# Feeding with chew toys



## davidc1986 (May 8, 2014)

Hi Everyone,

My family and I are due to get our first Vizsla (and dog for that matter) in about 7 weeks. We've been doing a lot of research including reading books by Dr Ian Dunbar and Jean Donaldson. In these books, along with several other online resources, they recommend feeding the majority of the dogs meal either in stuffed chew toys, hand feeding or as treats for use during training. This is meant to prevent the dogs from getting bored, help them develop a healthy chew toy addiction and provide positive reinforcement for lying calmly etc. I was just wondering how this affects house training? A lot of resources recommend feeding the dog on a schedule as what goes in on a schedule comes out on a schedule. However if you are feeding them continually with their toys and during training is this likely to cause any issues? FYI We are planning on using crate training to assist in the house training.

Thanks
David


----------



## mommaofalot (Apr 10, 2014)

David great questions! I have been kind of wondering the same thing. I am a stay at home mom and have gotten permission to take koda to my kids activities (baseball and karate) but I can not take her to church and figure I will fill a frozen kong for her to put in her crate while we are gone (also have read to leave them alone sometimes to help with separation anxiety so figured church would be the perfect time for that). I am concerned if she eats a kong full of peanut butter and treats she will need to go potty and mess in her crate. I am sure though that people would not leave a kong in with them if they have to come home to poo every day but I just need the reaffirming from you guys.


----------



## dextersmom (Oct 29, 2013)

We've always done kibble in chew toys/treat dispensing toys, etc. or hand feeding too. (Also a Dunbar fan.) Dexter didn't have a food bowl until he was about 6 months old and that was just because we started adding things like rice and canned pumpkin to his food that made it messy at times. We still don't really use it.

Dexter is a chewer but it's done wonders for teaching him what is his to chew and what is not. We didn't have to do much re-directing because he would just go select a new toy from his toy basket himself when he wanted to chew.

It never caused any potty training issues for us. I'm not sure if that's typical or not. He would never poop in the house or in his crate as a pup (just pee! ) However, he also wasn't one of those pups where "I just ate/drank" so "I need to go pee/poo" immediately after.

He is on a strict schedule, but not a strict "feeding" schedule. So his walk/play/off leash time is all part of the routine and he's crated at the same times everyday. He can eat whenever he wants, but he knows he'll get a potty break at 6, another at 8, another at noon, etc. The only time we ever had a problem was one Saturday when we really messed with his routine. If I ever have any doubts about whether he needs to go or not (usually on a weekend because of the change in routine), I just take him on a quick walk around the block. If he doesn't go during the walk, he doesn't need to go.

I think it's probably just a matter of both you and your pup settling into a routine (if not an actual feeding schedule). Establishing the routine is the hard part IMO (especially because it changes as they get older).


----------



## davidc1986 (May 8, 2014)

Thank you for your replies.


----------



## CatK (May 29, 2013)

It took us ages to potty train ours because we both work and so we had to ask a lot of his puppy bladder. We used a combination of little meals from his bowl (three times a day to start, and he still gets fed twice a day) along with lots of his daily allowance of food in chew toys and for training. He wet his crate frequently, but never pooed in it. Just a small kong to start with as they won't moderate how much they eat in the knowledge that they have to hold on before they can go to the toilet.

Morris is now 14 months, time flies! He gets more awesome every day, we're both completely in love with him. It is lots of work to start with, but soooo worth it.


----------

