Our dog has started barking at his morning food

January 28, 2013 6:46 PM

Our 8 year old Maltese dog eats twice a day: a main amount at 7:30AM and a smaller amount at 6:30PM. We recently got an automatic feeder so we don't get pawed awake in the morning. For the first few days it was fine, but now he barks at the feeder every morning when the food comes out. Once I go into the kitchen and nudge him near it, he stops barking and eats all his food. At night, with the same food and feeder, he doesn't have an issue. Any ideas?
posted by unionsquarepark to pets & animals (14 answers total)

Perhaps he likes the attention that comes along with the morning food, especially after a long night of no attention?
posted by two lights above the sea at 6:48 PM on January 28 [2 favorites]

Yeah. You're supposed to be the food bringer* and your dog wants it to stay that way.

I'd wager that in the evenings you're nearby, so your dog still connects you with the food the machine drops into his bowl.

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*Bringer of Food is a powerful position worthy of the greatest respect and admiration and I think it's a mistake to relinquish that to a machine. Maybe there's another way to correct the behavior you don't approve of? (But I'm not a dog behaviorist and that's not the question you asked.)
posted by notyou at 6:55 PM on January 28 [3 favorites]

maybe the novelty of the feeder has worn off and he wants to get back to his routine of you feeding him even if he has to bark to get you to now come in the kitchen. either that or he's just excitedly barking about the feeder.

my dog is a grazer so i just fill his bowl once a day and let him eat when he wants. maybe that would work for you or have it dispense the food at night when he can't get back in the kitchen to chow down and he'll have food in bowl ready to go in the AM. that might throw him off enough to not bark. or not. sorry, not sure how you can fix this other than bringing the bowl in the bedroom or nearby bathroom where it isn't so sleep disruptive.
posted by wildflower at 7:01 PM on January 28 [1 favorite]

Sorry to threadsit, but I should add more detail: my wife is pregnant and we're trying to avoid getting out of bed earlier than needed each morning because it's hard for her to get out of bed, and my getting out of bed wakes her up as well. That's why we got the feeder.
posted by unionsquarepark at 7:02 PM on January 28

Shot in the dark here but can you try putting the feeder in your bedroom? Maybe if it dispenses food near you he'll be more comfortable with it.
posted by Loto at 7:10 PM on January 28 [1 favorite]

What happens if you just ignore the barking? How long does he bark before scarfing?

It seems like there is a decent chance he'll stop barking at it if you ignore him rather than rewarding the behavior with your presence. I suggest keeping the bedroom door closed and investing in silicone earplugs and possibly a white noise generator (or a HEPA filter) in the interim.
posted by arnicae at 8:30 PM on January 28 [1 favorite]

I'm sorry, but the automatic feeder is such a bad idea. It really disrupts the dog/human relationship.

Your dog should not be hungry enough that he's waking you up early in the morning. He's waking you up because he wants attention or to pee or whatever. I don't feed my dog until after he's had his morning walk, and I think that's pretty normal.

When you say that you want to avoid getting out of bed earlier than necessary, what do you mean, exactly? I'm trying to be sympathetic here, but I'm a little confused by the specifics of your question. You walk your dog, right?

Assuming that you are a responsible pet owner who takes his dog on a morning walk, ignore the barking and your dog will get used to eating after going out for a walk. If you have a dog that tends to vomit on an empty stomach, give him a treat or two.
posted by ablazingsaddle at 8:34 PM on January 28 [2 favorites]

Is your dog asleep and then awoken by the feeder noise? My dog does weird stuff when he is sleepy, like thinking my laptop is trying to get him.
posted by dottiechang at 9:20 PM on January 28

He might think he's not allowed to eat it until you tell him to. Do you normally make him sit and wait while you put his bowl down on the ground then give him some kind of release command? Try yelling that from the bedroom.
posted by fshgrl at 10:23 PM on January 28

Maybe he doesn't like this weird noise while the rest of the "pack" is sleeping. So he warns you, just in case. What a good guard dog!
posted by sbutler at 10:43 PM on January 28 [6 favorites]

Yeah, I read it much the same a sbutler:

"Oh my god, food thinger, shut up, you'll wake up the people! MUM'S, LIKE, HAVING PUPPIES, SHOW SOME RESPECT!"
posted by Jilder at 1:34 AM on January 29 [4 favorites]

You give him his big meal in the morning - why not switch to the big meal being in the evening, and then a smaller meal at a later time in the morning?

That way he'll be fuller in the morning so he may sleep later, and by the time he needs breakfast you may be up anyway. And you wouldn't even need the auto-feeder.

I hacked my cat this way and it made a HUUUUUUGE difference - not in his behavior, but in how it fit. He still had the appetite of a damn Clydesdale horse, and he still nagged you for 2 solid hours before it was time to eat, but that 2 hours was a lot easier to deal with when it was 6-8 pm as opposed to being 6-8 am.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:17 AM on January 29 [4 favorites]

Try this: activate the feeder and pretend you are eating some of the food, completely ignoring him. Make yum-yum noises. Repeat a few times. Sometimes dogs want you to be the boss of stuff you used to be the boss of, and they are looking for you to give permission on a new thing.
posted by thinkpiece at 9:27 AM on January 31

Does he bark *before* the food comes out? He may have developed the "superstition" that he makes the food appear by barking. Some compulsive behavior in dogs can arise from coincidence like this -- e.g., one time he barked, and food appeared. If that's the case, it's pretty hard to break this habit without getting engaged. You'd have to be there at mealtime, manually placing food in the feeder's bowl, and when he starts barking discourage him and only allow him to eat when he is quiet. Then you would ease back to letting the feeder produce food while you stand over it to ensure that he's quiet when he gets access to it. Once he's quiet without your intervention you can begin to ease off, but stay nearby to catch any backsliding. Sorry there's not an easier answer here, but when dogs train themselves into behaviors like this, it takes a lot of patience to guide them out of it.

Alternatively, he could just be scared of the thing. His barking at it may be his way of drawing your attention to it so that you and he both confront it and you help make it safe for him to eat. He has to learn that despite the fact that the thing makes noise and has some internal movements, the thing doesn't have to be dominated into letting him eat the food. Shutting this behavior off is going to take some work. I have to say I agree with the previous poster who suggests going to a free-feed system, where he has food available to him all the time. That's what we do with our dog -- we just add food to his bowl whenever it's empty. I have never transitioned a dog to this system, though, so I can't give you personal advice, but a cursory Internet search turned up several stories about how to do this for dogs of varying ages and personalities.
posted by woot at 5:57 PM on January 31