This topic is one that must be discussed on a very deep level. Life is born to die. Life is finite; the food chain and food web are very real and harsh. Nature is not always kind. Natural selection, or Survival of the Species as described by Charles Darwin in Evolution of the Species, describes the real and natural subject of only the strong surviving. In nature only the strongest protector of the group is the one who eats first after a kill. The babies and elderly are the last to eat, as they are the weakest. This is nature and the reason that we are here today reading these words. Humans however, have a very different set of survival skills.
Think of your own family or a family you know. There may be a father, mother or two adults who co-parent. There may be a couple of kids, an elderly grandparent and a dog. We would feed our infants first and perhaps our elderly, followed by expectant mothers, adults, and then finally the strongest protector in the family. This would never occur in nature. Our strongest needs to eat first and remain strong because he or she is the provider and protector of the family. Again, nature is not always kind.
That brings us to the entire concept of when to feed your dog. Dogs need to understand on a very primal level, that humans, and this includes babies, toddlers and the elderly are all above and ahead of every dog. Animals in nature would eat according to the ranking of their family group. The strongest would eat first and the weakest would eat last. But there is much more to this.
We have all heard someone say, “You know what they say. You have to eat in front of your dog so that he sees you are eating first. Show him you’re the alpha.” Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Think of a pack of dogs in nature. Let’s say that there are twenty dogs ranging from newborn pups all the way up to very senior animals. There are a few strong, young “teenager” type males who would simply love to take over and put the dominant male, or alpha, out of commission and take over. Why in the world would the dominant male ever intentionally encourage his potential successors to come close and watch him eat? The foremost vulnerable times for all of us are eating, drinking, peeing and pooping. At all of those times we are either indisposed or in a vulnerable state. So are animals. Imagine a lion telling all the young males to come over and watch him eat first. As soon as the lion would begin to eat, he is now indisposed because he would have to chew and swallow whatever he was ripping in order to then protect himself. He would be so vulnerable to being attacked that he would never do that. Instead, he would do what many food aggressive resource guarders would do; he would actually chase away potential danger by growling, snarling or biting any animal in the vicinity of his food. He would protect the area and his food. If he couldn’t do that, he would attempt to drag the carcass or food up onto a tree branch or to the top of a hill where he could perch himself high above the other and watchfully eat his food without threat of attack. We need to remember that dogs understand their order based on what we teach them. So follow the rules of Hunt, Wait, Eat and then make sure that your dogs bowl and food has accumulated the smells of the whole family, to signify that others have already eaten and he is last in line.
