7 month golden retriever does not want to eat her food.

Question
I have a 7- month old female golden retriever.  Her name is Tina.  Besides Tina I have 3 other dogs.  Since I found her and sheltered her (5 months ago), I started giving her pro-plan as well as to my other 3 dogs.  Because of my budget, I changed her and the others to a lower quality food (NUTRANUGGET)Tina did not like the food so I started preparing her Homemade food mixed with the dog food.  She ate at first and later she decided not to eat.  As she was getting to thin; I changed her food to a better quality (ROYAL CANNIN).  Sometimes she eats and sometimes she doesn't.  What she does is that she wants to eat the others food and when they finish, she goes to her plate and doesn't let anybody get near it.  She starts to eat and takes forever eating 1/3 of the plate.  So what I do is I withdraw the plate for the others not to eat it.  I totally guess that she is fooling around with me but I won't give in.  How can I make her eat her food.  I know that I made a mistake in buying her pro plan at first.

Answer
I'm a little unclear about something - are all the dogs on the same food, or are they eating different foods?

The reason I ask is that there is no reason why they cannot all eat the same thing, just adjust the amount you are giving for each dog's nutritional needs.  That is, a young dog would get more food in the bowl than an older one, and an active dog would get more food than a less active one.

From your message where you say:
"What she does is that she wants to eat the others food and when they finish, she goes to her plate and doesn't let anybody get near it"
it sounds like she is trying to eat their food as well as hers.

What I would do is give the dogs the amounts in their individual bowls that you feel they need, give them all a time limit (say, 15 mins) to eat, and at that time take all the bowls up.  If you do this consistently,they will all learn they better eat when the food bowl gets put down or else wait until the next meal.

If this doesn't answer your question, or I missed your point, email me again.

Chris