Jack Russell Terrier’s are sometimes
found to display bizarre eating habits. These are not normal and
can alarm the concerned dog owner. Such eating habits can endanger
the health and life of your precious Affenpinscher. Here are some
examples of such bizarre eating habits and the procedures that
an owner can do to help his friend.
1. Gulping all the food at once.
When the Jack Russell quickly eats his food as if the end of
the world is near, he becomes vulnerable to choking.
What the owner can do:
- Spread his food over a wide eating bowl or cookie sheet
- Place a large ball of similar object at the center of his
food dish so that he will be forced to navigate around the ball
to eat his food.
- Feed the dog by hand so that the dog’s eating pace is controlled
by the owner. This will make the Affenpinscher realize that
whether he eats fast or slow, he still needs to wait for his
master.
2. Taking the food to various areas in the house.
Bringing the food to different places around the house can create
a lot of mess and the cleaning of such can seriously take up
much of the owner’s precious time. If some places are missed
or remained unclean, these can become breeding grounds for harmful
organisms that can make your Jack Russell Terrier sick.
What the owner can do
- Find out the places where the dog carries the food so that
his reasons for taking the food there can be figured out.
- If your Jack Russell Terrier brings his food to wherever the
owner goes, your Jack Russell simply wants to eat with his master.
Thus, the owner must accept the imminent fact that the dog will
always eat with him
3. Eating too frequently.
Snacking too often may or may not be a problem for your Jack
Russell. For dogs that have no weight problems, that is, they
can eat as much as they want without suffering obesity, snacking
all day is fine as long as the owner’s pockets don’t suffer
much. But some dogs become prone to obesity and other related
diseases when they snack all day.
What the owner can do
- Restrict his access to his food
- Set specific times for giving his food.
- Limit the duration of his eating time. That is, give him the
food dish at a certain time, wait for thirty minutes, and then
take the food dish away.
4. Snubbing the food.
The commonly assumed reason why a dog refuses to it is that
he is not hungry. But this is not always the case. An Affenpinscher
who keeps on snubbing his food will eventually become weak and
sickly.
