My pup has been home for 1 week now (but is, in fact 12 weeks old).  He started off on 4 meals a day, and just hasn't been interested in the food.  Sometimes he wolfs it down, othertimes he'll have two mouthfuls then walk off.  I have to literally stand over the bowl and encourage him to eat every mouthful at the moment, and even then he won't finish, he'll give up and walk away.  His turds are regular and normal and his temperament hasn't changed so I don't think he's ill.  He's been weaned off the raw diet and onto royal canin giant puppy sensative....so he's now having the dried food soaked in water for each meal.  The weaning process was done gradually over the week so it didn't just change overnight. 

I've don't know whether just to continue to put 3 or 4 meals down per day and let him figure it out himself...do I leave the bowl down or take it up?  Any advice would be welcomed please

he may be finding the dried food not as tasty as the raw food of which he has been weaned from, raw food is so much better and taster for dogs, is there a reason for the change?  You could try putting some raw steak chopped up in his dried food or grated cheese, boiled egg etc, to make it more tasty.

Many pups at 12 weeks are ready for dropping one meal to three.

I brought my first Elkhound pup home at 11 1/2weeks at this time of year, with similar warm weather and was worried about her irregular eating.

She would not eat during the day at all.  She would have her breakfast before 8am, another meal about 7pm and then last thing before bed about midnight.  She was growing liek qa weed nd was well covered, but never ate with enthusiasm as a puppy.

Remember you may be giving too large portions if your basing it on the manufacturers guidelines.  I know very few dogs that could (some would) eat that amount without getting fat.

Also pick the bowl up after 15 minutes and don't give anything except water until the next meal, this will concentrate the mind.

Your guide should be steady growth with even weight gain, and good poos showing food digesting well.

>He's been weaned off the raw diet and onto royal canin giant puppy sensative....so he's now having the dried food soaked in water for each meal.

What prompted the change, I see you've moved to sensitive - does he have food allergies?  Dogs with allergies often do very well on raw food.  It's relatively easy to change from one dried food to another as it's only the flavour that changes - like changing your brand of cornflakes.  Changing from raw food to kibble must be a bit of a shock - like going from steak to weetabix!  Give it a bit more time

The other issue with dry food is often the volume.  Mine can eat quite large portions of raw mince but if I give them a plain bowl of kibble they can easily get outfaced, it takes longer to eat and they sometimes get bored halfway through and wander off.  They also poo for England on kibble whereas raw produces so much less :)

I know that feeding all raw can be a tricky thng to manage but could you compromise with at least one raw meal per day?  Pet mince is very easy to get hold of and if you needn't worry quite so much about getting the diet absolutely spot on if you are feeding kibble as well.  There are plenty of raw feeders on here so you can always come back with questions.

Finally, yes I'd drop to 3 meals, and pick up after 15 mins.  If you are using training treats at the moment do try not to overdo them as he'll ignore his boring kibble for your exciting treeats!  The heat is another problem.  I have one that is fairly consistent about food but even he gets less keen when the weather is hot, the other self regulates and lying in the sun all day apparently requires less food!!

I would continue with 4 meals. If hes a giant pup he has a lot of growing yet to do, to get enough nutrition over 3 meals a day would mean eating larger portions than he would over 4 meals. You don't want to be having to stuff his belly to the brim.

Don't stand over him, simply put his food down, walk away and remove after 15 minutes.

You could try adding a little raw tripe to each meal, I'd imagine the complete food is rater boring compared to the raw he's been used to. The smell of the tripe should spark his interest (it wont make your nose happy though, LOL!).

Have you had advice on the diet change from the breeder?

well i am darned but that food royal canin...was what i spent 5 weeks having ridiculous trouble pasting the dry stuff with liquid patees, oils, grated cheese...and told to STARVE the pup a few days til she eats...and met other pup owner recently who did that...and i GAVE UP all this NONSENSE ! i am OFF dry food. RAW for me. BARF is the word i think. have just joined or signed up to something all about raw food for dogs. WELL fed up with this SAGA of FUSSING over a pup not eating...NEVER had all this problem years ago with dogs on pedigree chum etc...some they liked more than others...but this DRY FOOD THING that is supposed to be the bees knees ? a SERIES of DOGS NOT EATING problems ! stuff it i say. GO RAW !

It could be as simple as he's teething and therefore his mouth will be quite sore.
So he won't eat as you expect him to whilst teething.

My eldest was a very fussy eater when he was a pup.. He ate at the breeders and kept him on this food when i got him home, he would plain not eat it, again food would be down for 10 mins and then picked up.
I changed foods a number of times and he actually started to enjoy his food when i moved him onto raw..

He is better now he is older, he is on a complete now which i mix in currently one of the following, tripe, sardines, natures diet, egg, offal or chicken wings.

The fact that this pup was i'm guessing raised on raw and to go onto a complete now, which would be very bland i would head back to raw. If you really need to have him on a complete then i would put a topper on it to make it more appealing..
Each pup is different, my youngest has always loved food, so made him a very easy puppy.