aDorkable: But Misha has food available to him all day (assuming he doesn't eat it all in the morning), would that make a difference? So he could eat just a little bit when he felt like it. Also, it's not uncommon for Misha to go a day or so without eating all of his food.
Could be, but it sounds like you give him his portion in the morning (ie, you give a finite, measured amount)? To me that's different than true free-feeding, where you fill the bowl whenever it's full and pay no regard to portions, which I think is a lot worse for the dog. Sometimes Kenya will do the same thing, only eat half her food. I take it away so Coke doesn't eat it but offer it to her later, or leave it with her in the morning. Lately though, both dogs have been eating all their food at dinner time. If for some reason they don't and then I leave it with them in the morning and still find it there when I get home, then I know I'm feeding them too much.
Bloat is mainly a risk for deep-chested dogs like GSDs and Great Danes but I think any dog can get it. In GSDs, there does not seem to be correlation between how daily rations are broken into meals, but rather if the dog was exercising too soon before or after eating or what food the dog ate. To prevent bloat, I've been told that dogs should not do a lot of running or hard exercise two hours before and after they eat, they should not be scarfing their food and eating too much too fast (my dogs are not scarfers, if your dog is by all means use more meals), they shouldn't be drinking excessively around meal time (often adding lots of moisture right away to a kibble diet can bring on bloat), elevated feeders should be avoided unless the dog has a medical reason for needing one, and you should not add moist or liquid toppers to certain kibbles with citric acid (Nature's Variety Prairie, for example). To be safe, most vets will recommend feeding 2-3 times a day as a general rule, that way you avoid scarfing too much too soon.