Q&A with ‘The Paw Man’ (752) – Over Responsive Owners And Feeding Paula Dibsdale Hi... I have a very picky Siberian husky thats 3 yrs old. We have fostered him and are looking to adopt him but theres one problem. He is an extremely picky eater! What he eats one day he wont touch the next. I would love some advice on what could ignite his tastes as he was neglected I thought perhaps he had some hangover from this? I also have a Labrador whos 8mths and eats anything, well used to but shes learnt his behavior of turning it down means mum will make something else! Im not sure what is good food so to speak to offer a picky eater to entice them. Do I just continue with trial an error? Please help lol Paw Man The bottom line here is that a hungry dog will not starve himself just because he prefers other food. But an over fed dog will often turn his nose up at standard food but accept higher value food if you ‘upgrade’ it. The other contributory factor to the situation is if the dog has an over-responsive owner. The problem with over-responsive owners is that they are too sensitive to the dog ‘wants’ and under informed on the dogs ‘needs’. I have had civilian clients who panic if their dog doesn’t immediately eat all his food in one sitting….. and perish the thought the dog should approach the bowl and then turn his nose up at the food and then walk away. If you have a picky eater and you want to get back to a normal canine feeding routine you can do so amazingly quickly but it is you who will find this difficult…. You have most likely got the dog into this situation by over indulging the dog in the first place…… that being the case you will also be over-reactive to the cure….. Give the dog its normal ration of normal dog food….. no treats, no extras, no supplements of any kind. Place the dogs bowl down and look at your watch and note the time. Come back in 20 minutes time….. no matter how much food is left in the bowl, pick it up and remove it from the dogs access. Any dog will eat what it needs to eat in 20 minutes. If at the end of 20 minutes there is food left then the dog is no longer hungry and has eaten all it needs to eat. Repeat this for several days without cheating or deviating from the above. Some dogs over-reactive owners will have great difficulty following this simple solution and they will tend to panic if the dog turns his nose up and fails to eat the offered food for a couple of days. It is important to realise that youre tuning in too much to what the dog wants as opposed to tuning in to what the dog needs that has made the dog a picky eater in the first place. This is not a canine behavioral problem…. But rather it is a human procedural error caused by over indulgent dog owners.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 13:59:25 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015