My  6 year old daughter likes to take the food from the dog food bowl, and feed our year old Pointer.  She will walk the dog around and drop a piece here and there for her.  Sometimes, she will empty the entire dish of food, one piece at a time.  My daughter has done this maybe four times.  Normally, the meal has just sat there with no interest from the dog when my daughter decides to "play".  Then the dogs goes along with it for a while. 

Is this a problem?

Initally, I thought it was good as my daughter "controls" the food?  And, the dog seems to like the interaction.  And, the dog is using her nose to find the food. 

But, I would like to hear opinions. 

hello,
i would supervise this "play" very closely if i were you, however, i  think it is good for your dog to see that people big or small can touch his food and he doesn't need to feel threatened by it.  you know those kind of dogs that growl and show their teeth when someone walks near them while they are eating?  well i didn't want my dog to be like that.  so when he was a puppy,  i put my hands in his food bowl and petted him while he was eating and moved his bowl around while he was eating out of it.  this showed him that he doesn't need to protect his food.  my nearness doesn't equal my taking away his food.  ii just got him used to the idea that i can touch his food and he does not mind.  so, under supervision, i think that your daughter is probably doing a good thing to show the dog that she is also his feeder and he doesn't need to ever feel threatened by her presense around his food.  just keep watch to make sure everything runs smoothly.  six years old isn't very big and she could get hurt if things got to excitable.

Nope don't see anything wrong with that at all, but I agree always supervise.

Both my children have done this with all 5 of my dogs and they still do everynow and then.

Keep an eye on it but what a brilliant training idea :) bet if the wee one hides bits around the house/yard Sadie will have a ball finding it and itll increase her appetite! Now train child with dropped raisins/candy to notice the water bowl and refill when necessary, clean dogs bed, etc :D

Lol, sometimes when Millie has a look in her bowl and walks away, I will take a piece out and feed it to her.  Yum yum, she eats it.  So I get another bit...yum yum.

She would quite happily let me sit there all day feeding her food, one piece at a time all day long if I would do it for her, she much prefers to eat that way!  But often I find that after a few minutes of this, I walk away and she dives in and finishes the rest off...obviously just needs to get her digestive juices going!

Also, if I want to do some training with her, i will take uneaten food out of her bowl to use.  Then after a few 'tricks', she will follow me out to the kitchen, happily watch me while I take more food out of her bowl, then excitedly run back to the living room to 'earn it' again.  Daft dog!!! :-D

Morse says "Millie you are missing a trick, hen. Never, ever work for boring kibble! Make em put the hot dogs out or at the very least a Bonio! Youngsters nowadays, theyll undermine the reward package generations of canines have struggled to get humans to understand. Gotta go, shes on the prowl ! Remember, whadda we want - liver! When do we want it? Within 2 seconds of required response or 5 seconds looking in the bowl!" :D

Barney says 'Here, here Morse, I agree with every word.  Hot dog :)  smelly cheese :)  liver/livercake :D  kibble :( '

Millie cannot hear Morse, i have stuffed her ears with cotton wool ;-)