[Crowemerr2]

I have an eight month Cairn Terrior. The problem is whenever she eats she starts to bark. This has been very dangerous and her lips turned blue as she started choking on her food. I had to push it down with my finger. She has done this several times if she hears a noise. She does not bark excessively. She does when she is eating and that causes her to choke as she has food in her mouth. I am almost afraid to feed her now. I have tried hand feeding her but you can choke on one kibble of food. I have tried the soft food. The small food. Does anyone have any advice. I was thinking maybe I should try to train her not to bark ever as these dogs are good watch dogs. Right now I am feeding her during the night hours, hoping everything will be okay. Where there is less noise but you never know if a car will go by or some knock will happen. Thanks for reading this and any advice will be appreciated. She is a great dog. Just has this habit. I hope she outgrows it. I have plenty of food yet hate feeding time. I am afraid she will choke to death. Thank you.

Cathy

[labman]

Yes dogs do choke on kibble. Feeding the smaller sized one was a good idea. If not already, switching to a concentrated meat based product would be a good idea too. You want to stick to kibble. It is much better for their teeth and jaws. It also helps scrape of the tartar that leads to tooth decay and bad breath.

Do you think slowing her down would help? Labs are notorious for eating too rapidly. Two common techniques for them is spreading the food out on something like a cookie sheet, and putting large rocks in the food dish. Either way keeps the dog from large mouthful after another.