Scatter Feeding
The idea of scatter feeding is a great one. When I mention it to clients, they either love the idea or hate the idea - its usually dependent on how house proud they are!
The idea behind scatter feeding is to make the dogs meal time last longer, make them eat slower, make them work for their meal which in turn acts as a mentally stimulating activity. So it is great for dogs that are high energy, dogs that gulp their food, dogs that get bored and need entertaining but most of all as an owner, it gives you some time to have fun with your dog! You can use this activity as a scent game or part of training the dog to search or find.
Scatter feeding can be done with any food type, the level of difficulty and challenge can be raised by freezing the food, making use of levels and of course hiding food too! All dogs of any age or breed can enjoy this feeding method.
You don't have to restrict it to the garden you can do this indoors too, if you have wooden floors like I do, you can scatter around the house so they have to be a detective and hunt it all out. It is a brilliant game for anyone who owns a dog with a fair bit of brain power or for a dog that never sits still!
Remember, if you have a dog that is aggressive around food or resource guards do not do this type of feeding around other dogs. This type of feeding is best done 1-1 to eliminate the occurrence of competition for food.
So how does Scatter Feeding work:
Step 1 - Select the food you are going to scatter. This can be biscuit or raw food.
Step 2 - Choose scatter location - indoors or outside
Step 3 - Place or scatter food around - add difficulty by using levels and hiding food
Step 4 - Encourage tour dog to 'Find' or 'Search' for their food
Step 5 - Have Fun with your dog!
Scatter feeding can work for most pet species including cats, guinea pigs, rabbits and rats!
Please do share your photos and videos with us on Facebook. We would love to see how Scatter Feeding works for you.
