So ... Jax is almost a year old, and he’s always had a habit of playing with his kibble. I free feed the kibble, because he’s small (about four and a half pounds) and not food-motivated or even particularly food-interested unless he’s hungry. But when he is hungry, he has great fun pawing his kibble out of his dish, batting it around (like a cat
) and then pouncing on it to eat it. Except recently, he has been pawing the food out as soon as I fill his dish, and then leaving it all over the floor because he isn’t hungry yet.
Recently, he’s also decided it’s also fun to paw water out of his water dish. Not just a little water — all of his water. He gets wet, the floor gets wet, all his toys (which for some mysterious reason he gathers around the water dish for “swim time”) get wet. Oh, and if I haven’t swept up the kibble he’s pawed out of the other dish, that gets wet too.
I think I can minimize the kibble play by not feeding as much and by not leaving it down all the time, but I don’t really like the idea of taking away his water. On the other hand, it’s not really good for him to get wet and then chilled in the air conditioning, and I don’t like having puddles of water on the floor, which might cause people to slip and fall.
What to do?