by Anthony Megna

Created on: March 16, 2010   Last Updated: February 03, 2012

The common misconception is that dogs are always hungry.  Put a plate of food in front of a dog, and before you know it, it's gone!  But from personal experience, after owning dogs most of my life, I know this isn't true.

Dogs are individual creatures with their own personal traits, just like human beings.  Most dogs will give you a sign of a certain sort of repetitive behavior that will let you know if they're hungry or not.  My dog usually will go out on to the porch and then stare back at me and my wife to let me know that he is hungry.  This behavior is bizarre, but that is what he does.  For some reason, he prefers to eat out on the porch.  Maybe he's like us in the sense that food always seems to taste better when eaten outside!

Of course, dogs have their personal favorite foods as well.  And most dogs will eat and eat and eat the foods that they really love, no matter how full they are.  At this point you have to step in and moderate how much you give them.  For instance, my dog absolutely loves chicken, and he will drop whatever he is doing to try to get some.  But he can't live on chicken alone as he needs roughage in his diet, so what to do?

Since my dog loves chicken, we will mix his dry food that he needs, the food that is loaded with all the vitamins and minerals, with some of his favorite food such as chicken.  Just cut up the chicken in the size that he prefers and mix it up with his dry food.  We also like to add some chicken or beef stock to his food because he really has a taste for it.  The importance of his dry food can not be overstated as this will produce the healthy stools necessary.

There are times when dogs just aren't hungry, no matter what you give them.  My own personal belief about this involves instinct.  For thousands of years before dogs were domesticated, they had to live by their wits by hunting.  And any hunter has dry periods, as sometimes game wasn't plentiful.  So dogs had to adapt, and even today wild dogs go days and days without eating anything.  When they finally secure their kill, they tend to gorge as much as they can as they never know when they are going to get their next meal.  Also, dogs like to bury their food, especially bones.  This is the rainy day theory, for when the hunt is scarce at least they have something to eat for those periods.  Think about this theory as it makes a lot of sense.

So don't despair if your dog sometimes skips his meals.  Usually there is nothing wrong with your dog, he isn't sick, he just isn't hungry!  But if you pay attention to your dog's signals, he will let you know soon enough when he wants to eat.

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