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Old January 2nd, 2015, 09:09 AM
2dogs&acat 2dogs&acat is offline
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Would this be considered a fear stage in my puppy?



Piper is 5 months old. She is fearless about everything, including playing hard with our 81 pound dog. But she has a weird quirk. I had to go out of town for surgery so my son and his family watched her. She would not eat out of any of their bowls. The only way they could get her to eat was hand feeding her or putting it on the floor.
At home here she will eat out of her bowl or Hoss's bowl without any problems so we had never noticed it, both bowls are the same though Hoss's is larger. So I tested her behavior to see what happened and sure enough she won't eat out of anything but one of those 2 bowls. I tried fresh chicken on a plate, whipping cream which she is crazy about, having Hoss show her how, she won't touch them. I have tried several different bowls and plates. She won't come near them.
Eventually we will be boarding her occasionally and I don't want to have to drag her ceramic bowl all over. And what if it breaks. Is this just a fear stage she is going through do you think? We even tried steak, you could tell she wanted it in the worse way but she acted like she was afraid the plate would attack her. Weird weird weird.
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Old January 2nd, 2015, 11:07 AM
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marko marko is offline
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Hi there 2 dogs and a cat,

I have never ever heard of a normal animal allowing themselves to starve....so imo, the dog is 'playing' with your sanity.

I don't even know what a fear stage is...but it's not this in my opinion.

Here's what I would do

1 - bring piper's bowl (not even sure this is even necessary but it might make things easier, so why not) to where piper will be staying.

Put food in piper's bowl. Let piper see you are the food giver.

(might be best for you not to watch the dog while the dog is eating...so maybe even put the bowl in a locked room where there are no humans or human distractions and misread cues from human to dog)

2 - Look at your watch - wait 10 minutes.

3 - If no food has been eaten, remove food. Put it out of sight. Let piper see you are the food remover as well.

4 - Later on at a time of your choosing (maybe an hour later if it's mealtime and piper should be hungry) do the exact same thing.


Unless piper is one of those crazy exceptions (and I'd bet seriously hard she isn't) - piper's hunger will get the best of her - she will eat and your problem will be solved.

(Just as an aside...before we adopted my granny's cat years ago, Granny swore the cat would only eat while she was petting it - Granny got herself all worked up over this. We all told her to just stop the petting that the cat would eat. But Granny did not have the power of waiting. Basically the cat out waited her...and she gave in every single time. So yes, in Granny's world the cat would not eat unless the cat was petted while eating.

This went on for a number of years until Granny died.

When we adopted the cat, not even one time did we pet the cat while eating...guess what? The cat would not let itself starve and the cat lived a good 7-8 more years.)

Hope that may help - Good luck!
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  #3  
Old January 2nd, 2015, 12:36 PM
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hazelrunpack hazelrunpack is offline
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We've noticed those weird streaks of avoidance behavior in dogs between the ages of 5 and 10 months, and this does seem like one of those incidents. I think it was Ember that was afraid of his bowl for a few months. Likely Piper will outgrow it (Ember eventually did). Meanwhile, you may want to try to introduce other bowls--in particular, something 'travelworthy and unbreakable' that she could take with her for boarding--maybe something stainless steal. Let Hoss break it in for her--let her see him eating out of it, then slowly introduce her to it. First let her think she's 'stealing' something out of Hoss's bowl to make it exciting, then introduce her to eating her own meal out of it. One caution, though, if you use stainless steel: some dogs at this stage are put off by the sound food makes as it hits the bottom of the bowl, so be careful when you fill it.

Marko's right, though--she's not likely to let fear of the bowl keep her from eating eventually. Unfortunately, they can get creative about how they do it, though. Ember would sneak up on his 'dangerous' bowl and whap at it (one assumes from 'behind' but I'm not sure how he decided which way the bowl was looking ) till he flipped his kibble all over the floor. Once his food had safely escaped, he ate it. (What a goof! )
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Old January 2nd, 2015, 12:47 PM
2dogs&acat 2dogs&acat is offline
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Ember would sneak up on his 'dangerous' bowl and whap at it (one assumes from 'behind' but I'm not sure how he decided which way the bowl was looking ) till he flipped his kibble all over the floor. Once his food had safely escaped, he ate it. (What a goof! )[/QUOTE]

Piper did this with the steel bowl, attacked it, flipped it and ate her food off the floor. Since my floppy lipped big dog has a habit of dropping his food on the floor Piper is really good about cleaning it all up, so she is used to eating on the floor, silly puppy.
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Old January 2nd, 2015, 12:49 PM
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hazelrunpack hazelrunpack is offline
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She's a clever one!

Did you try letting Hoss 'adopt' the bowl, first? That might make it a more 'friendly' item for her.
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  #6  
Old January 3rd, 2015, 11:18 AM
2dogs&acat 2dogs&acat is offline
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I could try that, Hoss will eat off anything, but only if he feels like it.
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Old January 4th, 2015, 09:17 AM
Longblades Longblades is offline
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She might be an exceptionally polite little girl and reluctant to eat from another dog's bowl. Were the bowls thoroughly washed before trying them on her? And put down in a spot the other dog doesn't eat from?

She might somehow have got the idea any bowl not hers belongs to another dog.

I do know of a dog who sees a blurry reflection in the bottom of his stainless bowl and won't eat or drink from them. At least we think that's what it is.

What about starting out with her own bowl with food, the other bowl beside it, empty. Let her get used to the presence of the other bowl. In about a week, while she is eating, move a bit of food from bowl to bowl.


Note: Normally messing with food after it's been given to the dog is a recipe for creating a food guarding problem so don't do this for long. In your case I think it might be worth a try though.
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Old January 4th, 2015, 11:14 AM
2dogs&acat 2dogs&acat is offline
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She eats from Hoss's bowl without a problem, Hoss is so mellow he just switches to her bowl. But the good thing is she won't eat from the cats bowl which is stainless steel. We tried having Hoss eat something really tempting, hamburger from a plate right in front of her, she wanted it really bad but would not eat off it when it was her turn, just whined and looked at us like, why are you punishing me. We will keep trying. She was the runt of the litter, not sure if this makes any difference but who knows.
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