Keeping little one away from dog food?

GavinIsMyBabyBear · August 2013

My sweet boy has become obsessed with the dog food and water bowls. We don't have a place that we can put them where he can't get them but the dog can. We try to feed the dog while LO is in his high chair eating but she still leaves food in her bowl and she always has water down. If anyone else dealt with this problem how did you deal with it? Is it just a phase and eventually the dog bowls won't be the coolest thing in the house?

meglette417 · August 2013

We have ours in our bedroom now which is a pain but we deal. He eats at dinner time, we put it down again when we sleep otherwise it is on the dresser. He follows us around when he is thirsty or through parts of the day I just giving him some.

Rhonda6754 · August 2013

We have the same problem and nothing has seemed to work. We have tried the "no no" and redirection around 1,000 times but it doesn't seem to work at all. Especially with a big bowl of water - oh my. My twins can't help themselves one bit. Now one of my girls has learned she shouldn't eat the dog food (most of the time) but will either throw the dog food around one by one or bring me the bowl of dog food. I've resorted to keeping the water and food up unless it's nap time or after their bedtime.

I feel awful for the dog.

allardr · August 2013

Oh we faced this for awhile. LO loved to tip the water over and eat the food. A lot of redirecting but it never worked. However now it's cooling down here so I have the back door open a lot (its right next to the food bowls) and she much prefers to look out the screen door so she picks taht over the dog food lately thank god. Come winter and teh door shut though I'm afraid we'll face the issue again.

starberrylynn · August 2013

we have the bowls outside because our dog stays outside. But my son is very curious and had to be stopped a couple of times, but it was pretty easy once I thought up this gem- let HIM feed and water the dog. It might make a mess but at least he feels like he's doing something fun, he gets to touch those AMAZING bowls lol and then when he is done he giggles and claps while the dog eats haha. I've learned that, at least with my son, if I get him involved in the process- he WANTS to do the right thing and eventually he begins to understand how the household works. This also worked when we couldn't get him out of say the bathroom, or master bedroom without him throwing a fit- now we let HIM turn out the light and shut the door. He stopped throwing his food once we gave him the responsibility of "clearing the table" and putting his dishes away- things will be messy and take a little longer to get done, but you will have a much less stressfull time, you will find yourself saying "no" less and less often and you will be so proud of your sweet little helper. I hope that helps!

aeh72 · August 2013

DS is obsessed with the dog bowls too. We keep them up on the counter when our dog isn't eating or put the water dish on the deck. I feel bad that our dog doesn't have her water whenever she wants it but she is good about barking for it. When she eats, DS has always either in his pack n play or highchair but we've recently started experimenting with letting him stand a couple feet away from her when she's eating. He loves watching her eat so I'm trying to see if we can teach him that the bowls are for Scoutie and we don't bother her when she's eating. We stand next to him because I am still nervous that he'll try to put his hand in her bowl and she would snap at him. I will probably not leave the water dish out unattended any time soon - he's way too interested in water and will try to play with it and make a mess and risk slipping on the spilled water, which he's done a couple times. Not fun.

What's funny, though, is that when we have left them on the floor by accident, DS always stops and points and says "oh no," because he's knows they aren't supposed to be there. I hope that means it's starting to sink in that they are not for playing with. Fingers crossed.