Every dog owner has surely experienced this at least once. We place a bowl of food in front of our four-legged friend, and before we can clean the bag of kibble in the pantry, the bowl is empty. We might even wonder if we really put food on a plate. It is not good, the dog can face big problems.
Some dogs throw themselves at the pellets and other food in the bowl with such vigor that they basically don’t even bite them and just swallow everything whole. For us humans, it may be the sight of a grateful diner, but for the dog’s health, this swallowing poses a serious risk, which we must neither underestimate nor forget to prevent the dog from doing.
Does your dog also have such a supply of toys? How to make them at home, the YouTube video in the Mazlíci M. channel advises:
It’s no fun
What can happen? Not only does unpleasant bloating and subsequent vomiting occur, but larger breeds are also at risk of a life-threatening condition. It is nothing less than a phenomenon known as torsion or twisting of the stomach. If your dog is one of these “competitors”, this is no reason to run to the store for expensive anti-swallow bowls with a maze. Just search the toy basket and pull out one ordinary tennis shoe to begin with.
The dog swallows a lot of air
The problem with rapid feeding is not just swallowing whole pellets. When the dog swallows, it also takes in a large amount of air with each bite. This then accumulates in the stomach, causing painful pressure and can lead to dangerous distension of this important organ. In addition, consuming food quickly does not give the body enough time for the brain to send a satiety signal. We know this from our own experience – if we eat lunch during a short lunch break, the stomach is full, but the feeling of hunger does not quite disappear.
Find a sneaker…
What about that? The tennis ball solution is brilliantly simple and also suitable for most dogs. It is enough to place a clean tennis shoe (or another ball corresponding to the size of the mouth) in the middle of the bowl with granules, which will create a natural and harmless obstacle for our furry friend. The dog can’t pick it up so easily that it sends them further into the stomach in one swallow. Instead, he has to move the ball from place to place with his snout in order to even get to the pellets underneath.
For digestion and for the brain
This simple extra trick it turns feeding into a little mental challengewhich will exercise the dog’s brain. The animal is forced to slow down, take smaller bites and also use a little patience when moving the ball. By extending the feeding time from seconds to minutes, we give the animal’s digestive tract a chance to start breaking down the food much better. The ball in a bowl works as a cheap but perfectly adequate alternative to anti-swallow bowls. The only important thing is to ensure that it is ball suitable and big enoughso that the dog cannot accidentally swallow it or chew it in the heat of the fight for the last kibble.
For almost every dog
We have stated that this method is suitable for almost all dogs. We will not lie to ourselves that it is applicable to all home security guards, because there are those who cannot be fooled by such a trick. They simply take the tennis shoe in their mouth, remove it from the bowl – and relish their dinner in a few seconds. But believe it most animals don’t even think about it and the ball in the bowl will even become a welcome distraction for them in the sometimes boring days.
