Hi all, I'm just wondering if anyone else has ever had a similar issue: Tatti (nearly 1) has recently started to refuse to eat her food from her bowl. If I pick it up (luckily it's kibble) then she will eat it but won't touch it if left in the bowl. I've tried a few different bowls and I've tried moving it to different places but she just sniffs it and then looks at me, tail wagging. If I try to encourage her she'll nudge me or my hand and then look back up at me- I think she definitely wants the food, she's just not taking it. We do have a cue for her to eat ('go on then') and I'm wondering if she isn't recognising it so thinks she can't start. She is very good with waiting until she is given the cue- I can put food down and leave the house (for a few minutes) and if I haven't said so she won't eat (although she will drool an awful lot). Also, my husband recently left for a stag holiday so she might be a bit sad to lose her play mate (he doesn't ever feed her but does play with her a lot). I thought maybe she might be feeling a bit needy? They are my only two hypothesis, is this something she'll just get over? Should I just leave the food and wait for her to eat it when she's ready? Not too sure how to handle it. For context, she is definitely one of those labs who will eat anything and everything. Even when she is unwell she still eats. She's also sleeping a little bit more than usual but I had put that down to the heat (uk 'heat').
If she will eat food from the floor or your hand on her cue 'go on then' it's something about the bowl. Try to look at what it might be - does her tag rattle against the bowl? Have you been taking up the bowl when she moves towards it in impulse control exercises etc? Try to remove anything negative associated with bowls, then try putting just a really lovely bit of sausage or something in it, and let her have it - continue with just tiny bits of lovely treats and work up from there.
I think she thinks she's not allowed to eat. I think you've gone a bit far with the 'wait to eat' thing. And maybe she now associates the 'waiting for the cue' with the bowl - that is, the bowl powerfully signals the need to wait to eat. Just give her the food on the floor or in a Kong or something totally un-bowl like. And stop making her wait and using a cue - let her eat as soon as the food is down.
A couple good ideas there. I agree that perhaps trying with something totally unlike a bowl and just putting it down and letting her eat would be a good idea. I would suspect it's more likely something to do with the cue or with a negative association with the bowl as Julie suggested rather than that your hubby is away.
