My new girl eats waaaay too fast. I have raised stainless steel bowls so the height is perfect for her but she still gulps so much air that her stomach sounds awful for the rest of the day (insanely loud gurgling from all the air in her stomach, she has perfect poops so it's not diarrhea so i figure it must be the air she gulps from eatin). My male also eats fast and you can hear his tummy gurgle if you put your ear up to it but you can hear her stomach from across the room practically. So I know this is very bad and can cause bloat so how can I get her to slow down? I've heard the brick suggestion but I don't think that would fit in her bowl - also, I would like to keep using my same stainless steel bowls, I know there are commercial plastic ones that are designed to fix this problem but I think stainless steel is much easier to wash and far more sanitary so if there's something effective I can put in her current bowl, that would be great. She has 3 quart bowls - standard large dog bowls.

She also drinks funny - she sounds like she's gulping air as she drinks and it sounds very awkward, unlike my male who just laps up water, she makes laping and gulping sounds with every lap - don't know if there's anything I can do about water though...

put some tennis balls in her bowl so she has to eat around them.

I think someone once posted about putting a can in the bowl...like a filled, unopened can of beans/corn/whatever...

When we were feeding kibble, I placed 3 lacrosse (hard rubber balls maybe a little larger than a tennis ball) in the bowl and Dante would have to eat around them. I could also put them in the dishwasher and keep them clean. It did slow him down.

Try putting water in the food.

Are you moistening the kibble? If not, take about 1/4 cup of HOT chicken broth or just plain water, mix it around so it becomes a gravy, NOT SOUP! DO NOT DRAIN! If you drain, you are draining the vitamins etc. (Same with nuking, you can nuke wet food, never kibble, FYI)

By wetting, it takes a bit longer to inhale!

You could take a smaller glass bowl and invert it in the center and put the kibble around it (same principle as the tennis balls but maybe a little easier to keep clean.)

I use hard rubber balls I can wash. She'll learn how to eat around them eventually though... I have a stainless steel bowl with a raised area in the center that works pretty well, so trying the can or bowl in the center sounds like a good idea. Don't add too much water to the kibble - I was adding a lot because it slowed her down, but it was also making her burp up her food immediately after eating too.

you can use unopened cans of soup or veggies on top of kibble, or a large rock she'll have to eat around. Adding water helps a bit- some people feed out of muffin tins with a bit of kibble in each muffin hole. I like feeding them out of a kong or similar food hiding toy so that they have to work for their food. It allows them to use their senses and "hunting" skills and I think it helps stimulate their minds. When the weather is nice, I toss the kibble into the yard and they hunt for it in the grass for a good 20 minutes or more- great trick to keep their little minds active!

As for the gulping water- I think that's just a cute personality quirk Is there anything wrong with her tongue? I had a foster who was quite loud when drinking but he was missing a large portion of his tongue- poor guy!

This is what I do with Roscoe. He ate so fast it would get stuck in his throat and he would snarf it up. So now I add a little water and a tablespoon of pumpkin or yougurt and mix it up so it all gets wet, let it sit for a minute, mix it again and then feed him. After mixing and absorbing, theres just a little 'gravy' at the bottom of the bowl. He doesn't choke anymore and it seems he's slowed down a bit.

I also started telling him "Eat it slow!" and sometimes I stand next to him and 'monitor' his eating. I'll touch his back and say "slow down" and he'll lift his head and chew... repeat. I don't know if that did anything, but he's much better. Now he often take little breaks from eating.

Maybe you could find something alone the lines of this in a larger size
http://cgi.ebay.com/Brake-Fast-Bowl-DOG-fo...1QQcmdZViewItem

We mix the kibbles with water, yogurt, wet dog food, or cottage cheese ( one of the above). It slows the hounds down because they lick and pick up the added "snack". Before doing this, my hounds sometimes woke up at night and started puking

However, I will suggest you to also put a kong toy in the bowl. I have left cups/ balls...but kong is the most effective one.

We use an upside down cereal bowl. She has only been home for less then two weeks now and her first few meals she was gulping it down way to fast then throwing it up. We started feeding her first cup by hand a few pieces at a time and then giving her, her pumpkin and the remaining kibble and that pretty much worked until we were given the bowl idea from a co-worker.

Now we put the bowl upside down in the food dish, put the kibble all around it and then a couple teaspoons of plain yogurt (had helped a lot with her gas) on top of the bowl. Usually we also put some pumpkin and veggies on top of the kibble as well. Not sure what she likes more, the yogurt or the pumpkin but I know she loves both of them and the bowls are both licked clean before she is done.

thanks! i'll try a kong since we happen to have one lying around that no one likes to play with and work my way down the list of suggestions if that doesn't help. and there's nothing wrong with her tongue (it's perfectly whole and works great for kisses )- i guess she's just a strange drinker.

Try using a muffin tin. I mix a little yogurt and a small amount of water with the kibble in the morning and a little canned food with the kibble in the evening. Distribute among the six little muffin bowls. It really slows Emmet down. One thing I discovered--if I put special additions (like blueberries, which he loves) into his food, he is more likely to gobble and gack.