While I love the extra hour of sleep on the morning of Daylight Savings, by early evening when it’s already dark, I can barely keep my eyes open. My cat has BIG feelings about being fed based on the sun. As dusk falls, he starts his dinner campaign whenever someone passes the kitchen. My dog is much more flexible about her dinner time. 

If your pet is likely to start pestering you in late afternoon as the sun sets, now is the time to start adjusting routines. 

Start by moving feeding times back 15 minutes or so. To split the hour adjustment difference, you will ultimately want to adjust breakfast and dinner feeding times by 30 minutes each. 

Practice some manners and trick training within that 15 minute block of moving feeding times back. I’m offering a four-night-a-week training class called Brainiacs in November. This would be a great working dinner for your dog! 

Does your dog or cat pace like a caged tiger before dinner? Replace the pace by teaching your pets to sit or lay on certain mats or in their crates as a way to ask for dinner.

Another habit that may help is shutting the curtains or pulling the blinds before dusk and turning lights on. This may distract your pets from the setting sun which sets off their hunger panic alarms. 

Start practicing these new routines now, so you and your pets will be comfortable with them by the time we turn the clocks back an hour. Hopefully these tips will help you reinforce wanted behavior and avoid the feed me now freakouts.