"Janet Boss" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote:
It's not like food where a dog's instinct is
to gorge itself on food when it's available.

You do realize that not all dogs will do that? There are dogs who will
graze or ignore a bowl of kibble, all day, every day. None of my
current dogs, but I did have a pup in the past who really didn't care
about eating.

As I have stated in the past, these two current dogs are the first ones that
I have *ever* not free-fed.

And since my past dogs were beagles and labs and coonhounds - all breeds
that are extremely food-oriented - and I am not the world's best dog
trainer - I think we can assume that there is more involved than simple dog
instinct.

I am perhaps fortunate that I never have encountered food aggressiveness but
food was always available in the dish (and not always kibble) and I never
had a dog who overate out of the dish. These same dogs would *always* take
a treat handed to them - even when the same food was in the dish.

The only aggressiveness I ever had to deal with was a mother/daughter pair
who ganged up on another daughter after she reached a non-puppy age. We had
to re-home her. True, they wouldn't let her eat but the food guarding
wasn't their issue.

Judy