Anxiety in Schnauzer

Question
We have a 7-year-old miniature schnauzer who was approximately 2 years old when we got him.  Unfortunately we don't know a lot about his history but he appears to be well-mannered and trained, although it took approximately two years to overcome a lot of his fears:  the broom, stepping over him if he was lying in the way, sudden movement, etc.  About 2 months ago, out of the blue, he began demonstrating a great deal of anxiety about, believe it or not, eating out of his dish, or drinking out of his water bowl!  No new dished were involved.  This has progressed to the point that the only time he will eat now is if the food is dumped on a little mat outside...not the most sanitary idea, to say the least.  I know we've overindulged him in this regard, and have now been reading that we should have ignored his fears, but we have become used to trying to "calm" him, I suppose, and tend to spoil him (he eats human food mixed with his dog food).  He's a very loving, playful, loyal dog, who has taken years to accept family and guests without initial fearful behaviours, so in many ways hes far more relaxed...but this fear of his bowls has us beat.  We've tried plates, different dishes, even put a cloth in the dish to make it appear similar to the mat he will eat off of.  He goes outside and eats snow...and I even put snow in his water bowl...no luck.  When thirst gets the better of him he will "sneak" up to the bowl and take a few licks from the very edge.  We're baffled.  Nothing happened that we are aware of to cause this anxiety, but he approaches his dishes as if something in them were going to bite him, or he'd be hurt if he eats from them...its getting frustrating.  Any suggestions you can give us will be appreciated....we're at the "ignoring" stage now...so his food has been sitting, untouched, for two days.  I suspect he'll wear me down unless I know I'm doing the right thing.

Answer
The only dog I've ever seen afraid of her bowls was a rescue that I had here for a time. I discovered that she didn't like *anything* that moved... from riding in the car to her food bowl. I solved her eating problem by putting one of those rubber mats under her bowl and that stopped it from moving as she ate. The dogs here drink out of one-gallon ice cream buckets, and she had no problem with that.

Could your dog have a bad tooth and he is hurting himself when he eats out of a bowl? Could he have a problem with his neck that hurts him when he lowers his head to eat out of a bowl? (Probably not if he can eat off a mat...)

Do not leave the food sitting out, waiting for him to decide if he wants to eat or not. If he walks away from it, pick it back up and do not offer it to him again until his next scheduled feeding. I once had a picky eater, and when I finally decided how stupid I was being as I struggled to get him to eat, I started picking his food back up. It took him four days to decide that *he* was being stupid, and he became one of my very best eaters. Never cater to a schnauzer... they have infinitely more patience than we do!