Wednesday, June 04, 2008

DogPause Bowls

Buddy and Samaritan like to eat! Anything and everything, whether their own food or another's. So mealtimes have long gone something like this:

Jan sets a bowl down in front of Buddy and says, "Wait!" He lies down with his nose hovering directly over the food. She does the same with Samaritan and he lies down in front of his bowl. She repeats the same steps with Merci and Merci stands there looking at Jan, as if to say, Who me? She does this twice a day. She doesn't ever seem to believe Jan expects her to follow a command.

When Merci finally obeys, Jan says, "Okay" and they all stand up. Buddy scoops his food into his mouth as fast as he can. He did finally learn to chew a few pieces on occasion. If Jan isn't fully alert, he finishes his food and races to shove Samaritan's nose out of his bowl. Samaritan, still hungry, crosses the room and takes over Merci's meal. Merci retires under the couch.

Jan used to set Buddy's bowl on a round cat scratching post and toss 3 little rocks in with his food (she washed the rocks daily) to try to slow him down and save him from indigestion - or worse! He couldn't scoop with the rocks but they had little effect on his speed. Samaritan and Merci learned to eat faster.

Then Jan read about the DogPause bowl. She watched the video. Buddy makes Hank look like a slow eater! Would one of those bowls actually help slow Buddy down, for his own sake as well as Samaritan's and Merci's?

Have I got a test subject for you! she thought. And she contacted the company.

Last week JFF received a package.

What? You guys sniffed my Fresh Step litter when it arrived. Turnabout is only fair.


Dinner is measured and ready to be served.


Waiting for the it's okay to eat signal.


Mmmmm. It tastes the same.


Hey, I need a bigger bowl. Or a smaller nose.


Oops. Merci gets the smallest portion. Guess we should have taken her picture first.

Jan loves these bowls. Buddy still finishes first but he is eating at a healthier pace. That should be the end of it, right?

Well, Samaritan has suddenly slowed to a crawl. Jan returned to feeding him out of his old bowl for a couple of days, thinking his nose must be too wide to eat properly. But his nose is fine. He's just resumed his old habit of enjoying his food while Jan keeps Buddy at bay.

And Merci? Well, Jan is ready to tie her to a table leg for meals. She has resumed her old habit of standing in the living room and looking into the kitchen. When she finally lies down and Jan says "okay," she meanders in, carefully selects one morsel of food and waltzes back to the living room, out of sight. She will repeat this at least once more per meal before she stays and eats from one pocket at a time while Jan holds off the other dogs.

3 dogs of diverse sizes and appetites does not make for smooth mealtimes. But Jan really likes these DogPause bowls. Her biggest mealtime concern has been Buddy inhaling his own food and causing the other two to gobble their meals. These new bowls seem to be helping them to enjoy eating at their own pace.

We - Buddy, Samaritan and Merci - give these new bowls four (4) thumbs up. Um, we mean four (4) paws up.

You can read about how this bowl was invented here and/or see the video of Hank, the slower than Buddy eater here.

29 comments:

  1. I've never seen such a thing. It would be great for all us beagles. My mom says, 'one hog doesn't wait for another' and I think she's talking about the way we eat! Hope it works for your eaters.

    love & wags,
    River

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  2. Hi JFF! Thanks for signing my guestbook. Yes, my mom finally figured out how to put it at the top--good suggestion! We're in NW Georgia.

    love & wags,
    River

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  3. w00f's JFF, heehee me wood never stand a chance there, takes me half the day to eats me dog food... me keeps thinkin they will gived me hoooman foods...

    b safe,
    ~rocky~

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  4. Those bowls are neat-o!

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  5. I have been seeing those bowls everywhere. They must be really good. My mum was reading about the pit bull ban. Here they have dog fighting all the time. She is sad about that. But, she also has had on several occasions a pit bull dog come after her. One tried to get to Gizmo to kill him, and she punched it in the face as it tried to jump the fence. The owner just stood there, until mum lost her temper and did some threatening. This was before I came along. Every pit she has ever met was aggressive. Its not that she doesn't like them, she more dislikes their owners. I am sure there are some nice ones out there, but they scare my mummy. Its all very sad!
    Deetz

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  6. Mommy wonders if they have something similiar for cats. Scylla gobbles up her food and everybody elses too.

    ~Socks & Charybdis

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  7. I was just reading on TMZ.com that there is a lil blind yorkie that someone abandoned at a vets office and this one celebrity dude is looking for someone to adopt him...he is so cute and cuddly looking. I thought you might like to see. Thanks for understanding my mum on the pit bulls...or bull terriers. Just like some humans shouldn't have babies some shouldn't own certain puppies either.
    Deetz

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  8. Well that is the coolest bowl ever, but of course would never work for us..we would still eat our food in 12 nanoseconds(after being separated of course so WWIII doesn't break out..Love A+A

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  9. That's a very clever idea and a great things for pups who can't slow down.
    ECHO

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  10. I didn't know that they had food bowls to slow yourself down when you eat too fast. How rude to design something like that. Anyway was thinking that if you ate at different times would that make a difference? You could put three of the big eaters outside feed one, then rotate until all have been fed. Sounds like a lot of extra work bet the bowls will work out OK.

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  11. That bowl sure is pawsome to make the doggies eat slower. :)

    ~ Girl girl

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  12. We could have used one of those bowls. Tasha, well let's say she didn't believe in chewing her food. When she was done, she's sit and stare at my bowl. She knew better than to try to push me away, Momma watched her like a hawk.

    Princess Eva

    P.S. Thanks for stopping by.

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  13. Hhhhmmmm. That is very interesting.

    Luf, Us

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  14. Thanks for stopping by my blog. Wow - do you have your hands full!

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  15. I nevfur reelized how important woofie foodz waz to a woofie. I alwayz thoguht dey ate anyting... likez evfun slugz.
    Peace dear Jan,
    Dr TWeety

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  16. We would benefit highly from that bowl at our house! Frankly, I think I need it as much as Ari does!

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  17. Great bowl design! Thanks for the link!
    Tail wags,
    Storms

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  18. What a clever idea - Mommy's wondering if it works for stinky goodness, cause Jake and Pearl eat so fast that sometimes they come and muscle me out of my bowl!

    Bert

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  19. Wow! What an adventure meal time is at the Funny Farm!!!

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  20. Someone has a good imagination to think these things up! Very cool!

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  21. wow! that is a great idea. why can't my beans come up with something clever like that to make green papers and help woofies and kitties (hey, we have hoovers too)

    I'm glad your mommy likes these bowls!

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  22. Great new bowls - you all must be excited!... but Rock? that's really funny! Poor Buddy - good thing he didn't eat them; I've known some dogs to do it! The only surefire way to get animals to slow down, though, is to make sure they know that they are THE only animal in the house - and with some families, that's just not going to happen! Tell your mum not to worry, though, we carnivores have very tough digestive systems!

    licks & slobbers
    -Charlie

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  24. The delete was me, darn paws!!!!!

    Hope you are all using your new bowls and learning not to eat too fast. Remember that you shouldn't live to eat but eat to live. If you eat too fast it can be bad for you so SLOW DOWN!!!!!!

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  25. Interesting! Being an only cat and a picky eater I am lucky not to have to contend with such problems :)

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  26. Gosh, Buddy, I didn't know it was so serious - I was just thinking of my brother who used to snarf his food down like there was no tomorrow, but if he overate, he'd just throw up (and then eat that - ick), but his problems was teeth & kidneys, his digestive system was very forgiving.

    I sure hope your new bowls continue to work for you, Buddy - I sure would feel bad if anything happened to you on account of food!

    love & licks,
    Charlie

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  27. What cool bowls and a wonderful experiment!!! Plus the pictures of the woofies are adorable!

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  28. Funny your Mom has a post about what you guys like to eat. Our Mom just wrote (a mean) post about us on her own blog!

    http://reboot-anewlifeinitaly.blogspot.com/2008/06/spoiled-american-cats.html
    The nerve!

    Hope all is well in your corner of the world!
    Love,
    Opus and Roscoe

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