Do you have a dog that
doesn’t eat his/her dog food? If so – you may need to look at what have you
done to contribute to this problem.
Do you give your dog a lot
of table scraps, treats, or rewards? He is likely to turn up his nose at his
dinner of just regular food if that is the case. Imagine asking your child would they prefer
grilled chicken and broccoli or ice cream – the answer will undoubtedly be ice
cream.
If your dog is a picky
eater – there are ways to encourage healthier eating.
Before you bring your dog
home, have a feeding plan in place. Everyone in the family should be following
the same rules all the time or else it won’t work. Decide what food to feed,
how much they need per day, time of day for meals, and when treats or snacks
will be used and for what purpose (i.e.: training).
Changing diets frequently
for flavour, or to give your dog variety is not helpful. The best thing to do
is provide your dog with the best quality of dog food you can, and maintain consistency.
Too much change only teaches the dog to hold out for something better until you
have exhausted most options and nothing is ever good enough. When you do
transition your dog’s food – do so slowly over a period of 7-10 days – start
with about 20% new food added to 80% of the old food for a couple of days and
then gradually increase the new food and decrease the old food in small
increments until you are feeding the new diet exclusively. This will help
prevent any diet change related diarrhea or intolerance.
Do not feed from the table
or offer table scraps. This will cause your dog to hold out for tastier (and
less healthy) options other than his own dog food. This will also reinforce
begging behaviours, and increase him to health concerns such as diarrhea and
pancreatitis.
Do not let the dog
associate your food with theirs. Avoid “top dressing” with pieces of your food
to encourage them to eat. This will give the dog the belief that there is
tastier food they could be getting and thus they will hold out for that
instead. Dogs should never see food as coming from your plate.
