Dog Whines Incessantly While Waiting to be Fed

Thank you all this is all very interesting to me. I'm intrigued at the idea of free-feeding her but I really do believe all kidding aside that she'd just eat non-stop if given the choice. When we first got her she would eat her food so fast that she'd throw it all up moments later (and try to eat it - sorry but it's the truth). She outgrew that fairly quickly luckily. She is however prone to obesity and while this hasn't been a problem in years, it got so bad at one point that our vet put her on an all vegetable diet.

The problem with preparing her food in another room is that we have a small house and she had sonar hearing []. I'd have to go to a neighbors house for her not to hear. We tried non-chalantly putting her in another room before making her bowl but she knew exactly what was up.
 
To answer some questions: she is fed 2x a day (morning and evening) and has had a steady diet of IAMS as per our most trusted vet's advice about the importance of consistency in a dog's diet.


Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  

I think free feeding is a terrible idea in general, and definitely in this case, JHMO.

What about hand feeding, or using all food to train? I have a friend with a completely food-obsessed rescue who stopped all feeding from a bowl and started having the dog work for all food, either out of a food ball or doing training. It gave the dog some focus and calm around food, because she had to do stuff to get it.

In general, I would say that it's much better to harness what's happening with the dog and use it to your advantage (food is a strong motivator? Great, all food is for training!) than it is to either give in (free feed) or resist. I would ignore all whining and make sure no more food ever, ever happens while whining, and feed her ration throughout the day in exchange for tricks and stuff.

My older dog does the same exact thing, although she jumps about 3 feet in the air while whining. Now we let her outside about 10 minutes before we feed her, prepare her food while she is outside. Then she comes in fine not even realizing it's time to eat and just finds the food in her room.
 
Kristie

[linkhttp://www.mordanna.com/dogfood/]http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood/[/link]
 
take a look here and educate yourself about dog nutrition. Your vet's advice is flat-out wrong, not surprising since vets learn nothing about nutrition in school.

Mudpuppy, that site has good information.....but, If someone's dog has issues with processing higher quality food then I say to them stick with what works.  My dog was on Nutro and couldn't process it, he is doing well on the Purina One.  Its a crap shoot when you change food.  Some dogs do better on the Junky food.....while others the high end works.  Another consideration for someone feeding their dog is the avaiability of brands of dog food.  Sometimes your stuck with lesser food because you cannot get the better food in your area.