My dog only eats human food. How do I get him to eat dog food?

It sounds like he has you trained just the way he wants you. The good news is a dog can go without eating for days if they are otherwise healthy. If he hasn't seen the vet lately, get him an appointment to make sure there isn't another reason for his inappetence. If he is cleared medically, determine how much and what kind of food he is supposed to have (feed the best quality diet you can afford to avoid future nutrition-based medical issues) and decide how many meals you want him to have during that day. Put the food for his morning meal down, give him twenty minutes or so to eat and then take it up and put it away. Don't give him treats unless it is for training or for performing something you've taught him to do correctly and not too many. When it is time for his next meal, put his food back down and give him another twenty minutes to eat. Whatever food is still in his bowl at the end of that time gets put away until the next meal time. It may take a few days, he may make you feel incredibly guilty with pitiful stares and whining, but he will get the idea and eventually eat what he is supposed to.

That is very common and unfortunately the only way to resolve this problem is not to give anymore human food but only his own. In the meantime you can try different flavor of dog food. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. Please find the time to give us a feedback about the consultation as that will be used to improve our service.

It's probably because she likes human food more than she likes her dog food. She should only be eating dog food, as too much human food isn't healthy for her. To get her back to eating her dog food only, I would mix the dog food and human food together, and over time, slowly decrease the amount of human food and increase the amount of dog food until she is eating dog food only. Do not give her any treats during this time, and once she is eating only dog food, do not give her any more human food.

He is testing his dominance and holding out for something better since he has now learned it will come You will have to get everyone to stop feeding him people food to start. It is best to mix a small amount of chicken or canned food or chicken broth in with his dry food to encourage him to go back to that. Once he realizes there is no human food coming then and he is on a schedule , then you can gradually decrease the amount of canned food or broth until he is completely on dry food again

You might consider trying canned food if you aren't doing so already. If you have, I would continue to keep trying other brands. You can also consider taking any brand of dog food and mixing in some chicken or scrambled eggs to spice things up. Just realize that if you do that you will be doing it forever since Jake will never want to go back. Also you will need to monitor Jake's caloric intake carefully since he is a small breed dog. Calories from chicken and eggs will add up quickly and can result in an overweight dog. As far as medication, obviously whatever you need to do to get the medication down is fine. I tell my clients that are having trouble to use sticky things like peanut butter, marshmallow fluff, cream cheese, so on and so forth. Given that Jake is a dog prone to coughing (I don't know anything about his medical history) it will be especially important to find something that he doesn't fuss about too much in order to avoid getting him into a fit of coughing or possible aspiration of materials into the lungs. Hope this makes sense. Let me know if I can assist you further.

This can be difficult. Finicky eaters are not uncommon with small breed dogs. Fixing this depends on how stubborn both you and Freya are. A dog who is healthy will not starve themselves to the point of illness. You can pick a high-quality food, I recommend the brands Royal Canin or Purina pro plan. Offer the diet and don’t offer her anything else. It is likely she will refuse the food and may do so for a couple days but eventually she will eat. You can try adding in canned food or meal toppers, a very small amount of shredded boiled chicken or some plain brown or white rice to make it more appealing. An alternative is to look into a diet more like fresh pet or Nom Nom pet food. These will be more like meals humans eat and you may have more successful. When you have a finicky eater, it is crucial not to offer any human food or food from your plate. Treats must be minimal. I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Dogs tend to try and hold out on the "healthy" stuff especially if more interesting things such as treats are available. If he is refusing to eat it is best to stop all people food and treats for a day to encourage him to eat his food instead. Most dogs will get hungry enough after a day to give their regular food a try.