Hello,
My wife and I adopted a 2 year old female Black Lab a few months ago.
She's well trained and good natured, great with the kids - we're quite happy with her.
I'm not sure what her eating habits were before, but when we adopted her we were given a 3/4 full large bag of Pedigree dry food and told that it was what she was accustomed to.
We noticed that she didn't really take to it though.
At first we thought it was just due to her settling in, but she began to refuse it all the time.
Uncertain, we tried other food, which she loved, but this started a trend;
- Refuses food, refuses to eat.
- We buy new food
- Dog loves new food, wolfs it down
- Three to four days later dog gets tired of it and wants new food.
- Refuses food, refuses to eat.
Well I planned to put a stop to that cycle and quick.
We refused to change up her food.
And she would refuse to eat.
We now put her food down and take it up after about 20 minutes if it's not eaten.
She paces, she knows that the food will go soon if not eaten, but she still refuses.
(when I say she refuses, she gives in and eats it maybe 20% of the time)
So how is she surviving without (hardly any) food?
She's constantly in the garbage or eating the cat food, the second our backs are turned. She knows this is bad, she's submissive the second we walk in the door (often before we even realize what she's done, but her body language says it all).
This dog has an iron will. It's been 8 months and this is still going on.
She paces around the house and has the face of a poor mistreated and forgotten dog who's owners aren't feeding her.
It makes me feel bad, but I KNOW she'll eat the food - she couldn't get enough of it the first time she had it!!
This is really killing the whole dog ownership experience and making it more stressfull.
Any tips or suggestions?
I'm open to any ideas, but I am NOT willing to buy her new food every four days as her whims change.
Please help.
I hate feeling like a bad owner.
My wife and I adopted a 2 year old female Black Lab a few months ago.
She's well trained and good natured, great with the kids - we're quite happy with her.
I'm not sure what her eating habits were before, but when we adopted her we were given a 3/4 full large bag of Pedigree dry food and told that it was what she was accustomed to.
We noticed that she didn't really take to it though.
At first we thought it was just due to her settling in, but she began to refuse it all the time.
Uncertain, we tried other food, which she loved, but this started a trend;
- Refuses food, refuses to eat.
- We buy new food
- Dog loves new food, wolfs it down
- Three to four days later dog gets tired of it and wants new food.
- Refuses food, refuses to eat.
Well I planned to put a stop to that cycle and quick.
We refused to change up her food.
And she would refuse to eat.
We now put her food down and take it up after about 20 minutes if it's not eaten.
She paces, she knows that the food will go soon if not eaten, but she still refuses.
(when I say she refuses, she gives in and eats it maybe 20% of the time)
So how is she surviving without (hardly any) food?
She's constantly in the garbage or eating the cat food, the second our backs are turned. She knows this is bad, she's submissive the second we walk in the door (often before we even realize what she's done, but her body language says it all).
This dog has an iron will. It's been 8 months and this is still going on.
She paces around the house and has the face of a poor mistreated and forgotten dog who's owners aren't feeding her.
It makes me feel bad, but I KNOW she'll eat the food - she couldn't get enough of it the first time she had it!!
This is really killing the whole dog ownership experience and making it more stressfull.
Any tips or suggestions?
I'm open to any ideas, but I am NOT willing to buy her new food every four days as her whims change.
Please help.
I hate feeling like a bad owner.