Feeding a Starving Weimaraner

Feeding your dog, as simple as buying food and putting it in their bowl right? Well not when you have a STARVING Weim. You see Weimaraners are at risk for something called bloat. If they eat too fast and exercise afterwards then something crazy (that I will not try to explain) happens with their stomach. It can be fatal, and if not that, then it will probably cost you about $2000 in emergency vet surgery bills. So it is something that we want to try and avoid.

What can we do to help? Well step one would be to keep Arty from eating so fast and step two would be to keep him from exercising after he eats. Since two is mostly out of the question (he's a 10 month old weim, which means boundless energy ALL THE TIME!), we have tried our hand at getting him to eat slowly. But with Arty, not only does he eat, he inhales. 2.5 cups of food gone in literally 30 seconds. So we came up with some solutions:

1) The Target Tug-a-jug:

The concept is that you put the food in the jug and then the dog has to pull it out. This worked all fine and great, for about a week. Then it slowly became this:

Yes, he slowly ate the plastic rope (or I threw the little bits away). So we went to plan B:

2. The rope tug-a-jug:

It has a nice sturdy rope that cannot be eaten, and look, this cute little puppy is showing you how to use it:

But alas, this one lasted for about 2 weeks and then this:

yeah, he broke it. And what happened to the rope you ask? Well here you go:

It got Arty shredded! (this picture is also for a future post about finding Weimaraner proof toys, hence the other Arty shredded rope) So now we are on to plan C.

3. The Kong Wobbler:

The bottom unscrews and you can put the food inside. It is bottom heavy so it wobbles around as Arty paws at it and rolls it around so the food will come out. There is nothing for him to grab or shred so we are hoping this one will last us for some time. I'll keep you posted on if that happens or not. Note: His first time using it today he somehow got the bottom unscrewed, I am hoping I just forgot to tighten it all the way, or else we could be in for some trouble!

Well there you have it folks. A lesson on how to feed a starving weim, and a reminder not to get a dog that is possibly smarter than you unless you are up for the challenge!