tml@drupa.UUCP (Tim Larison) (04/26/85)
A friend of mine has a 5 year old sheltie who is afraid to eat
out of her feeding bowl. She will eat food when placed on
the floor - but not from the bowl. Other bowls have been
tried without success. Any suggestions?
drupa!tmlcushner@ttidcb.UUCP (Jeffrey Cushner) (05/01/85)
From: tml@drupa.UUCP (Tim Larison) >A friend of mine has a 5 year old sheltie who is afraid to eat >out of her feeding bowl. She will eat food when placed on >the floor - but not from the bowl. Other bowls have been >tried without success. Any suggestions? Not knowing anything else about the environment, I would assume that it could boil down to one of two problems. 1. The dog has been spoiled and the owners have tried to ensure that the dog eats. When the dog refuses the food in the bowl but, out of lazyness, eats a few scraps from the floor, the owners put more food on the floor. This would probably become a habit after a very short period of time. The way this could be cured is NOT feed the dog for a day. Then put a few morsels of food (his favorite if you feed him more than one kind) in the bowl. When, and if, he eats it, praise him lavishly, then put some more and repeat the praise. If he does not eat his food within 20 minutes, empty the bowl and wait until the next day. He will NOT starve. In fact, fasting one day a week, as some dog owners do to their dogs, will clean out his system. After he has eaten this way for ONE meal, the next day (and forever more) give him his bowl of food at one daily time, and if he has not finished it within 20 minutes, dispose of it. Again, I may be entirely off base, not knowing anything else about this dog, but if it sounds like him, try this method. 2. The dog could be afraid of the sound of the dish scraping against the floor. I don't know when this behavior started, but if the dish makes a scrape when he ate out of it at one point, put the dish on a place mat. Also use a weighted dish, sold in pet stores. Another related event could be that something frightened him while he was eating one day; maybe a pot dropped and he associated the scare with the bowl, for some reason. In both cases, a few times during the day give him a small treat, something he REALLY loves! When he takes it, praise him. Then show him another piece of treat and put it in his bowl. If he takes it, praise him. -- ============================================================================== Jeff Cushner @ Citicorp-TTI Santa Monica CA 90405 (213) 450-9111 x2273 {vortex,philabs}!ttidca!ttidcb!cushner