Table manners

When someone is appalled by my puppies' table manners and asks, "Were they raised in a barn?", I can answer "Yes, and they were taught to eat out of a trough," which they did for the first time today.

It was one of my better ideas when Della had her 12 pups. I went to Lowe's and bought a section of aluminum gutter and secured it against the fence, at ground level in the beginning and then raised it up as the puppies grew taller. I got a new one this past weekend and installed it today and put it to use.

I had been using three round puppy feeders and they had outgrown them. They all tend to crowd around one or two of them; they scramble for the food, crawling over each other in the process. A lot of the food ends up on the ground. With the trough, they can spread out and there's room for everyone, no scrambling required, although it's a habit that they don't give up immediately. 

There is a bit of a learning curve in use of the feeding trough. At first they continue to climb all over each other and climb into the trough as well. But I'm confident they will get the hang of it and mealtimes will be slightly more civilized as a result, eventually, but not today.

Today was another beautiful day. The pups had two sets of visitors and enjoyed the outdoor space in the warm afternoon sun.

At first they all clustered together like they do around the feeding bowls.

Eventually they spread out a little, 

partly on their own, partly with a little relocation assistance from me.

Laying in the feeding trough was common, although I tried to discourage it.

When Allison came in to visit the pups today, she didn't want to feed them at all.

She laid down in such as way as to deny all access. That worked for a while, but she 

then relented a bit and stood up to let them nurse, but only for a very short time.

I put this together using three raised bed arranged with one end off the ground.

It makes a nice puppy sized cave-like space underneath, and a three ramp climbing surface above.