my dog acts like we....?

Question

she is about 1&1/2-2 feet tall (and getting bigger), 50lbs, yet slim, and we feed her often & alot, though she still acts as if we starve her, we have put a full sized hamburger (1 piece) in her doggy dish, and it has been eaten in a matter of seconds, swallowed whole in one full bite, looking around for more, licking are other dog's dish clean, if few crumbs remained, and eating anything she can find. we give her a full dish of dog food for breakfast&dinner, lunch she'll usually get various pieces or bites from your meal(and a good deal of food from it!). she is young and extremely active, she is ten mnths. old, frisky, always jumping and running around, yet you can't see her rib's, and she has meat on her bone's so she doesn't look like we starve her, which I'm positive we don't, only because whenever you eat anything, she gets a good deal of it!She even will go through are trash bags after we leave dinner.is there a reason why shes so hungry and acts like this?its not normal is it?

well shes a german shepherd mix, and nuetered, tehy said she could get maybe 100lbs at most, but idk they were wrong w/ my other dog....

first off just to say, a 20lb. dispenser is NOT a good idea for me, my dog got potty-trained about 4mnths ago, because we limited the times she ate. so that would put her right back where she was before,
and intruducing a dog to human food, i fell is not totally bad, she sits at the table, politely, not even touching teh food, but waiting until you give her the food. and i didnt intruduce her to human food, it started at the pound, when we adopted her when she was young, 8weeks old,we found out someone shared there "food" with her.

"gorges"hmmnn...im not so sure about taht no offense, more of she will eat whatever she can get her hands on, they might mean teh same thing im not sure....

Answer 1

Some dogs are just chowhounds (no pun intended). I had an elderly (13 yrs old) lab we rescued and my friend babysat her for me for a weekend. Sadie, who was healthy, proper weight, exercised, etc., managed to get into the garage and opened a bin of dogfood my friend had just filled with a 40# bag of food. When she finally located Sadie, my friend had to literally pull the upper half of her body out of the bin, as Sadie struggled to get back in - she'd eaten fully half the bin of food!! Twenty pounds!!!!!!!
5 years later we still roll on the floor over it.

But I digress :])

Free-feeding her will not solve this issue, she'll just eat until she vomits, then start all over again.

You know she's not starving; she's the proper weight, in good health (and tapeworms will not cause a dog to over-eat, that's an old myth).

Try putting half her dry food into a Buster Cube and let her work for the food. it will keep her focused, give her mind something to do, and drag mealtime out to maybe a 1/2 hour instead of 3 mm minutes.
The Buster Cube is a cube (sorry) with rounded corners that has chambers inside. You put some food in it, roll it around so the food goes into the chambers and repeat this until it's fairly full. Then your dog rolls it around and food will fall out a few pieces at a time. It's a great way to slow down these little piglets without cutting back on their normal portions, and it really gets them involved.
You need to demonstrate it for the dogs to help them figure it out at first, but once they get it, watch out! Site is below.

There are many imitators and I've found this is the only one that stands up to the dogs. We have put them in cinderblock kennels at my vets for Pit Bulls and other large breed rescued dogs who stay for long periods of time and it keeps them from going cage crazy - you can hear it banging around all the way up front at the reception desk, and one that was there lasted 3 years through about a dozen dogs. I still use it to demo in classes! They are about $12 at Petsmart. They only make 2 sizes and of course, you need the big one.

Keep your garbage out of her reach! I'm sure you realize how much toxic stuff she could get into. Get a pail with a lid. I like the silver ones you can step on to open - they're not too expensive at Walmart. Or keep it in the garage or pantry.

You need to be pro-active with this girl. Also, stop the table scraps. Not any healthier for her than they are for us :]) and even though she's polite, you're not doing her any favors.

Use her food drive for good, not evil! Train her...teach her tricks using her own kibble as treats. I bet she'll train like a dream and have more things to focus on than eating (this from a chubby trainer).
Best wishes! She sounds like a real toot...fun pup.

Answer 2

The problem started when you introduced your dog to human foods and scraps. You shouldn't be giving her any kind of human food. Ask the vet....he'll tell you the same thing. Most foods we eat are not good for your dog & causes a dog to come anxious for food...not to mention, it creates a four legged begger. Not all dogs get like this...but some do...and yours did. Start by laying off the human foods. Don't even feed her anything from your hand. Even withhold snacks until she gets aquainted to not gorging. Feed her only a premium dry dog food. No cheap supermarket dog foods & no canned or moist dog foods. Get a 20 lb dispenser bowl. It will allow your dog to have access to dry food constantly. She'll gorge at first, but will get bored with the fact that she has food all the time. She'll start eating only when she needs to...and food won't be such a big deal to her anymore.

You might want to have her checked for worms, too. Worms will cause a dog to want to eat alot...but they won't cause a dog to gorge their food.

(To KK...below me. I'm so NOT wrong. I'm VERY educated on dogs...in ALL aspects. I said to feed A PREMIUM DRY DOG FOOD. Please back up your comment with PROVEN SCIENTIFIC DOCUMENTATION....because I certainly can for everything that I said. What you say is an uneducated opinion on the subject. What I say is fact)

Answer 3

Banning ANYTHING has proven to create a lucrative black market in the item (or animal)... and to make a lot of shady characters a lot of illicit money. You have only to look at the US's Prohibition in the 1920's which went a long way to creating the mob or the "War on Drugs" which have created a wonderful drug cartel in multiple countries to the south of the US. Ban specific breeds in the US or ban breeding - and the price goes up, dogs get less medical care (for fear of a vet turning the owner of the illegal dog/puppies in) and I'll bet puppies will be included with drug shipments. I don't believe our cultures are so different that the UK wouldn't have the same issues.

Answer 4

What kind of breed is your dog and how big is she supposed to get? A friend has a Mastiff who eats 7 large cans a day, he weighs 140 but looks quite skinny, he was not nuetered and that also affects weight gain in dogs.

Answer 5

Try consulting this problem with the vet, to make sure she doesn't have a disease or anything like that. I wish I could help you more, but I think that's the safest way to handle this problem!
Like pet stylist said I would get a 20 lbs dispenser also, but first I'd go to the vet!

Answer 6

Um, hello?! That "pet stylist" girl is oh soooo very wrong. You would be extremely surprised by how fattening and unhealthy dog food really is for dogs.

Answer 7

Dogs are notorious for eating everything they can get their hands on.....er...paws. They'll eat it if they can find it.

They're really dumb
like that.

Answer 8

sounds normal to me....just a growing dog

Answer 9

they are like us

Answer 10

maybe it's a tapeworm?...