8yr old lab wont eat

Question
my lab retriever won't eat his food, unless we go outside on the glider & i put his food by handful  on his rug and act like i'm going to get his food, then he will eat it, this has been going on for 4 months. sometimes he won't eat all day. i've tried to just leave his food sit, and not feed him by hand. he'll go for a day or 2 with out nothing, i can't take it. how can i get him back to eating out of a bowl. i thought maybe his back hurts { he does have a bad vertibrae } so he doesn't like to stand. what do i do?

Answer
It is very unusal for any healthy dog, let alone a Lab, not to eat all it needs. You should have a vet check him.  Speciffically ask the vet about his weight.  Have the vet confirm your judgement from the illustrated guide at http://www.puppychow.com/products/popup_body_condition.aspx

You might also try raisinng the dog's food dish.  A recent study at Purdue, http://www.vet.purdue.edu/epi/update2.htm suggests that that increased the chances of bloat, but may help some other problems.