My dog has stopped eating.................cant explain it. upto 2 weeks ago when I put all there bowls down they eat it within seconds but for some reason Toby just looks at his and walks away if I leave it in the kennel over night he will pick at it but will still not eat the full amount. I have checked his teeth and they seem fine and he is still full of energy, getting worried. What could it be?? also tried feeding a different food (on skinners at moment) buy does not want that either. Any ideas ? He is a 2 year old yellow lab

Alison, how many other dogs do you have and do you feed them all together? Where does Toby fit into the pecking order?

Do you have any bitches in season around?
Is he empting his bowels normally - attempting to be sick, drinking normally?
Is the weather very hot where you are?

Christine

Hi Thanks for your reply
We have no bitches near us and his bowels are normal and no sickness he seems totally normal in himself. He is drinking find. The weather has been hot and I did put it down to this but it's not now.

Hi

We have 8 labs they all get fed in there own kennnels. I have tried to feed him with another dog for competion but it has made no difference !

I was thinking more from an intimidation factor than anything else. Would it be possible for you to feed him out of sight of the other dogs for a while?

I will try tonight and see if it works. Thanks for your help. Will let you know tomorrow !

It is worth a try Alison. Sometimes their body language can be so subtle you wouldn't notice if one of the others was putting him off his grub :rolleyes: Good Luck!

I cant believe it...it worked !! I dont undersatand it I fed him in the kennel house rarther than in his run where he can see the others, it was gone in seconds!!!
I cant understand why, he is a working gundog(field trial champion) and has never shown any signs of lack of confidence or worried about any of the other dogs.....I dont think I will ever understand what goes through my dogs head.....well he is a male ha ha ha

Alison, I also keep working gundogs, not a FT Ch ... yet ;-) lol

Changes in the pecking order can be very subtle. People tend to assume that any change in the hierarchy will involve a mutual exchange of *words*, but this doesn't always follow. Usually a punch up happens, if the lower ranking dog does not take the hint from *eye contact*. Your lad obviously took the hint!
I am glad that you have sorted it out.

Thanks for all your help! Do you run yours in tests/trials etc is so which area? I have one FTC the others are in novice.

Yes, we run our dogs in FT/WT and spring pointing tests. We have concentrated mainly on the shooting field of late as our main dogs are elderly. We are bringing on a young bracco at the moment that we have trialed in europe but have used his time up, until now, building up his experience in the shooting field. We plan to trial him in the UK/Europe this coming season. We have tended to stick mainly to southern england for the WT in the past, but will travel further afield to trial him (including europe) :-)

What about you?