Hi, my dog is 10 months old and is a show dog. He now hardly eats. He always liked his food as a puppy and would wolf the food down, but now hardly touches a thing. Even though he got placed at Crufts, he looked like a bit dropped off next to the others in his class, he is too skinny.  My dogs are fed complete meal with beef, tripe or lamb added to it. I have tried, pasta, rice, chicken  all sorts of gravy, but no he barely gives it a second glance. Vet says he is not sick.  I am so frustrated but what can I do ?  If he does not gain weight this year then I will not put him into Crufts next March .

do not attempt to feed him for at least 24 hours, (idealy, 48, if you can be strong about it!)  then give him a quarter of the amount that he would usually get.  Nothing else for the rest of the day.  Next day, give him half the  usual amount.  If he eats all this, for the rest of the week, give about three quarters the amount he should be having, then, if he  is finishing his dish, a full amount from then on.  If he reverts to not eating, start the whole process over again.  Do not swap his food about while he is being picky, choose one thing and stick with it.  I personaly would stick with tripe with a complete, (I know, I know!!  Your'e not supposed to ad meat to a complete, but when needs must!!)  You must be strong minded and not give in, It wont hurt him to go hungry for a couple of days

>My dogs are fed complete meal

What kind of complete meal,and is it grain based or meat based? Dogs prefer meat based diets,particularly fussy eaters.

>I know, I know!!  Your'e not supposed to ad meat to a complete

Why not? I think with most of the grainy/cereal diets available today,added meat is a must,not a luxury or add in every now and then. I feed a meat based kibble and still add extra meat plus other stuff(cottage cheese,fish,yogurt etc).My dogs arent fussy eaters at all,but they very,very rarely get a bowl of plain kibble,i always add in some sort of meat and extra.

I found my dog was picky when she was on a commercial diet.  Her ribs were too visible, even a (retired) vet said she is too thin.  She was fed Naturediet.  Since she is on a solely raw diet (Oct. last year), her appetite improved immensly and these far too visible ribs disappeared, but she is not fat by any manner of means.  Saying that, there are times when she isn't so interested in her food and other times where she eats like a hungry wolf.   

I agree with bagpipe. My youngest Dobe had been on Naturediet all her life (I raised the litter on it) but would never put on weight, no matter how much I fed her - she is pretty active though. At 16-17 months she only weighed 23.5 kilos and her ribs were visible. When I couldn't get hold of ND last year I changed to raw giving her extra portions of tripe along with the beef, lamb, chicken, veggies and rmbs. At her last weigh in she was 28 kilos and now looks wonderful. I also have a very fussy Sussex Spaniel who will eat her food begrudgingly, but add tripe to it and it is wolfed down. I hope this helps.

Hi Danny

I had a very picky eater too - but I changed over to raw feeding having been 70% there with him due to his fussiness!  He would get mainly tripe or mince chicken etc. with some biscuit.   Now we are 100% (this may not be right for you or your dog of course and I am by no means saying you need to switch) but I can honestly say he eats every meal (unless he decides to fast the odd day - but these are far and few).

I used to get so upset about him not eating and I think that never helped the situation - you need to try and remain quite chilled about it (easier to say I know).

Like said above you need to decide what you want him to eat and stick to your guns on it and not chop and change.

Put the food down - maybe start off with really small portions so that he isn't put off by the amount - if it is not eaten within 15 mins just pick it back up - do not put it down until the next meal is due.  I would always use fresh portion - again it may seem wasteful but I find that leftover food isn't always that appealing second time is it - I know they aren't humans but would you want a dinner from earlier put in front of you if you hadnt eaten it.

I know it is easier to say but don't worry - I'm sure he isn't starving himself.

How often do you feed and when?  Are there other dogs around when he is feeding? 

just a PS -  give water always, as I'm sure you know, but dont give milk while getting the problem sorted, as it is a food, not a drink.  As per other answers, raw is always good, and breast of lamb is excellent for putting on weight

I agree with the other posters, that you can't really go wrong with raw meat. Having said that though, a second canine in the same room as the food bowl, does wonders

He is fed two small meals a day, one at 6.30am and the other at 5pm.  He is fed with the other 3 dogs nearby and we have tried him on his own, no difference.  He will often lick the other dogs bowls clean and then beg for food from humans, so he is clearly hungry ( no, we never feed him titbits from our plates ). He has royal canin small dog and has been on raw beef or lamb for 2 months now. The other dogs look superb on it and wolf it down. 

Have you tried good old tripe and a terrier meal biscuit? I would feed him completely alone from the other dogs. You may find that one of them is giving him the evil eye. It can be so subtle you may not spot it yourself. I would also alter the times that I feed him.

I also feed fish twice a week, usually sardines in oil, this generally temps a picky eater.  Some times you need a totally different taste to stimulate him.

My dogs would kill for pilchards in tomato :rolleyes: :D

Have to agree with this - it can be amazing what affects other dogs might have on a picky eater - esp. if they enjoy with gusto and he doesn't.

Also changing the times might help too.

Tripe certainly did it for me with Max - he used to have so little biscuits in it in the end which gave me the encouragement to go 100% raw.  Have you tried chicken wings too?  How does he take to those?

You need to try and chill out because your anxiousness on this will also pass to the dog - that helped me with Max - I just totally became so not bothered if he ate or not - he got 15 mins tops to finish - if he hadn't eaten it was removed.

Nothing until the next meal either.

I'm sure if you try this for a week you will see an improvement - ALL THE BEST

"You need to try and chill out because your anxiousness on this will also pass to the dog"

Valuable point. Is there someone else in your household whom could take over the feeding for a while? 

I am concerned and frustrated but I am not hovering over him or bothering him or fussing him to eat. The bowl goes down for 10 minutes and then it is taken away if not eaten. It has nothing to do with him being bothered by my other dogs, as he also does not eat when on his own. He also does not eat when fed by other people. I have tried different feeding times and missing giving him one of the meals.  I can state that I do not pass my anxiousness onto him,if anything I keep mealtimes simple and calm, I am simply worried that is all.

Then see another VET

The advice given from myself and others is sensible advice - have you tried all these things already?

If you have and you are calm etc. then I don't think I can offer any more advice other than that I have already - someone else may have other ideas or perhaps you should seek further advice from your vet as above.

The only other thing I think you could try is to give your dog maybe a lot of small amounts of food throughout the day (this would obviously only be possible if someone is at home all day), not neccesarily from his food bowl, maybe do a bit of training or fun games. Also some dogs don't like eating out of plastic, metal, china bowls etc. I know one dog that would only eat direct from the floor.

Give me a skinny dog any day over the size you often see in the show ring :)  Personally, having noticed that you have had him vet checked already, I would continue to offer food at the appropriate times and just forget about it.  Dogs have an instinct for survival ;) chances are he will improve a little when he catches on that is it on the feeding front but if he doesn't he will not come to any harm.  I know you think you are behaving chilled but posing on a message board indicates some level of concern ;) so it is unlikely there is not something there for the dog to detect.  If he is good enough in construction and type and is well exercised enough I think a good judge would not compare him too critically against a weightier example. I seem to see more critiques mentioning overweight rather than under.  Is he getting plenty of exercise, by the way, as that will improve appetite?

We had two dogs like this.

The first one wouldn't eat anything, tried him on lots of different foods and he ended up having baked beans covering his food to eat it (tesco value when they were 4p a tin!) however after a while he snapped out of it and in his younger age was the quickest eater and still eat pretty quick.

The next is one still at 8 we have problems with his weight.  When younger he had quite a bit of pasta to bulk him out, he still now eats twice as much as our other male and more then twice the amount of our females.

Thinking about it my grandparents also had this problem with a dog of there's after along time and 3 vets it was thyroids.  Has your dog been checked for this? (Also does he have dry nose, poor coat, lethergic?) Might be worth asking a vet on this as a possibility.

How has the vet come to the opinion that this dog is not sick?

i had the same problem with eating and after pestering my vet i finally got the blood tests done.

My dog has a Vit b12 defiency. which is being treated now and he's picking up.

just a thought as my vet said he wasn't ill !!!

Firstly I'm NO expert whatsoever.

When mine was around the 10 month mark she stopped eating. Loads of weight fell off of her. She's skinny anyway and it takes a lot to make her fat. Apparently its not unusual (in my breed anyways) for them to get picky at that age. I've heard a lot of stories of dogs not really eating/stopping eating around the 10-12 month mark.

I was feeding Burns at that time, I changed her food to a slightly higher protein/fat content and she started eating again and the weight came back.
Thats just my personal experience.

Hope you figure it out : )

You are quite right Buzz, and the change of food has helped, and you know, there are a lot on here who have said at one time or another, that Burns makes their dogs lose weight. ;)

I wonder how Danny is getting on? Any updates yet Danny? :)