How to Accustom your Dog to a Diet

How to Accustom your Dog to a Diet

A dog accustomed to any specific diet that satisfies it and keeps it healthy will generally have a difficult time becoming accustomed to any other diet. In making a change, the point to remember is that once you have decided on a sound diet, every member of the household must cooperate to see that nothing is fed to upset the schedule you have adopted.

If Toby is put on a diet of canned food when he has previously been eating chicken with buttered broccoli, he must is starved, if necessary, until he eats the canned dog food. Any member of the family who feels sorry for him and gives him even a scrap of chicken or broccoli will defeat the whole plan and will be punished by having a spoiled pet continually begging for more of the same. Give your dogs only a good type of dehydrated dog food. There are a number of excellent ones on the market. Sometimes when we have bought new dogs that have been brought up on fancy diets, it has been most difficult to change their feeding habits to the food of our choice. One large dog lost eighteen pounds before it accepted the change. It was seven days before it would touch a morsel of the meal-type food. Now it gulps it with evident enjoyment and is healthy and sleek.

The following information may help you to know how to accustom your dog to a diet.

Ways How to Accustom Your Dog to a Diet

• If you are up to changing the diet of your dog by replacing a new food item in place of an older one you may try out the following way: Try to serve food that contains 75% of the old food mixed with 25 % of the new food. After three days gradually increase the amount of the new food item and decrease the amount of old food. Ultimately offer your dog 100% of the new food item. Your dog might be reluctant to eat the food but you must not worry as a healthy dog will have health damage if it happens to skip two or three meals.
• When you bring in a new packet of food for your dog try to encourage your dog to eat the new food with a soft and calm voice. Try to pat your pet gently while eating and show a lot of affection when he ends up eating the food.
• If your dog refuses to eat the new food do not give up so easily. For two or three days do not allow your dog to eat anything apart from the new food item. Do not even allow your dog to lick the table scarps or any small treats. Submitting to its will would only boost its refusal drive which is ultimately not beneficial for you while taming the canine.

If you find out the reason behind the refusal of the food your dog is due to the change in the level of moisture in the food, you may add some water to the food before serving it. In case the dog has the habit of eating dry food the new watery food may be taken over a microwave oven for drying.

See more: How to Choose a Dog