Food Crazy?

[Vikingoo168]

I have a one year old GSP and currently feed him 2 cups of food twice a day totaling 4 cups daily. He is so food driven that he cannot focus on anything throughout the days except where to find more food. He also will drink a half gallon of water in one sitting if I left him to it. It is making it really hard to force fetch him because he always wants to eat the birds. He does well with bumpers and other FF objects and just when I think we are ready to move onto fetching/holding birds he looses his mind and goes into eat mode.

Am I feeding him the wrong amount? He is slim and muscular right now with his current feeding schedule and I am not entirely sure that giving him more food will solve the problem. I feel like he would try to eat a whole bag of food in one sitting if he had the chance. I want to see if anyone has any ideas on how to satisfy his hunger and help him focus on something else so I can work on having him fetch and hold birds...

Thanks!!

[ezzy333]

Give him an extra cup of feed for several days and se what it does instead of wondering. It does sound strange if he is in good shape.

[edb]

Sounds like you need to spend more time on the table with him. Make him hold the bird for extended periods. If he gets hard mouthed with it you need to make a hard correction. Spend several weeks on just hold then short tosses on table making corrections again if needed. He needs to learn that it isn't his lunch. Make sure you use fresh warm birds not frozen.

[mnaj_springer]

Do only skinny dogs eat birds? (The answer is no). Keep working on "hold" with the right manners/mouth habits.

[Brazosvalleyvizslas]

Eating birds is a discipline problem not a lack of food problem. You are already feeding twice as much as I give my high food driven dogs and I have never had one actually eat a bird. Just my opinion but feed for condition and train for field manners.