Dog won't eat unless I'm watching...

[Jenne]

For the past couple of weeks, Chase won't eat unless I'm in the room with him and at least a couple of feet away. If I leave the room before he's done, he'll follow and huff at me until we go back to the food bowl. I tried just ignoring him, but he won't eat. I tried moving the bowl to a new spot in case there was something in the old spot that was scary. Why would he do this? How can I get him to stop?

Here's a pic of the current solution, moving the bowl into the room I'm in...

 

[Maxy24]

Tucker did this when he was young, he just didn't like to be away from us and would rather miss a meal than be alone. The biggest issue was that if he left his bowl alone the cats would go eat it all. Eventually he just got over it himself, for the most part. He will still scarf it down way faster if he's by himself so that he can come be with us.

How long have you tried waiting him out? If you don't feel like waiting in the room with him you could feed him out of a hollow toy like a kong genius so he can carry it around. You could try to slowly work with him on it, each day standing a little further from him while he eats.

 

[Stingr69]

Neither of mine will want to eat much if someone is not there, preferably sitting down at the kitchen table. I assume they are behaving submissively but who knows.

 

[Jenne]

Thank you for replying. I waited it out for three days, but then he started scooping up food in his mouth and carrying it with him when I moved. He would then drop the scooped food on the carpets next to me and eat. The 2nd time I stepped on slimy food and smooshed it into the carpet, I kinda gave up on waiting it out. He's almost 3 and this developed recently. There aren't any animals (besides the mouse in the wall). I'll try the moving away slowly day by day.

 

[Dogdragoness]

This is interesting to me because I get to see the other side of the spectrum, because I usually have the opposite problem of mine not eating if I am watching LOL. I have to leave the room before they will eat.