Problem:
Picky eaters
Hi
Shannon
Once again, and as always, your article on aggression
while eating I found very interesting, but this time
I would like to put a question to you. I have an imported
Toy dog that I am showing at the moment. He arrived
at the age of 15 months but refused to eat out of a
bowl. Most times he refuses to eat completely, except
out of my hand. I have tried not to feed him at all
he but then he will skip eating for up to 3 days. In
desparation, I give up and feed him by hand again. He
is now 18 months and I am still battling with him because
he loses weight whilst not eating. I now have a bitch
in season and it is even worse. What can I do to rectify
this problem? I am scared that one day I will not be
at home for a while then he will most certainly starve.
Thanks once again for the lovely articles and advice.
Kind regards
Worried
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Dear
Worried,
The
very first thought that comes to mind is health. I am
pretty sure that you would have already had that train
of thought, but for the benefit of our more novice readers
I would like to state the basic procedure when faced
with sudden appetite loss in their dogs.
When
a dog's behaviour suddenly changes, it is more often
than not a situation of health being the cause. In the
case of appetite loss, the first wise action is to have
the dog thoroughly checked by a vet. The check may also
be for chronic conditions and may include x-rays, blood
panels, smears etc. There are numerous acute causes
for appetite loss, such as broken teeth, mouth wounds,
intestinal obstruction, nausea, fever etc.
However
in this case this dog has apparently always displayed
this behaviour and in the absence of a medical trigger
we can safely assume the cause to be behavioural.
It
would appear that this problem is a combination of genetics
and learned behaviour:
Genetics
Toy breeds often present with behaviour problems quite
unlike those of larger breeds. Due to deliberate selection
for a smaller size (which is most contradictory to natural
selection) individuals that may not have been naturally
viable are propagated. Unfortunately fashions and exaggerations
aggravate this situation. These naturally unviable dogs
tend to have an inherent lower instinct for self-preservation.
They are sometimes hand-raised which further compounds
the problem.
In
the same vein, the smaller litters that occur with Toy
breeds mean less competition amongst littermates. To
illustrate my point, it is very rare to have low appetite
as a problem in one of the larger breeds. When a puppy
has had to compete with eight or ten littermates since
birth, it tends to develop a more possessive approach
to resources throughout his life.
So
you should aim to give him some competition when feeding,
which will hopefully trigger some kind of possessive
behaviour. Employ one of your other dogs that has a
good appetite, but not a bossy dog as this would have
the opposite effect. You can feed by hand initially.
Place some food on your hand and offer it to the male.
Try and restrain the other dog, but let it see the food
and get excited about it. "Accidently" let
go of the other dog and let it eat the food. You can
even say something like: "Oh no. Too late, you
missed out".
Watch
the male carefully for any signs of aggression. If he
has very low food drive he should not behave aggressively,
but it is wise to be cautious. Hopefully after a couple
of repetitions he'll realise he is losing out. Allow
him to "win" sometimes, but don't let him
get every piece. This should build his food drive. If
he were to win every piece then the motivator (competition)
is lost.
If
this is successful you should be able to transfer this
procedure to a bowl on the ground using the same principle,
but not actually allowing the other dog to get the food.
You can place your hand in the bowl initially. If it
looks like he may be leaving the bowl, allow the other
dog a bit closer. Once the feeding is complete please
give the other dog a discrete treat, as we don't want
to create a negative or possessive problem in the "competition
dog".
Please
bear in mind that we may actually be creating a problem
in order to resolve a problem. i.e. we are actually
teaching him to be a possessive eater so that he will
eat. This is not ideal, but hopefully you will strike
a happy balance between low and high food possessiveness.
Learned
Behaviour
No
healthy dog will willingly starve himself to death.
However this clever little guy has figured out that
if he holds out for long enough he gets you to cave
in. Caving in just once will strengthen the behaviour
immeasurably. He obviously finds it more enjoyable to
eat from your hand than out of the bowl and he has learned
what to do to effect this change in your behaviour.
He has also probably learned that if he shows disinterest
that the stakes (pardon the pun) are raised. Coaxing
with delicious food only reinforces this manipulative
behaviour.
Normally
I would suggest a "tough love" approach. In
other words you offer him food in the bowl and leave
it and him alone. You come back in five minutes and
take the bowl away irrespective of whether he has eaten
or not. After a couple of days he will eat any food
placed in his bowl. However you have gone down this
road and it was not successful (in fact he came out
tops), so let's go with another approach.
First
of all no food should be left down during the day at
all. All this does is negate the value of the food.
Prior to a meal have about 15 minutes of light to moderate
activity such as walks with a bit of trotting. This
should prepare him on a physiological level to eat.
To
get him eating food per se, I would suggest using some
kind of tasty treat that the dog has never had before.
However it must be given to all the dogs otherwise we
are back to square one. Perhaps drying out liver and
crushing into powder and sprinkling on the food? Maybe
a bit of natural yoghurt or some dirty tripe?
Whatever
he doesn't finish you take away and make a big show
of giving it (and the resulting attention) to the other
dogs. If he tries to push in then to get some food or
attention make a big effort to ignore him and although
it will be tempting do not give him any food. It will
only take a couple of repetitions of this before he
realises that not only does not eating his food mean
it gets taken away, but in a bizarre twist the other
dogs get his food and his attention.
This
is a hard approach, but his health is more important
than a slightly bruised ego.
I
have heard claims of alfalfa and vitamin B increasing
appetite, but this should be checked with your vet.
Likewise there are some drugs available that stimulate
appetite in dire situations and a vet would be the best
person to speak to about this.
Best
of luck
Shannon