Hi ,dogo mama’s and papa’s ! I bet you have dropped here after observing your puppy eating his food excitedly and jumping off happily.
It might even be the same kind of food, yet his reaction is surprising daily. For a few seconds, you might wonder if it is honestly excitement or over-excitement that you observe, isn’t it?
Puppies are so excited to eat due to hunger, change in environment, stress, separation anxiety, diabetes, and hyperthyroidism. When you offer food to the dog, do it slowly, as the slow gestures can reduce excitement. Positive reinforcement and slow-feed dog bowls also can mitigate this condition.
So, let’s check out why puppies are so excited to eat in depth.
Why are puppies so excited to eat?
Puppies can be the most adorable creatures in the whole wide world when they are excited about something. They jump over here in excitement and with a joyful heart. Yet, this kind of excitement may have several reasons too.
1. “Just give me that, dude! I am hungry.”
Have you ever noticed the happiness on your kid’s face when you prepare a meal for that little one? When the meal is given to the hungry little one, the joy in that face cannot be expressed by words, isn’t it?
Just as that, your adorable fur creature has come to you to satiate his hunger! So once you get the hands-on food, he knows that his time has come! So, why not be excited! The puppy is over-joyed and dancing within his heart!
2. “I am feeling weird here.”
Your puppy is a little kid still. Changing the environment would be slightly challenging for the puppy to adapt. Is it your puppy’s first time when your pooch was taken to a park and given meals?
Did you change your house and see his behavior change when you try to provide him with his meal? Or did you take him for a walk, and there were lots of other dogs while you gave the puppy his portion of delicious treats?
If the answer is yes, your puppy might be feeling a bit weird about any of these inquiries. As a result, he might get over-excited, struggling to get hold of himself. He might even be frustrated and aggressive apart from being over-excited at these moments.
3. Stress alone with separation anxiety.
Have you observed that your adorable little fur creature changes the mood when you are trying to go to work and then again noticed how excited he is when you are back? Maybe he is not even excited; perhaps he is honestly overly happy to see you!
Being “overly excited” can even be related to separation anxiety. Separation anxiety can cause by the separation of a loved one during a circumstance. It is a severe case as it might solely change your puppy’s behavior.
If you do not address the matter early, it will affect your puppy’s mental health.
Few symptoms apart from over-thinking include,
- Barking and growling aggressively
- Urination and defecation
- Salivating, drooling than usual
- Overeating or doesn’t eat at all
- Whining excessively
- Trying to isolate
A puppy might do these once in a blue moon. Still, a puppy with separation anxiety would show these symptoms much more regularly.
4. Other related health issues.
Over excitement for food or over-motivation can also imply other health-related issues.
Hyperthyroidism.
Hyperthyroidism occurs when the thyroid glands release more hormones than the optimum level. This is considered to be a rare disease in pooches. Yet, this is a disease that needs much attention as it can cause thyroid cancer.
Other than over-excitement, your puppy might show the following symptoms,
- Loss of weight
- Over-eating
- Increased urination
- Nause
- Shortness of breath
- Facial swelling
- Increased thirst
Cushing’s disease.
This occurs when your puppy’s body produces too much cortisol over time. It is most commonly used by benign or malignant tumors in the mammary glands.
Rarely it can even be a tumor in the adrenal gland or might be even located in the kidney. Following are a few symptoms of Cushing disease,
- Increased appetite
- Loss of hair
- Weakness of muscle
- Urinating frequently
- Lethargic
- Enlarged abdomen
- Excessive thirst
Diabetes.
Yes, diabetes. Diabetes can make your puppy hungry most often, and due to this, whenever he sees food, he might be hyper-excited to see it. Basically, insulin production becomes deficient, so the production of glucose lowers.
Therefore, due to the “need for energy”, proteins and fats accumulated are broken down and used as an alternative energy source. As a result, appetite will increase. Other than hyper-excitement, below are a few symptoms of diabetes,
- Ravenous appetite ( Eating more, yet weight loss)
- Weight loss
- Urinating frequently
- Deterioration of the fur coat
- Sleepiness
- Lethargic
- Increased water consumption
5. “Just a happy pup.”
Now, this is the instance where you can adore your little fur creature without any tension in your mind! The yipes and jumping off for the food might not always be a problem.
Maybe your little puppy is just too happy to see his delicious meal, or perhaps it is his favorite food!
Suggested Reading: Why does your dog not eat all his food at once?
What can happen if your puppy is so excited to eat?
Directly answering this question, if your puppy begins to eat over-excitedly, he might continue this throughout his lifestyle. As a result, it may even lead to frustration and aggressive behavior.
Therefore, we must consciously focus on this and put our effort into observing what is wrong and acting accordingly.
What to do if your puppy is so excited to eat?
We can consider several remedies to minimize puppies’ “negative” hyper-excitement. Let’s check on a few of them.
1. “Be slow. “
Now, what does it mean to be slow? When feeding your puppy, make sure that you “be slow” instead of fast. While providing food for your puppy, the hand gestures should be slow.
Move your hand slowly to reduce the excitement of your pup toward food. The faster your hand gestures are, the puppy can be more excited to grab that off your hand.
2. “It’s a rewarding time.”
Let’s see how rewarding can help the process. Specifically, we can call this the method of “positive reinforcement”. It can be defined as rewarding to gain favorable behavior as the outcome.
Even though this word might not be familiar to some of the new dog parents, I am sure you have used it in the long run of raining your pup or doggy.
First off, get to know your pooches favorite meal, maybe even his favorite toy to play with, or any other dog treats like kong toys or chewable toys.
Each time or maybe with a scheduled time, give him the treat when he doesn’t get over-excited when getting his food. You might not be able to do these every day.
So just keep in mind that our puppies are not into materialistic stuff, which means praising them and a head-pat filled with love would do as well. He will be able to minimize his hyper-excitement, and his heart will be filled with joy!
So, why not give him to try this out!
3. Adhering to the health issues.
Stress alone with separation anxiety(for mild cases)
To minimize separation anxiety, the same positive reinforcement method can be used. Moreover, when you are leaving, try to keep a used cloth of yours with your pup, which you will not be using again!
You can make a safe place for your pup while he is alone, and most of all, you can use web cameras so that it will imply to your pup that you are there for him no matter what it is!
“Veterinarian in need.”
If separation anxiety is pretty severe, it is better to get hold of a veterinarian!
Moreover, treating the disease I have mentioned above, diabetes, Cushing’s disease, and hyperthyroidism, should be definitely checked upon by a specialist, as it can be disastrous during the growth of the little one. So, better early than ever!
Things to be aware of.
Let’s check on what you need to be vigilant about.
1. “No punishment”
A mistake made during training or any other reason for a puppy to be excited is not a reason to be punished. You can never train a little puppy by screaming your throat out or slamming him.
This way, you will make your puppy traumatized or affect its growth forever!
2. “Be slow”
As I have emphasized earlier, it is vital to be kind of slow during the training process of feeding. If it becomes otherwise, your pup might get over-excited about other things and even can lead to aggressive and frustrating behavior.
Conclusion.
I hope that you were able to enhance your knowledge of why your puppies are over-excited and remedies to overcome them, and so on.
Just stay connected to us to know more about your ever-loving fur creatures!
