DogPause Bowls

Buddy and Samaritan like to eat! Anything and everything, whether their own food or another's. So mealtimes have long gone something like this:

Jan sets a bowl down in front of Buddy and says, "Wait!" He lies down with his nose hovering directly over the food. She does the same with Samaritan and he lies down in front of his bowl. She repeats the same steps with Merci and Merci stands there looking at Jan, as if to say, Who me? She does this twice a day. She doesn't ever seem to believe Jan expects her to follow a command.

When Merci finally obeys, Jan says, "Okay" and they all stand up. Buddy scoops his food into his mouth as fast as he can. He did finally learn to chew a few pieces on occasion. If Jan isn't fully alert, he finishes his food and races to shove Samaritan's nose out of his bowl. Samaritan, still hungry, crosses the room and takes over Merci's meal. Merci retires under the couch.

Jan used to set Buddy's bowl on a round cat scratching post and toss 3 little rocks in with his food (she washed the rocks daily) to try to slow him down and save him from indigestion - or worse! He couldn't scoop with the rocks but they had little effect on his speed. Samaritan and Merci learned to eat faster.

Then Jan read about the DogPause bowl. She watched the video. Buddy makes Hank look like a slow eater! Would one of those bowls actually help slow Buddy down, for his own sake as well as Samaritan's and Merci's?

Have I got a test subject for you! she thought. And she contacted the company.

Last week JFF received a package.

What? You guys sniffed my Fresh Step litter when it arrived. Turnabout is only fair.


Dinner is measured and ready to be served.


Waiting for the it's okay to eat signal.


Mmmmm. It tastes the same.


Hey, I need a bigger bowl. Or a smaller nose.


Oops. Merci gets the smallest portion. Guess we should have taken her picture first.

Jan loves these bowls. Buddy still finishes first but he is eating at a healthier pace. That should be the end of it, right?

Well, Samaritan has suddenly slowed to a crawl. Jan returned to feeding him out of his old bowl for a couple of days, thinking his nose must be too wide to eat properly. But his nose is fine. He's just resumed his old habit of enjoying his food while Jan keeps Buddy at bay.

And Merci? Well, Jan is ready to tie her to a table leg for meals. She has resumed her old habit of standing in the living room and looking into the kitchen. When she finally lies down and Jan says "okay," she meanders in, carefully selects one morsel of food and waltzes back to the living room, out of sight. She will repeat this at least once more per meal before she stays and eats from one pocket at a time while Jan holds off the other dogs.

3 dogs of diverse sizes and appetites does not make for smooth mealtimes. But Jan really likes these DogPause bowls. Her biggest mealtime concern has been Buddy inhaling his own food and causing the other two to gobble their meals. These new bowls seem to be helping them to enjoy eating at their own pace.

We - Buddy, Samaritan and Merci - give these new bowls four (4) thumbs up. Um, we mean four (4) paws up.

You can read about how this bowl was invented here and/or see the video of Hank, the slower than Buddy eater here.