Eating habits

Question
My yorkie Denim has always been a funny eater since I first got him at the age of 3mo. He would only eat a "full" meal around 9 or 10pm, but he would have a bite or two on his kibble throughout the day. Now at the age of 9mo. he seems to have lost his interest in his food, so as motivation I decided to mix his dry food with ground turkey. However, to my surprise he manages to  pick out all of the dry dog food and only eat the ground turkey and now he refuses to eat unless he has the ground turkey mixed in with his food (finely ground into a powder). Is this a problem? How do I get him to eat his dry dog food again? Is it too late and am I forever stuck with feeding him the ground turkey with his food?

Answer
Alicia -

No, it's NOT too late.  But, the problem is most likely our own thoughts about food and eating.  Dogs are carnivores and in the wild it would be normal for them to eat sometimes and not eat other times.

Here's what I always use for a feeding routine... I feed two times a day a measured amount.  Whatever they do not eat in 10 minutes gets picked back up and they go without until the next meal time. Then they get the same measured amount - Not what they left plus the measured amount.

I do not worry until a dog has passed up 2 meals in a row entirely.

For instance my cairn fosters get 1/3 cup twice a day.

I would cut out the turkey altogether and just try not to worry until Mr. Denim decides to stop being a brat and eats his kibble.  I would bet he will not skip more than 2-3 meals before getting the drift of eating dog food again.

Let me know how you make out, and tell Mr. Denim I said to stop being such a brat to you !

-Beth