My Shi-Tzu will not eat

Question
Hi, I have a 1 1/2 yr old male Shi-Tzu name Bandit.  He is a happy healthy little guy, but starting about 3 weeks ago he decided that he does not want to eat his dog food.  We feed him once in the morning and once in the afternoon. He used to attack his food with much vigor and excitement, but now he just looks at it, smells it and walks away.  He eventually will eat it, but it takes a lot of coaxing on my part sometimes to get him to do so.  I am not sure why this has started to happen. It worries me that he all of a sudden has decided that he does not like his food. Do you think it may be a good idea to change his food?  Currently we are feeding him Science Diet's Lamb and Rice dog food(for small dogs).   Thank you for your assistance.  

Answer
Hi Christa and thanks for allowing me the opportunity to help you with your question.

Bandit is now a full grown dog and his caloric needs are most likely being met. I'm sure that when he was younger, he was always hungry, because as a youngster, they have a higher energy requirement. Now that he's settled in, he doesn't require as many calories.
One thing you really want to be careful about is not making a big deal about him not eating. If you start coaxing, giving additional "stuff" to make his food attractive, and other things, he is going to become a picky eater.
While I'm not a huge SD fan, there is certainly nothing "wrong" with this food, other than it really has to little protein for my liking and has a few too many grains and grain fragments.
If you would like to change foods, then I say GREAT! There are MANY good foods to choose, however, some may be harder to find (or you may think they are going to be hard to find), but with a little DFI (dog food investigation), you can find many of these better foods are pretty readily available, but you've just never looked.
I'll name a few here, but if you google super premium dog food or holistic dog food, you'll find tons of stuff. Most of the companies have store locators on their websites to help you find them.
Natural Balance - www.naturalbalanceinc.com
Eagle Pack Holistic - www.eaglepack.com
Innova and EVO - www.naturapet.com
Solid Gold - www.solidgoldhealth.com
Breeders Choice (many different formulas - www.breederschoice.com
Artemis - www.artemiscompany.com

This list goes on and on, but once you get into looking into dog foods, you'll find one or two that work for your dog.

I will say, sometime, tough love is the best way to prevent your dog from being picky. If you feed two times a day, put your dogs food bowl down for 20 minutes, let him eat (or not eat) and pick it back up. He will get nothing else until the next feeding. Same thing, down for 20 minutes and pick it up. He will eventually realize he needs to eat while he has the chance. I know this sounds cruel, but really he's learning a good lesson. Otherwise, you'll be a slave to his feeding behavior problems.