My dog seems afraid to eat his food

zaksmum

The 800g is spread over 2 meals. For a dog weighing 30kg I'd have thought it was about right.

I'd be surprised if Jack wouldn't eat because he thought the bowl had too much food in it!

Babbawah, I expect my dogs to eat 7 days in a row. I thought all dog owners did.

And why do you think it's me that's the cause of the problem?

krlyr

Babbawah wrote: »

Links to this would help.

http://www.apbc.org.uk/articles/why-wont-dominance-die
This meme originated in the “dogs are wolves” theory in the late 1960s. It was spawned in the pond of genetics from the premise that if a dog is the same species as the wolf they must behave identically. The perceived wisdom at the time, emanating from L. David Mech’s book, The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species(2), was that wolves pack and dominate each other, therefore dogs must also pack and dominate each other. The theories of wolf and dog “dominance” and the “alpha” firmly entered the imagination of not only the public, but also the scientific community. As a police dog handler in the 1980s I regularly tried to “dominate” my dogs using the best available scientific model.

However, as science advances our viewpoint changes and in Mech’s case, as he points out in his 2008 article Whatever Happened to the Term Alpha Wolf?(3) more rigorous examination of wild living wolves revealed that their social behaviour was centred on the family unit, built around cohesion and co-operation, not conflict. A fight for pack dominance would mean striving to displace one parent in order to mate with the other. The model of the wolf’s supposed fight for dominance and alpha status was replaced with one where parents and older siblings guide and lead younger offspring in order to enhance overall genetic fitness. In 1999 Mech published Alpha Status, Dominance, and Division of Labor in Wolf Packs(4), in which he corrected his earlier mistaken ideas. He happily reports that in the 2003 book Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation(5) written by twenty three authors and edited by Mech and Boitani, the term “alpha” is only ever mentioned to explain why it has been superseded.

Mojisola

zaksmum wrote: »

I did actually have this with my last dog. He stopped eating, vet could find no cause. He was referred and they found he was riddled with cancer. He was 13 and we had to have him PTS.

So I do get upset when Jack won't eat and O/H says the dog can pick up on that even though I try not to show it.

Babbawah wrote: »

I really do think that it is you and not the food or the dog that is the root of the problem.

You had a horrible experience with your last dog when he stopped eating and you're transferring that anxiety to Jack.

You should take yourself right out of the situation - don't have anything to do with feeding him, don't be there when he's fed and don't react if he hasn't eaten everything when you come back into the room.

You've made food a stressful situation - the more you get upset, the more he's going to think there's a problem with food.

Cornucopia

I looked after a friend's dog for a while, and when it stopped eating, the vet suggested giving it (freshly) cooked rice.

I would never have believed a dog would lap up rice like that had I not seen it with my own eyes. The advantage is that it is cheap if the dog refuses it (40p value rice), and it can easily be made lukewarm by rinsing it through with cold water.

After a while, I added chunks of wet food and eventually the dog was quite happy with 50/50 rice and wet food in the morning and wet food only in the evening.

Beware that the dog will make a mess.

Johnny_Dangerously

Any update on this one? Did he eat o.k this morning?

lisa110rry

Yes I want to know that, too.

Miss L is a mere 14kg ZaksMum, by rights she should have 200g per day, but as my husband is retired and she has him wrapped around her little paw, I make an allowance for what I don't see going in to her during the day, lol! (Also, in nicer weather, when she gets more exercise, her food is adjusted a little.)

Is Jack of a curious, playful temperament? I've recently seen a good suggestion in "Wag" (Dogs Trust Magazine) who are suggesting putting some food, preferably dry, into the middle of a toilet tissue tube or kitchen roll tube, stuffing each end with some newspaper, then letting the dog "find the food". I'm going to give that a try this weekend.

heartbreak_star

We went through this with ours for a little bit. I would occasionally put a tiny bit of weak gravy on her dried food

HBS x

zaksmum

Johnny_Dangerously wrote: »

Any update on this one? Did he eat o.k this morning?

He scoffed his food this morning as if his life depended on it! No hiding, no messing - just straight in there, scoffed the lot and licked the bowl clean.

I was stunned. He hasn't done this for ages, even when he was eating "normally".

He was much more lively all day too - like a different dog. I just put his second meal out at 6pm thinking there was no way he'd eat it but the same thing happened - wolfed it down.

I resisted the temptation to praise him to the skies for eating it as I don't want to make a fuss, good or bad, where food's concerned.

To be fair, he must have been ravenous, so we'll see what happens tomorrow. Fingers crossed though!

Johnny_Dangerously

Sounds like he's got the right attitude to food now. I imagine you'll be ok from here, but you'll need to be disciplined.

lisa110rry

I'm so pleased to read this!