Picky pooch

[Snowgrrl83]

Hey everyone!

Does anyone have a picky dog like mine? He will refuse to eat certain foods. We had to change his food several times because he is so picky. Now we got him on this Salmon food with a special Omega-3 sauce (Arctic Vigor). He will only eat if there is the sauce over the food...or an egg.. he HATES lamb and rice.. he will only eat chicken or beef on certain days. Yeah, he loves fish.. and figure this one out.. We give him cat fish-flavoured treats because he prefers them over certain dog treats.

What do you feed your picky pooch?

[Scott_B]

Picky dogs are made, not born

Use the 10min rule. Put out his food ( a good kibble or canned food) and let him have it for 10min. If he doesnt eat it, take it up, and he gets NOTHING, no treats, NOTHING, until next meal, and you offer it again. Do this for 2-3 days. When he gets hungry he'll eat. (unless hes Techno's dog )

By putting something tasty on the food after they refuse, you teach them that they can hold out if they dont care for something and they'll get something better.

[coppperbelle]

Originally Posted by Scott_B

Picky dogs are made, not born

Use the 10min rule. Put out his food ( a good kibble or canned food) and let him have it for 10min. If he doesnt eat it, take it up, and he gets NOTHING, no treats, NOTHING, until next meal, and you offer it again. Do this for 2-3 days. When he gets hungry he'll eat. (unless hes Techno's dog )

By putting something tasty on the food after they refuse, you teach them that they can hold out if they dont care for something and they'll get something better.

I agree 100% You need to start deciding what he eats and not the other way around. Good luck.

[Snowgrrl83]

Well, we did the 10-min tactic for about a month before... he lost so much weight... we would visit our trainning classes weekly and the woman was noticing his weight loss so....... we started free-feeding him and trying to find what he likes.... it was also a problem when first trainning him because he was interested in other things rather than treats. We would bring a toy to trainning classes instead of treats because he just wasnt treat motivated but enjoyed his toys better. We reward him with walks and play time and praise rather than treats... except cat-bites and fish seem yummy to him.

[rainbow]

How often did you change foods? Is it a salmon based kibble you have him on now? What brand?

[celticfox]

You have my sympathy. I've got a very picky pooch too.

Raven has food allergies and we've had to switch foods so many times since we adopted her last fall. I honestly believe that she expects a new food every day now. She's never had a huge appetite (unlike our other dog Rusty, the canine garbage can ) but she's been so finicky the past few weeks that she's lost a bit of weight too. She ate nothing more than a few mouthfuls of food for several days (despite being very interested in what we were eating, of course). I've had some luck getting her to eat by mixing canned sardines into her food but she's still only eating about half of what she was over the winter (1 cup a day instead of 2).

I notice that your boy is a husky. Raven is half husky and I've read that huskies are very light eaters because they were bred to function on little food and that they they actually regulate their food intake. I can't help but wonder if the warmer weather is partly responsible for her lack of appetite. Time to shed those winter pounds, perhaps?