Episode #221 Feeding Solutions for Picky Dogs & Multi-Dog Households

Do you have one dog who devours anything while another turns their nose up at perfectly good food? You're not alone in this frustrating mealtime dance. 

Picky eating in dogs stems from multiple sources—medical issues like dental pain or food allergies, behavioral patterns from inconsistent feeding, or simply learned behaviors when we constantly offer alternatives to refused meals. Doodle owners will nod knowingly, as these breeds seem particularly prone to food selectivity.

The good news? Simple management techniques can transform your feeding routine. Establishing consistent mealtimes where uneaten food disappears after 15-20 minutes helps reset expectations. Creating separate feeding spaces eliminates competition between your vacuum-cleaner dog and your discerning diner. And contrary to popular belief, constantly switching foods often makes pickiness worse, not better—a stable, veterinarian-approved diet with occasional subtle enhancements like food seasonings typically works best.

For those struggling with multi-dog households, structure is your friend. Monitor who's eating what, use puzzle feeders to make mealtime mentally engaging, and remember that adult dogs naturally eat less frequently than puppies. With patience and consistency, you can create harmony at mealtime that meets each dog's needs without the daily struggle. Ready to transform your feeding routine? These practical strategies will help both you and your canine companions enjoy mealtimes again.

Chapters

• 0:00 Managing Picky Dogs and Multiple Eaters
• 2:15 Understanding Why Dogs Become Picky Eaters
• 4:13 Strategies to Encourage Better Eating Habits
• 8:41 Managing Multiple Dogs with Different Needs
• 12:13 Episode Wrap-up and Final Tips

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Today we are talking about how to get a picky dog to eat and manage multiple dogs with different eating habits. So if you have multiple dogs in the home and you're struggling with mealtime, today's episode is for you. Welcome to the Puppy Training Podcast. I'm Amy Jensen, founder of Baxter and Bella, the online puppy school. Here we are all about helping you create the best possible experience raising a puppy, from training tips to practical tricks, all aimed at fostering a happy, well-behaved dog who truly feels like part of the family. So if you are ready to enjoy the journey and strengthen the bond with your dog, let's get started. Hello you guys.

Speaker 1: 0:45

We have made it to spring. By the time you are listening to this, it is springtime officially. We have made it through winter and my dogs are elated. Baxter and Bella will run outside and roll in the grass. Bella, she actually looks a little bit like a baby goat. If you've ever watched a baby goat run and hop around, she does that in my backyard and it is so fun to watch. So happy spring. I hope you are enjoying the weather where you live.

Speaker 1: 1:12

Okay, today we are talking about feeding issues. This came by request from one of our listeners. She's struggling getting her picky dog to eat, and she has multiple dogs in the household, so she's trying to make sure that everyone eats their meals and that it's well balanced, right. So feeding a piggy dog can be a frustrating experience for both the dogs and for us. One dog again might eat anything placed in front of them. That's Bella at my house. She will eat any food. You can give her a piece of celery, you can give her a piece of lettuce. She's like, yep, I'm having it, baxter. On the other hand, you toss him something, he needs to sniff it, maybe lick it a little bit and decide do I really want to digest this? And maybe he will and maybe he won't. He's definitely a little pickier. In these kinds of situations, it's really important that we find effective strategies that encourage the picky eater while ensuring that the other dog does not consume others' food. Right, we just want them to eat their own, otherwise they're going to gain weight like crazy. So first let's start with understanding picky eating in dogs. So before addressing any solutions, let's figure out why some dogs become picky eaters. Now, I tend to see this very commonly in doodles. So if you have a doodle, you know what we were talking about. Right Now.

Speaker 1: 2:27

Several factors can contribute to this behavior, including, first of all, health issues. So we'd always want to check medical first. I'm not a medical professional, so I'm going to send you to your veterinarian, but we want to check for any any underlying medical problems, such as dental pain. Maybe they have a tooth that hurts any gastrointestinal discomfort. Maybe they swallowed something and it's causing some discomfort in their bellies and they're trying to get you know work through that. Maybe they have some allergies. Maybe it's environmental allergies, like the grasses that my dogs are now out rolling around in. Maybe they have some kind of food allergy Chicken is pretty common actually, and unfortunately it's found in a lot of dog food and dog treats. That can cause excessive licking and causing redness and irritation. So we want to make sure that we're addressing that first and that maybe some of that is causing the reluctance to eat. We want to make sure that we get that addressed. So check out health first.

Speaker 1: 3:21

Now number two behavioral factors. Some dogs develop being picky due to overfeeding of yummy treats. Right In training it's really tempting to always feed them those high value rewards and those extra rewards and not use their just their food. There could be feeding inconsistencies or even stress. If your dog is stressed, they don't really feel like eating. Number three is food preferences. Dogs can develop strong preferences for certain flavors or textures, so we want to take a look at that. And number four is human reinforcement. If a person frequently offers table scraps or they're giving part of their meal to the dog these alternative foods and then the dog might refuse to eat its meal, hoping that these handouts will be coming, the dog can learn hey, I'm going to hold out and wait for something better. Okay, so that's that how to encourage a picky dog to eat.

Speaker 1: 4:13

How do we help a dog who's a little bit pickier eat its meals? Let's try some of the following ideas. Okay, number one establish a consistent feeding schedule, set specific meal times and remove uneaten food after about 15 to 20 minutes. If your dog's not eating their food, just pick it up and put it away for a while. That'll prevent just coming and grabbing a little bite here or there. Okay, number two is to limit the treats and human food. So when I noticed my dogs are not eating their regular meals, I actually just stop any extra rewards. I'm making sure my family's not handing them their vegetables at dinnertime and that those extra good things are just not coming their way until they're eating their well-balanced meal that's been prepared for them. That can really help, and it might be a day or two or even three or four till they get back to that normal habit of, okay, I eat my meal and they're not just waiting for handouts or those extra good things to come their way.

Speaker 1: 5:02

Number three is the opposite. We might need to enhance their food appeal. Maybe we need to add something a little extra that makes their kibble more enticing. So something simple you can add from pottery is their seasoning. So pottery makes seasonings that you can just sprinkle over your dog's kibble. That's just a little bit each day. Add some enhanced flavor or smell to the kibble and makes it more enticing.

Speaker 1: 5:25

Number four is to try different textures and flavors. You can experiment with a variety of foods, such as mix of dry food or wet food. You can help determine what your dog prefers. There's a lot of different foods on the market. So what I'll say about this one is if you are going to change something up, make sure that it's a necessary change.

Speaker 1: 5:43

So what happens a lot of times is our dogs get bored with the food they're eating. So then we're like, oh, I'll do something different and they'll like that for about two weeks and then they'll fall back into that same game of waiting and holding out and trying to see if something better will come, and then we change their food again, and then we change their food again, and then we change their food again. So do be careful with this trying different um, textures, flavors, foods in general. Make sure you always consult your veterinarian before you change foods and my kind of general rule of thumb is if their poop is normal, then their food is fine. Okay, so I'm not going to mess with feeding my dog a whole bunch of different diets. That upsets their digestive tract and then I'm having to clean up soft serve poop in the backyard. That's no fun. So don't fall into this game that they do play, because they are very smart. You know.

Speaker 1: 6:30

If you find a food that your veterinarian agrees is a well-balanced diet, it's healthy for your dog's breed and their size and their age, then I stick with it. And again, going back to number three, if you need to add a little bit of seasoning to it, great, you can do something. Little, one little thing, little to maybe enhance that food or flavor. I would not be extreme in it. Or that goes back to number two, where our dog is like, okay, I'm going to hold out for something better, and they just get pickier and pickier, and pickier because we keep changing on them. So if you do need to change food because your veterinarian is, you know, saying, hey, your dog needs to lose weight or your dog needs to gain weight or whatever that issue is, work with them to determine a good, balanced meal, whatever that food looks like for your dog, and then I would stick with it, okay.

Speaker 1: 7:19

Number five is to ensure a stress-free eating environment so we can minimize distractions, can also minimize competition. If you have multiple dogs in your household, simply just feed them in separate areas. So in my basement I have a pen set up and Baxter has his pen and Bella has her pen, and when it's feeding time they go to their pens and that's where they eat. There's no stress over competition, like Bella has to eat fast or Baxter might take it or none of that. It's gone. I've just minimized it, I've just managed that and they go to their pens and they eat their meals and then we come out and we can all go and play, especially when Bruno has his soft food because he's an older dog and his teeth require a softer food right now. Uh, they really want to eat that. So I'm making sure Bruno's not feeling stressed, that he gets to eat his meal in peace and that the other dogs they get a little bit of that mixed in with their dry and they're super happy about that and they can all eat in peace. So it's a stress-free eating environment.

Speaker 1: 8:14

Okay, number six is use positive reinforcement, praise, reward your dog when it does eat its food to encourage that behavior. And then, as always, if you see something that's out of the ordinary or if the pickiness doesn't get better, again we want to rule out those medical issues. So consult your veterinarian If there's any kind of health concern going on. You'll notice if your dog's gaining weight or they're losing weight. That's a time to call your vet. Okay, let's talk about feeding two dogs with different eating habits.

Speaker 1: 8:41

Okay, so managing a household with both a picky eater and a food-driven dog does require some careful planning. Free feeding is not a great option. Putting their food in their bowls and just setting them out in your house for the dogs to eat whenever can become a problem and you'll notice one dog may be gaining a little bit of extra weight and we don't want that. We want them all to be healthy. We don't want one getting skinny because they're not eating and the other getting maybe a little overweight because they're eating too much. So again back to that separate feeding area concept.

Speaker 1: 9:13

Feed each of your dogs in a different room, or a crate or a pen it doesn't have to be a pen, like my dogs you can have. You know, baxter can eat upstairs I could set up a baby gate and Bella can eat downstairs, right or in one room versus the other room, and I wouldn't put their bowls too close together. Put one, you know, several feet apart. Give them some space and distance so they don't feel like they have to guard their bowl, even if there is a barrier in place. Try to create a little distance between whatever separation you've created for them. Okay, and then supervise the mealtimes. I like to monitor that both my dogs are actually eating, not that you have to stay right there for the entire time, but you know what you've put in their bowl, you know when you've given them time to eat and then notice, okay, who ate breakfast, who didn't, who ate dinner, who didn't.

Speaker 1: 9:52

Do, recognize that as dogs mature, they eat less often. So a puppy is eating several times a day, whereas an adult dog might just eat once a day. You know, as humans we have somehow scheduled this concept in our brains that we eat three times a day. We have a breakfast, lunch and dinner. And maybe that's not the most healthy thing for us, but that's just kind of the habit that we all fall into. Oh I've got to eat breakfast, oh, I need to eat lunch.

Speaker 1: 10:15

So dogs, they monitor themselves. When they're hungry they eat, and when they're not, they don't. And so you might see that they realize they don't need to eat three meals a day. Maybe they just want to eat one meal a day, and that's okay, and it's good to know that about your dog. So supervise the meal times, just so you know how much each dog is eating. And if one dog doesn't finish their meal and you just pick it up, you put it away for later. But you know, okay, this dog's had one cup of food today, they still another cup of food right Versus the other dog might eat both of their cups of food right away. They're done, they don't need to eat the rest of the day. So pay attention to that and if you need to just have a little feeding log, get out a notebook and a pencil and just chart so that your brain doesn't have to remember it. You can just keep track of it on paper.

Speaker 1: 10:54

Another idea for dogs is slow feeder bowls or puzzle feeder. So make the food or mealtime more fun. Putting the food in a bowl can be kind of boring and actually help a dog maybe lose the desire to actually eat. So a dog's brain loves the hunt and the search and the fun of that right. It's engaging mentally to them, which is good for them. It's good mental exercise. So even just taking their meal that they didn't eat in a bowl, putting it in a puzzle food toy and maybe putting one little extra bonus treat in there so it smells a little better, or using some of those seasonings that we talked about, can help them want to interact and play with that toy and you might notice that picky eater starts to eat because it's kind of a fun, engaging activity.

Speaker 1: 11:37

All right, you guys, that's it for today. Feeding the picky dog alongside a non-picky eater can be challenging but it's very manageable. The key again is to establish a routine. Encourage the picky eater with some appealing yet healthy options and then control food portions to prevent overconsumption by the other dog. So there is a balancing scale there. By implementing structured feeding strategies, using a little bit of management and ensuring a stress-free environment, we can help our dogs have a balanced approach that works for both of them, both styles of eating, and promotes their overall health and wellbeing. You guys have a fabulous rest of your week and we'll talk soon. Happy training. Thanks for tuning in to the puppy training podcast. I hope today's tips help you feel more confident and excited about raising your dog. Remember, with a little patience and consistency you can create a loving bond and a well-behaved pup who's a joy to have in your family. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share it with fellow puppy parents. For more resources, visit Baxter and Bella online. Until next time, happy training.