Feeding utensils for your Dog

For the first few weeks, little equipment is necessary apart  from feeding and water bowls, some kind of bedding, and a few grooming aids. The  breeder will have detailed the sort of food the puppy is already eating, and a small stock can be laid in; a vast quantity can be a mistake when the puppy discovers there is no longer a need to dash to the trough.  He may have to be persuaded  before he adjusts  to the new regime.

A dog must have his own food and water bowls, which should  be kept apart from human  utensils, even to the extent of using different  washing-up bowls. Dogs are not unhygienic, but certain  disease conditions  (the zoonoses) can be passed from animals to man. Food and water bowls come in plastic, metal and heavy pottery. Large breeds have hearty appetites and need large bowls, and all types should  be capable of withstanding proper sterilization  by boiling; cheap plastic may warp into shapes unsuited  for fluids. Metal bowls often attract  the professional ‘chewer’, and plastic seems at times to hold fatal attractions; it has been known to disappear down the canine gullet, causing vomiting or uncomfortable impaction  at the other  end of the alimentary  system. 

Pottery bowls should  be heavy and slippery  so that  they  cannot  be picked  up and dropped; choose a shape  which cannot  be easily overturned.