Hi all, A problem has arisen in our house over the last few days. Effie gets her evening meal (third meal of the day) around 6.30pm. From about 5.50 until tea time all she does it bark or chew the kitchen door. This is the only time she tends to bark and she really goes for it. I've tried distracting her with play but no help. I've tried crating her and sitting by the door, ignoring her when barking and rewarding her if she sits/lies down and is quiet but it isn't helping. Is she just being a hungry labrador?! Also, we are a bit confused about food quantities. She is a healthy looking pup, we can feel her ribs but not see them. One week ago she weighed 9.5kg. I was using the table on Pippa's "feeding your labrador puppy" guidance as a rule of thumb. She gets 100g of Burgess puppy food per meal 3 times per day. The Burgess packet suggests 345-430g per day. Is it more important to go by the guidance of the particular food brand? Effie's kibble is soaked but I have found her poops a bit dry and smaller than usual lately.
It's funny how dogs learn to tell the time, dinner time or walk time. A labs clock is always about an hour fast. There are days when Homer will tell me it's dinner time when it's only 3pm. I can only suggest from experience, don't be tempted to feed her earlier or you'll be going back to 4 meals a day. It might be an idea to engage her in some training, a game or a short walk just before she starts barking for dinner to distract her.
I would go with Jes72 and try a short training session, a playtime or a short walk to try and stop the barking. You may find that she then is happy to have a snooze until dinner time. On the quantity of food, I haven't been able to find a feeding guide for the Burgess but commonly they quote a quantity i.e. 345 - 430g per day split into meals. This amount is usually also quoted against age/weight so always needs some juggling to workout the right amount for a growing puppy, and that's without taking into consideration the generosity of the amounts the manufacturers quote. Have you had her weighed recently to check how much she should be having daily?
She was last weighed last Monday and was 9.5kg but unsure what she weighs now. My other half keeps saying we can just go by how she looks/how her toilet habits go, but I'm just so aware she is a growing pup and I want to do everything right! Thanks both for the advice about the barking. We will try to change our evening routine about a bit in the hope that this will settle her before her mealtime!
@Louise Mac monitoring body shape does help, although I wouldn't rely on that alone with a puppy. Puppy poos are even more problematic as they can change with something they've managed to snaffle on a walk. I used to pop in the vets once a month with Juno just to pop her on the scales so I knew she was gaining weight steadily, I could adapt her kibble amount based upon age and weight, and also had the benefit of getting Juno used to the vet clinic as well. I will happily admit to being cautious when it comes to food and I use a calculator to work out how many grams Juno should get as per manufacturer, reduce to allow for treats and then weigh her food on digital scales.
@Louise Mac I had the same problem, I used to do a short training session followed by a "find it" game. The prize being her Kong filled with a tiny amount of frozen peanut butter and banana or sardines in tomato (watered down to make it go further). It worked the barking stopped very quickly. She's now 16 months and she will just sit in the kitchen and stare at her food container (no barking) waiting.
