Honestly, it’s life changing is a regular series where we talk about the weird and wonderful possessions we can’t imagine life without. Think of it as an ode to the mundane, bizarre and, sometimes, wholly unnecessary products in our lives.
My dog, Bertie, is the cutest dog alive (every dog person believes that about their hound – and they are all correct). He is also, bless him, a chronic gobbler.
When we first adopted Bertie from Battersea Dogs’ Home, he would scoff his food heartily, then promptly vomit it all back up again. He has thrown up passionately all over me several times — and I still think he’s the greatest living creature on this planet. But, we had to do something to slow down his eating.
Bertie learned to gobble because he grew up in a house where he had to fight for his meals. He and two other puppies were rescued from a hoarder, turning up at the dog shelter with skin infections, missing teeth and empty tummies. Bertie had clearly learned that if he didn’t gobble, he didn’t eat.
We did some Googling and discovered the world’s cleverest dog bowl: the K9 Pursuits 2-in-1 Anti Gobble Dog Slow Feeder and Interactive Game — a turquoise and yellow puzzle dogs must solve before they can eat.
This plastic contraption is so ingeniously designed it taught my sweet little dumpling of a dog to slow down, to chew, swallow and digest at an appropriate rate.
We scoop Bert’s serving of dry food into this bowl and he must use his snout, his paws and his cunning to retrieve the little nuggets from it. Bert positions his chunky, beautiful little face at just the right angle to access the food laid out in the maze. I must tell you, it’s stupidly cute.
Some of his food is hidden underneath plastic lids, which he has to jostle along with his nose. He’s not the smartest dog you’ll ever meet, but he’s clever enough to know how to get the remainder of his delicious meal.
These days, Bert is a perfectly reasonable eater. He no longer gobbles. He no longer has his customary post-gobble vom. He chomps down on breakfast and dinner at a healthy, leisurely speed and is a much happier little mutt as a result.
This cheeky plastic puzzle bowl is the best £10 I’ve ever spent on my dog. And I have purchased him three bow ties, a rain coat and a ball that looks like it’s made of nipples, so that’s really saying something.
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