robinb
DIS veteran
- Joined
- Aug 29, 1999
- Messages
- 45,214
Ugh. I'm venting here.
First, a little back ground. My friend left for a cruise on Saturday night and she left her dog, an energetic and anxious weinheimer, in the tender care of a pet sitter booked through wagwalking.com. The walker barely walked the dog, left the dog alone for over 14 hours and neglected to administer the dog's many meds. My friend reviewed their Ring Doorbell footage while in their first port for when the walker came and went and left a frantic text message asking me to go get their dog. My friend was literally ready to book a flight back from some tiny Caribbean island to be with her dog. I was on my way home from CT with my little dog by airplane (that's another story!) and once we landed I went to my friend's house on Monday night to collect the dog and bring her to my house.
This pupper has a variety of issues but the #1 for me right now is her food issues. She's a canine vacuum. Every scrap of food she can find goes into her tummy. She can sniff out a morsel of food from 2 rooms away. They even have a special dog food bowl that slows her down so she doesn't simply inhale her food. Every one of my meals is prepared with eagle-eye supervision and every meal is eaten with careful scrutiny should I drop something. I have a shadow every time I walk into the kitchen.
Here's the thing, all of my pets have always been free feeders. We keep their bowls full and they eat when they want and stop when they are full. I want to be more like them.
The canine gobbler is putting a big dent in my free feeders' eating. I feed the cats upstairs so I blocked the stairs Ms Gobbler can't go up and eat all their food. My dog is having a more difficult time of it. His whole life was turned upside down with the trip to CT and he's home but not into his regular routine. I try to feed him while she's eating but he walks away. Of course, I have to pick up the bowl or Ms Gobbler will inhale it for him. I tried to feed him upstairs with the cats and behind the baby gate that blocks off the basement and in my DH's office and in the kitchen with the door closed (100+ year old house) and he whines. I finally put a leash around my dining room table leg and attached Ms Gobbler to it so my pupper can have some extended alone time with his food bowl. That seems to be working. Whew!
The good news is that Ms Gobbler is actually a sweet dog and gets along fine with my dog and cats. She's a good girl with a couple of minor problems. The begging and being underfoot I can handle. I just ignore it. But the change in routine for myself and the hoops I have to jump through to feed my own animals is annoying. Five more sleeps until Ms Gobbler goes home ... not that I'm counting or anything
.
Thanks for letting me vent.
First, a little back ground. My friend left for a cruise on Saturday night and she left her dog, an energetic and anxious weinheimer, in the tender care of a pet sitter booked through wagwalking.com. The walker barely walked the dog, left the dog alone for over 14 hours and neglected to administer the dog's many meds. My friend reviewed their Ring Doorbell footage while in their first port for when the walker came and went and left a frantic text message asking me to go get their dog. My friend was literally ready to book a flight back from some tiny Caribbean island to be with her dog. I was on my way home from CT with my little dog by airplane (that's another story!) and once we landed I went to my friend's house on Monday night to collect the dog and bring her to my house.
This pupper has a variety of issues but the #1 for me right now is her food issues. She's a canine vacuum. Every scrap of food she can find goes into her tummy. She can sniff out a morsel of food from 2 rooms away. They even have a special dog food bowl that slows her down so she doesn't simply inhale her food. Every one of my meals is prepared with eagle-eye supervision and every meal is eaten with careful scrutiny should I drop something. I have a shadow every time I walk into the kitchen.
Here's the thing, all of my pets have always been free feeders. We keep their bowls full and they eat when they want and stop when they are full. I want to be more like them.
The canine gobbler is putting a big dent in my free feeders' eating. I feed the cats upstairs so I blocked the stairs Ms Gobbler can't go up and eat all their food. My dog is having a more difficult time of it. His whole life was turned upside down with the trip to CT and he's home but not into his regular routine. I try to feed him while she's eating but he walks away. Of course, I have to pick up the bowl or Ms Gobbler will inhale it for him. I tried to feed him upstairs with the cats and behind the baby gate that blocks off the basement and in my DH's office and in the kitchen with the door closed (100+ year old house) and he whines. I finally put a leash around my dining room table leg and attached Ms Gobbler to it so my pupper can have some extended alone time with his food bowl. That seems to be working. Whew!
The good news is that Ms Gobbler is actually a sweet dog and gets along fine with my dog and cats. She's a good girl with a couple of minor problems. The begging and being underfoot I can handle. I just ignore it. But the change in routine for myself and the hoops I have to jump through to feed my own animals is annoying. Five more sleeps until Ms Gobbler goes home ... not that I'm counting or anything
.Thanks for letting me vent.
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