Do you feed your dog at regular intervals (breakfast and dinner, for instance) or does your dog graze all day on his food?
I recommend all my clients feed their dogs at regular intervals and take the bowl up between feedings. Why? Predictability.
Predictability makes it really easy to house train a dog. What goes in must come out. If you control when it goes in, you've got a really good idea as to when it's going to come out.
Also, for training purposes, it's easier to work with a dog who doesn't have free access to food all day. How hard do you think Donald Trump would work to earn $5? Probably not very hard. Why?? Because he's got all the money he needs. He doesn't need $5 from you.
If you're giving your dog free access to his food all day, you're missing out on an easy way to let your dog know that all good things come through you. You're the gatekeeper — you give your dog access to his food. You can't do that if he's grazing on his food all day. Put the food bowl down twice per day for 30 minutes. What's not eaten will keep until the next meal.
I know many, many trainers advocate a feeding schedule, but I think it really depends on the dog.
We’ve always free-fed our dogs (Brittany Spaniels), and they’ve always been slim and in great shape. I think some breeds and lines of dogs do better managing their intake than others.
I’m currently in a pre-agility class with our 4 year-old Brittany, and she was one of only several dogs who the instructor said did not need to lose weight.
Of course, she gets a 3 mile jog in the morning, a 1 mile walk in the evening and spends anywhere from 5-8 hours a day outside chasing squirrels, so she has plenty of opportunity to burn off any calories that she eats.
Mary H.