Hi All,

I recently switched Clouds diet to a Prey Raw Diet, and now when we go through his dinner routine he has been peeing while approaching his food.

The routine goes something like:

1. Place food on ground.
   Ask him to sit.
   Ask him for a hand shake on both sides.
   Tell him to lay down.
   Ask him for a kiss (coz u know love).
   Then I tell him okay go ahead.
   And about now he just starts urinating.
   

This never happened previously while feeding him and if im not being honest, its down right frustrating. I tried to take his food away and show him that peeing doesn't get him food. Then he literally did the same thing five minutes later .

I tried not to be mad or yell too much or at all. Its a bit difficult to completely ignore as he stands over it to eat, which i can't leave be really.

Anyone have any ideas?

Edit: He is 2 years old with some change.

Clueless on this one but his age might be helpful to know.

Oh yes, he is 2 years old with some change.

Does he like his new food? He might possibly be urinating out of excitement of the new food, but other than that, I'm also pretty clueless.

If by love, you mean devours the entire meal and then spends 10 minutes thoroughly washing the bowl to be squeaky clean for me , then yes.

grr, had a post and lost it. I agree with Roccio. I see it as excitement. My 2 girls get crazy over their raw meal, and I hand feed a portion of it. When they are down to bone and a little meat I have them go to their place to finish. Eventually he will be less excited over his meal and should not do that. Remember you have changed his diet a few times recently, so going from kibble to raw is different.

MiyasMomma wrote:

grr, had a post and lost it. I agree with Roccio. I see it as excitement. My 2 girls get crazy over their raw meal, and I hand feed a portion of it. When they are down to bone and a little meat I have them go to their place to finish. Eventually he will be less excited over his meal and should not do that. Remember you have changed his diet a few times recently, so going from kibble to raw is different.

I also had kind of assumed this, but I was more concerned that it was a sign of him sort of marking his food or something. Luckily enough my roommates puppy has been smart enough to not bother Cloud while he is eating or has a raw hide. Although, Cloud did pee on the floor once when I took his rawhide away. But I think that was a sign of submission which I also hated, hah.

BTW One, (do you have a first name?) I too have them wait between each bite, and wait before taking their bone, because he is so excited about eating, you may be making him wait too long by having him do all of those steps, perhaps also skipping a few of those steps. I like the hand feeding, it calms them, and has them approach my hand in a gentle fashion. So my approach is Miya sit, wait, open my hand for her piece and tell her to get it. by calming her in the sit position and having her wait she takes the meat from my hand in a calm gentle fashion, repeat until bone is left. I make the duration of each bite a little longer. Calming him and slowing down his pace, may lead to no accidents. Talk in a soothing voice, by having him shake and go through a list of commands only excites him and makes him more crazy to eat his favorite meal.

I sure do, it's Glenn!

I suppose maybe I never thought of it in that sense. Perhaps, I am making his meal a bigger deal than it actually is and he is starting to think that way too.

Thank you for that advice, I will be sure to try that tonight.

No problem Glenn, and thanks for updating, helps us all out, and also you are no longer a nameless person, lol. As you probably know, huskies get excited over the simplest of things. That is a big issue for inexperienced owners and why so many huskies end up at a shelter, because owners do not understand that they are creating the excitement and bad behavior. By simply going at it in a calm manner will make him more calm. I really want to know if it's successful for you, so please give us an update.

Renee

Okay, so it worked!

I hand fed him the first few bits while he was sitting and nice and calm. Then I placed his bowl on the ground for him to eat and there were no issues. He was like a completely different dog than this morning.

Thank you a ton for the excellent advice!

-Glenn

Just a quick update for you guys.

Cloud hasn't peed in the house since making the change to hand feeding him a few bites. I have also tested just simply leaving the bowl on the floor. He sits nicely without me asking him to and when I walk away he approaches the food nicely. He still eats the entire meal in the blink of an eye but, not sure I can actually stop that.

Cheers!

Nice to hear Glenn, I'm glad you gave us an update. If you want to try some commands, I place bowl down and since Miya is sitting I tell her to wait and then tell her to get it. Should be simple enough without, hopefully causing excitement, and you can build the duration. Just a suggestion, not necessary, but it is a way to have him "work" for his food. There have been times where I had forgot to tell Miya to get it, and well I have seen her wait for a half hour before, of course that was with the gradual training and waiting. Also, if doing this, use a steady firm voice, don't show or have excitement come through in your voice, make it nonchalant. I wish you continued success!!

A slow bowl can stop the inhaling of food. Or if you don't want a special bowl sit a coffee cup upside down in the middle of his bowl for him to eat his food around. I have a slow bowl for one of my dogs. He has been using it for the last year and I am getting ready to ween him off of it as he has naturally started to slow his eating down.

Hi Twister,

Do you happen to know if this would for Raw Food as well?

Thanks

It will work. You just have to make sure the raw is cut in small enough pieces to fit in the channels of the bowl. Because of the wet nature of raw it won't slow him down as much as it will with dry kibble that will slip around but it will slow him down some.