A good friend of mine with Goldens has a kind of a neat feeder. It's a length (not sure how long, perhaps 2 ft or so) of plastic eaves-trough with the cap type ends that you can buy for them on either end. I'm not sure if they used a glue or a caulking to seal it or not. The pups all just line up like a little trough. I think there's a little cradle underneath it at each end, to keep it from tipping over.
This idea is pretty good. I've thought about trough feeding and wondered why there isn't a feeder available like this for puppies. I've raised chickens and ducks this way but the feeders you get for them are galvanized, not good for puppies. With birds you raise the feeder to the height of their backs as they grow and this helps to eliminate wasting of food. My puppies make a mess by stepping in the saucers and even though they do clean most of it up, still a bit of a mess. I'm going to make a non-slip platform for their saucers to raise them up to see if it helps but I haven't done it yet.
Num Num, your riser for the flying saucer dish sounds good too. I do find that for the first week or so after I start feeding them, they lay in it and spread out in the food, and just basically make a real mess. But after a week or so, they're all bigger and better at eating, in fact, much more assertive eaters and after that, I don't find too many problems with them. When you make your riser, you'll have to post a picture of it. :)
Linda, what age do you start feeding them solids? Mine are still spreading out in the dishes and they have been eating solids for 2 weeks. If they kept their feet and bodies out of the dishes I would be happy. Maybe I'll try the regular saucers again. Regular saucer=11" Large saucer=15"