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Feeding Categories

Staff reference for bowl types, meal timing, and the label color codes used at both campuses.

Purpose

This covers the feeding categories we use to keep every dog's meal correct, on time, and matched to their instructions. It matters because a mixed-up bowl, a missed special diet, or a meal fed at the wrong time is a mistake the label system is built to prevent, as long as it gets read carefully.

At a Glance

  • Bowl type: metal bowl (dogs who tear up paper bowls), slow feeder (fast eaters), raised bowl (taller dogs), each noted on the feeding label.
  • Camp dogs (Training Camp, Behavior Camp, Aggression Camp): their food is used in training sessions and placed in the designated Meal Prep Table area.
  • Holiday Camp (one session only): fed with the other boarding dogs first thing in the morning.
  • All Day Play dogs: fed first thing in the morning to allow digestion time before play; check the All Day Play tab on the Training Board.
  • Meal-time colors: AM meals get a yellow highlighter, noon meals get pink or an "N", PM meals get blue at Shea or that day's coordination color at Cave Creek.
  • Day-of-week colors, Cave Creek only: Monday pink, Tuesday purple, Wednesday blue, Thursday green, Friday yellow, Saturday red, Sunday black.
  • Meds: bowls kept aside, fed alongside medication, marked on the label.
  • SD (Special Diet): food from home only. HF (House Food): our food, never food from home.
  • Feed By Hand: certain dogs are hand fed for training or digestion reasons.

Steps

  1. The office prints all labels at the end of each day; add them to the bowls the night before feeding.
  2. The opening ACT begins filling bowls the next morning according to what each label says.
  3. Read every label carefully before filling or feeding, since instructions can change day to day.
  4. Noon meals are filled by an ACT during lunchtime and fed by 12 PM.
  5. PM meals are filled by an ACT in the afternoon and fed by 3:30 PM.
  6. Check the All Day Play tab on the Training Board each morning for which dogs feed early.
  7. Match bowl type and feeding style to what the label says, not to habit or memory. See Daily Medications for how a med-bowl label ties into the medication schedule.

Edge Cases

  • A label doesn't match what you remember about a dog: trust the label, it reflects the most current instructions. If something still looks wrong, ask before feeding.
  • A dog's food doesn't match SD or HF as expected: don't improvise, confirm with a manager or the office before feeding.
  • You can't find the color coding for a day at Cave Creek: check with the office rather than guessing which highlighter applies.

Where do I log this when a label looks wrong or is missing?

Flag it with the office or a manager before you fill or feed that bowl. The label system only works if a wrong or missing label gets caught and fixed at the source, not worked around at the bowl. See Labeling Bowls for the reporting rule this connects to.

Who to Ask

The office prints and marks every label, so they're the first stop for anything printed wrong, missing, or unclear. If the color-coding or category rules on this page ever look out of date compared to what you're seeing on an actual label, check with the office before relying on this page over the label in front of you. See Meal Preparations for the general prep rules these categories feed into.