I have 4 month old GSD. He was on Solid Gold Wolf Cub and did not like it much and never ate enough about 2 cups per day. I bought Orijen large Breed Puppy food and now he goes crazy over it. I am talking, the dog goes in the frenzy. He barks, spins around, whines and jumps. I mix both foods right now. When I get his food ready I will make him sit or lay down untill he calms down. Sometimes when he wants hsi food so bad he will start shaking while he waits. When he gets his food he eats it within 10-15 seconds and wants more.

I bought him slow feeder bowl (center of the bowl is metal and food goes around the center) and it doesnt seem to help.

Any ideas on how to address this issue? When I give him Solid Gold without Orijen he would not eat it.

Glad you have an enthusiastic eater. I put three large rocks in my dog's dish and make her work for it. The other thing I've done is taken the dish outside and poured the food out of the bowl onto the patio which scatters it.

She spends a good ten minutes searching out every little kibble.

How's your dogs' body condition? Are you sure he's not going too long between meals?

I've also heard of people spreading the food out on a large cookie sheet--or even a plastic tablecloth inside. A variation of Melissa's good idea.

A variation I used was the lid of a large rubbertote box. The rocks she managed to flip out of the bowl and rub her nose raw in the process.

I had the same issue with my pup inhaling food at light speed before I switched him to raw. Did a couple things to help. There's an awesome product out there called an Amaze-a-Ball. I got mine at Petco. Its made mostly for treats but I used it for kibble. Its specially shaped inside to only dump a few pieces out at a time when they roll the ball around.

Another thing I did was add water to the food and let it turn to mush. Its a lot harder to gobble that way!

Feeding multiple very small meals throughout the day might help at least keep the ammount that eats at each meal smaller, which will keep the likelyhood of the potential of a bloat from bolting down large amounts of food more minimal. I have used several large rocks in my horses bucket to keep him from bolting food, can't see why it would not work for dogs as well. I would put the food in a taller narrower bowl so he has to work around the rocks or move the rocks to get at the food. Position the bowl so he cannot tip it over. If you feed in a crate get a flat backed pail the attaches to the side of the crate so he can't turn it over.

Don't know what your plans for the dog are, but you might try training the dog to track & use the kibble to 'bait' the track. Don't feed before tracking & feed the meal on the track. It will prevent him from gobblihg, he will learn skills(tracking & using his nose) & he will learn to eat every bite because that is his meal.

If raw fed they cannot gobble bigger pieces of RMS like backs as readily as say chicken necks, which is often what I start pups on. Although I have fished some chicken backs out of the throats of pups a couple of times, but they don't usually try gulping them more then a couple of times, before they figure out that it is not a good idea.

I'm not sure if I would add alot of water to a kibble meal. I would be concerned about bloating in a GSD. From what I have read it can be a factor in bloat. JMO

Just to clarify- enough water to soften the food to turn it to a mush. Not a lot of water. Guess I should have been more specific.

Thank you for the ideas. I make him pick up food spread over the kitchen floor and it works great

Spread it on the lawn. Its foundation work for tracking.

Another thing I just thought... I now leave my dog alone completely when he eats. Like in another room. Because sometimes when ya hover over them they feel like they need to gobble it up or someone or some dog's going to get it. Could be residual from competition in the litter or who knows.