Do Dogs recognize their own food bowl?

Good afternoon fellow Corgi owners.

I dunno if i'm feeding enough food to the Puppy, so I decided to buy another food bowl for him, a larger size.

I feed him 1 cup in the morning (if he'll eat it in morning), and 1 cup in the evening (he'll eat everything at night).

His original food bowl is a brown 16oz bowl. the second one i bought was a gray 32oz bowl. He will ONLY eat out of the gray bowl when he's REALLY hungry or there is the soft can puppy food (he seems to LOVE THAT SOFT STUFF).

my question is, do dogs know WHICH bowl is their own? Or they don't really care which bowl they eat from??

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Permalink Reply by Yuki & Ellie on February 20, 2013 at 1:55pm

Are the bowls made out of the same material (i.e. both ceramic, steel, plastic, etc.?) Are they the same depth? Does it have an obvious "new" smell to it? My first thought would be that it's a size that is awkward for him to eat from, has a sound he doesn't like, or has a strong smell (plastic bowl?) that he doesn't like. Aside from that, it's probably just a personality quirk. :) All dogs are different and some have very specific preferences for certain things. For example, Yuki will only sleep in his puppy bed unless he's really cold and has no other choice. It seems he feels that all other beds are inferior to that first bed of his. And Ellie won't sleep in that same bed unless she is allowed to first remove the fleece cushion that sits in it.

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Permalink Reply by Momo Taro Lundgren & Mommy pk on February 20, 2013 at 2:10pm

Momo is still a "puppy - 6months old" so i was hoping he wouldn't be TOO picky yet.

The bowls are BOTH plastic. His brown bowl is a regualr dog food bowl, the other is a gray, deep dish TEAR drop shape bowl, very different in looks.

I just want to make sure he has enough to eat. Tho... i'm not SURE how much is good for him or too much. The vet said he looks healthy and seems to be of perfect shape (and i should just continue doing what i'm doing now).

tho at 6 months, he's only 18/19 pounds or so i'm not sure if that is normal for corgis at his age. (i've read around internet that it's supposed to be 1 pound each week until he's 8-9 months old or regulate around 25-30 pounds )

i'm feeding him one cup (water down kibbles) each feeding period (2x a day). Tho he much rather eat his food at night and only picks his morning food if he's not so hungry (which then i take it away from him after he walks away from his food bowl -- to go play or scout out toys-- and i toss the food out)

I just don't want to end up being a bad puppy mom and keep my puppy on the small side or malnutrition cuz i wasn't well informed. I want a happy healthy puppy/full dog.

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Permalink Reply by Yuki & Ellie on February 20, 2013 at 3:02pm

I wouldn't worry too much about it, in that case. :) As long as he's not losing weight and looking obviously too skinny/unhealthy, then he's probably getting what he needs. Each dog will be different, too! While there is the "norm" for what an average corgi should weigh, there are obviously those that don't fit into that. Ellie is small for a corgi and, at nearly 2 years old, is only 21 lbs. She's very healthy and has never been able to eat 2 cups of kibble per day. If I try to feed her 1 cup during a single feeding, she'll eat around half of it and leave the rest because she is already full.

I would very much recommend going by how he looks and feels rather than how many cups of kibble he is eating, unless you notice it drop really low.

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Permalink Reply by Heather & Ellie on February 20, 2013 at 2:59pm

I originally had a larger bowl for Ellie, but she wouldn't eat out of it. Her tags clicked against the rim and scared her. I bought her a smaller bowl, and even though her food is almost overflowing, we have no problems with her eating out of it now.