Picky eater

Question
I have a standard poodle about 1 1/2 years old. She's the love of my family's life...she is the perfect sweet girl. She does have food issues. No allergies that I see, but she "gets bored" of her food, I think. We feed her "Natural Balance" dry food mixed with little of the "sausage" in the morning. And in the evening she gets 1/3 of the NB canned food mixed with the dry. Her history is that she is gung ho with whatever food I give her at first, and then she seems to tire of it and turns her nose up and doesn't eat. She can go a whole day eating just a couple bites and that's it. Note: On the days that we wear her out and go either to the dog park or a 4-5 mile walk she is desperate and will eat more but not everything always. Bottom line: she would much rather eat what we're eating and I am very strict on giving her scraps off our plates. And I don't really believe in "cooking special" meals for the pet. What are your thoughts?

Answer
Hello Tracy,
It seems that her metabolisim is a bit on the slow side.  When she isn't very active, her body doesn't need as much food to keep her going, but after being busy her body needs to replace the lost energy, therefore she eats more.  

The question you need to ask yourself is, "Is she losing weight or energy when she skips meals?"  If it seems to affect her phycically then you need to do something about it, but if she seems to be maintaining her weight and energy levels, then she should be ok.  
You can try different flavors of the canned food or try adding chicken broth or gravy to her food to encourage her to eat more.  You might also try feeding her small amounts of food more frequently during the day to see if she will eat better this way.  

If she still tends to pick at her food, try more activity.  Get her into Obedience classes, or try her with Agility or Flyball (if she is a ball freak that is).  Poodles tend to be a bit on the active side and since they love to please, they do very well at these sports.  Give it a try and see what she thinks.  If that seems a bit much, try teaching her a few tricks or invent games for her to do such as Hide and seek the treat or toy, Find Me (where you go hide and she has to come and find you).  If she likes to fetch, make up retrieve games where she has to fetch toys in a specific order or where you point to a certain toy and send her to get it.  All these "games" work her mind and can be as energy spending as an hour walk.  

Give this a try and see if anything helps and if not, let me know and I will see if I can come up with anything else. Please feel free to ask me if you have other questions or comments.  

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim