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When Your Doggie Hates the Menu

26 9:41:38
You may well know the feeling of staring at your dog while he or she stares at the food dish, sighs, and looks at you with an expression which clearly says "You expect ME to eat THAT?"

Most of us dog owners have found themselves in the same situation at one time or another. And because you are a kind-hearted doggie parent, your dog knows that if they wait long enough, sure enough, something really tasty shows up. Mission accomplished. Owner happy, dog happy and dog just won round one.

Many owners become fixated on their dog's eating habits. That only makes things get worse and worse.

Once your dog knows she can wrangle something else out of you, they抣l keep on keeping on until it gets completely out of hand. And if you think feeding them later will be easier, think again. It only gets worse. This type of behavior needs to be nipped in the bud immediately.

Owners of finicky eaters can get caught up constantly changing their dog抯 diet to try to get them to eat. This only makes your dog hold out to see if anything better is being offered. And then you have more problems to sort out.

And if you do make sudden dog diet changes, this can cause digestive upsets for your dog. Any diet change needs to be done slowly. Add a small amount of new food to your pet's current food and gradually increase that amount while decreasing the amount of the current food over a seven to ten day period.

But right now what we are discussing is NOT catering to a manipulating fusspot ?so changing foods constantly isn't going to help matters any.

Have you ever purchased a whole pile of different types of dog food (canned and dry) to let your dog decide what he likes? Not a good idea, because if he doesn't like anything, three guesses who will be running out and trying to find something better. Right ?you!

What can you do?

First, be sure that you are feeding a high quality, human grade, nutritious food without chemical preservatives. And if your doggie pal has any health problems, then communicating with them will let you know if they feel ok. Many commercial foods are basically full of toxic sludge, highly flavored with more chemicals so your dog will be tempted to eat it, and then preserved with known carcinogens. Yuck. You wouldn抰 eat it either, right? Why feed it to your dog?

So Fido may be trying to tell you that the food is making him sick.

Once you抳e ruled that possibility out, the basic rule of thumb is if that any dog which gets hungry enough they WILL eat no matter what is in the bowl. Have patience and ye shall be rewarded. Don't hover, plead, cajole, hand feed, or change the food. Just leave it in the bowl and ---- WAIT!

Next, Establish Regular Feeding Times and Stick with Them

The value of having your dog on a timetable and on a regular dog diet can't be over emphasized. Dogs thrive on routine, and besides, if you don't establish a routine and stick to it, your dog will implement one himself. Dogs without routines and a "pack leader" take over the roles themselves and you won't like the consequences.

If you feed regularly at the same time (or close to it) daily then when the food hits the floor then your dog will be there to eat it ?and will in fact learn to anticipate being fed. If you never thought dogs (or other animals) could tell time, try missing your regular feeding time one day.

Here is the most effective thing to do when you feed a finicky dog. Feed at the regular time and if they do not eat the food within 15 minutes, you take the bowl up and put the food back in the fridge. The next time that bowl comes out and goes down on the floor is the second feeding of the day. Period! Watch how fast your dog catches on to the fact if he doesn't eat when the food is there, it's GONE.

If your adult K9 pal is getting adequate amounts of a palatable and nutritious food two times a day, you have fulfilled your responsibilities as far as feeding is concerned. Don抰 let your doggie involve you in a battle of wills like a spoiled child who won't go to bed without first having ice cream. That food dish is YOUR prized resource that you are sharing with them!

Every dog owner who is concerned about what they are feeding their dog needs to read the book, Dog Food Dangers, by Shandra Baker at http://budurl.com/dogfooddangers.