My dogs think they are hungry all the time. Every time I head towards the kitchen they do the "Oh happy joy food!!" dance.

Right now they eat around 8 am and then again around 5:30, right before I make dinner for us.

But in mid-afternoon, and late in the evening they really amp up the poor pitiful me I am STARVING routine.

Currently I am drinking Tea and Nico is looking at me out of the corner of her eye drooling because she thinks I might give her some.

I don't want to up their meal intake at all because Loki has gained noticable weight the last few months, and while he is fine now I don't want to cross the line into sausage dog.

Are there any low cal snacks I could try to help hold them over between meals?

 Quote: jennifer lee

My dogs think they are hungry all the time. Every time I head towards the kitchen they do the "Oh happy joy food!!" dance.

Are there any low cal snacks I could try to help hold them over between meals?

I have one of those!

Just remember, the more you feed them in between proper meals, the more they'll expect to be fed between meals... do you do training sessions (with treats) daily? or every couple days? I find a little session with some very small treats takes the edge off Oscar (mentally and digestively), but treats as rewards for training don't have the same consequences (Pavlovian response every time they hear the fridge door open, etc) as treats for the sake of treats.

Since I've been making home cooked meals for Oscar for about a month, meatloaves get baked a few times every week. The dog figured out pretty quick that I was baking for him (and yes, I gave him tastes right out of the oven) and before long, whenever he heard the oven timer go off, he'd be the first one to walk into the kitchen and stand in front of the stove...

As far as low cal things to treat with, Oscar loves popcorn, chopped up melon or berries, and I've tried those low fat hot dogs from the grocery store, cut up very tiny (btw, what kind of person wants to eat a low fat hotdog??!). I would imagine all those options would be slightly less calorie dense than dog treats...

~Natalya

Turbo has to take prednisone once or twice a year when he has a REALLY bad flea allergy flare up.

Those things make him honest to God feel like he is dying of hunger.

We use no salt green beans to bulk up meals and for in between meal snacks. You can feed a butt load of those without adding many calories at all.

green beans, cucumber peels, carrots, and plain popcorn are favorites around here. I swear my air popper could be a dog whistle.

Prednisone does make her incredibly hungry and thirsty, we have been able to ween her off the daily dose though thank goodness.

I can't give Nico popcorn, but the other ideas are perfect.

I do a lot more training with Loki than I do with Nico. That is another good excuse for me to work with him more, maybe he will quit asking me for food. His latest ploy is to bring me his bowl and prance around. That one is hard to resist!

Her depth perception seems to be shot so she bumps into things and the bites me every time I try to hand feed her a treat. That and it isn't easy for her to repeatedly get up and down from sitting or laying.

I will get some carrots and green beans for them at the store tomorrow.

My dogs love frozen blueberries a lot, low cal and low sugar plus loaded with lots of antioxidants too.

But they won't touch one that has thawed! Go figure?

 Quote: jennifer lee

Her depth perception seems to be shot so she bumps into things and the bites me every time I try to hand feed her a treat. That and it isn't easy for her to repeatedly get up and down from sitting or laying.

Oscar's chiropractor got us into doing "range of motion" exercises (hold a treat and lure the dog's head around to one side as far as he/she will go without changing body position, then do the other side, up and down, etc) - it's mostly a good indicator if something is sore/out of whack with his neck, but I've also trained a version of it so I can get Oscar to look to one side on command. Perhaps you could teach Nico some head positions, or even lifting up one foot at a time, from a stand... all things that involve only localized body movements.

~Natalya

Mine love ice cubes. Don't suppose you'd ever get full eating ice cubes, but it's something to crunch on that seems like food for a few seconds.

Natalya,
that is a good idea, I could try dropping the treat on the ground..... or get some welding gloves