Let me guess, you love your dog to the moon and back and would do anything and everything in your power to help them live the longest, happiest life possible? ME TOO!!! The problem is that our best intentions can sometimes have unintended consequences. Such is often true in the case of the PICKY EATER. Let’s imagine for a moment that wee Fido isn't particularly hungry one morning. You offer him breakfast as usual but he turns his nose up at it. Being the doting pet parent you are and not wanting to leave him with nothing to eat all day, you offer him some leftover roast beef. This, he scarfs down! You feel better knowing he has at least eaten something and are reassured that he’s okay because he still has an appetite for roast beef. Trust me, I get it! Now let’s look at it from a behavioural perspective. If the consequence of a behaviour is favourable, the behaviour is more likely to be repeated in the future - that’s just science. So how does this scenario look from the dog’s perspective? He was offered his regular meal. Action: He refused to eat it. Consequence: He was offered something better. This positive consequence will increase the likelihood of him performing that same behaviour in the future. And so, the picky eater is created. The more times we sweeten the deal, the more we reinforce the holding out behaviour. Have you ever gotten down on the floor and hand fed your dog? How about taken his food back and heated it up for him? Why would he ever eat what was offered straight out of the bowl again?!
So what do I do if my otherwise healthy dog has no interest in his breakfast? I pick it up and put it back in the fridge until dinner. While I don’t intentionally fast my dog as some do, I know that his system is capable of withstanding longer periods between meals than ours and so I don’t panic over a skipped meal. I have also noticed that when dogs tummies are upset (likely due to eating something they shouldn't have!) they tend to go off of their food temporarily. In my opinion, giving their system a break to let it settle down is probably doing more good in that situation than encouraging them to eat when they really don’t feel like it. More often than not, by the time dinner rolls around they are ready to dive right in. Of course I am not recommending you starve your dog. If by the second day they still have no interest then I would recommend getting him (or her) looked at by a vet .
Perhaps your situation is a bit different and you are attempting to switch brands of food or convert your pup to a raw diet. Gradually mixing more and more of the new in with the old might help. Raw can present particular challenges, especially if “food” has always come in the form of kibble. They may simply not recognize that chunk of raw meat as edible right away or even know how to approach eating it. Organs seem to be especially aversive to some dogs (and who can blame them?!). So what do you do if your dog picks them out and leaves them strewn about the floor? Well, you clean the floor of course! And say to yourself, “Oh well, I’ll try something different tomorrow”. Since omitting organs from a raw diet is not an option, grinding and mixing them in with everything else so that they can’t be picked out might be worth trying. Over time you will likely find that you are able to leave them in small chunks and then larger chunks as your dog gets used to the new textures. The key here is to accept your failures as they happen and not try to fix them in the moment. Fifi didn’t like dinner? Okay, think of a different way to serve breakfast tomorrow.
Having a picky eater is no excuse for not providing a balanced diet. Where there is a will, there is a way. Keep up the great work, dedicated pet owners, your dogs are lucky to have you! Just make sure you aren’t inadvertently working against yourself. ;)
Debra Reid RVT, KPA CTP
