capable of controlling himself, and if you do your job right teaching him. Part of what you signed on for when you got a GSD pup is dealing with exactly what you're going through now...lots of us have been there and can sympathize, but it's part and parcel of having a high-energy puppy! Remind yourself of that, because patience is going to be your best friend if you want to raise this pup right!

If it were me (and it WAS me 13 months ago! ), I would prepare the food in advance for a day or two. I don't know what your proceedure is for preparing the raw food, but do as much as you can in advance, when the dog is in another room or outside.

And DON'T feed the dog immediately after the prep. You don't have to stick to feeding the dog at 7am sharp or whatever. If you have a pup that knows when feeding time is, then you have a dog that will be getting rascally around that time anyway...and then add to it all of your prep sounds...AND add to that the fact that the food follows those sounds, and presto-chango: you have a psycho-pup when it's time to eat! Believe me, I know what it's like...it took me until my pup was 4 months old before I figured all of this out and make these changes. And my GSD pup was even associating me waking up with feeding time...so he started waking me up earlier and earlier. That's when I realized that I really needed to make changes. Spastic dogs + me at 5am do not equal good things, let me tell you.

At first, your pup will react to the time and the sounds, but quickly the association of those things to food will wear off if they're not reinforced. Wait until your pup is snoozing, or calm...whether it's in the crate or with you...and calmly get the food out. Even better if it's an hour or so after a good bit of early morning exercise.

If you aren't already working on "sit" then this can be a great way to get him to learn, with the meal as a reward. "Down" is even better, IMO, but your pup is still young so no worries. The idea is that you don't give the pup the food unless he has A.) done something for it and B.) is calm. Believe me, dogs of any age learn pretty quickly what it is they're supposed to do to get food!

Reward small accomplishments now, and ask more of the dog as he gets little older and it's noticable that the light bulb has gone off and he understands that he has to do something to get the food.

Eventually, you'll have a dog that will, if you want, go into a down while you're preparing food and have it set in front of him and not move until you give a release. That's how it is at my house because it would be a nightmare if we did it any other way. But it at starts with baby steps...because, well, you have a baby.

The last thing I'd say (in my already wordy reply,lol!) is that you don't have to practice this only at meal times. If you want to start working on the sit and release from sit (and calmness), then practice throughout the day with any treat your dog likes and you'll see results more quickly.

This is all just my opinion and what worked really well for me. There are all kinds of ways to handle this. But it wasn't hard at all, and it was super-effective for me. You have one of your dog's biggest motivations sitting in that food bowl, and you can use it to your advantage from the beginning.

Good luck.

Amber, thanks for the post, and everyone else as well. Everything stays sort of mixed up with my schedule, so mealtime is never at the exact same time. I will try preparing the food in advance. We have been working on sit, down, and come, and he knows them pretty good, and he always has to calm down, and sit before he recieves his food. So, I will try these suggestions. Thanks for your help.