Ways to stimulate a dogs appetite?

[SarahFair]

My Mary Jane wont eat for a whole day sometimes...
She learned real quick if she doesnt get it when it is set out she wont get anything at all. I do not feed my dogs any kinds of scraps. I use to and they became picky eaters only wanting the scraps..
They got hungry and they ate their dog food

 

[redhen]

another thing i think of is..
My dogs know that i am alpha..
So.. i wonder if Daisy is just being respectful to me when she wont eat? (in her doggie mind..because dosent the alpha eat first?? or no??)... I have to tell her..its okay.. go eat.. and nudge her to eat sometimes... and sometimes i actually have to take food out of the bowl and offer it to her..hand feed her a few bites... then she'll start to eat on her own...
I dont know...she drives me crazy sometimes..
My males not like that... he'll eat whatever you put in front of him right away...

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

Quote:

Grit, Foenix is about 87-90 pounds. He is tall at 27.5 inches at the shoulder. He *sounds* like he should weigh 100+ pounds but his weight is ideal. He is an athletic dog, with high energy. So is Jax. Don't compare Kane and Jax, you have similar but also quite different genetics working. Also Kane looks so much bigger, partially, because he has more coat. Dogs gain 2/3 (at least) of their adult weight by the time they are 6 months old. So Kane being so large as compared to Jax isn't an issue at all.

Here is what I would do to stimulate Jax's appetite. It has little to do with what he actually eats but *how* he sees the food (aka resource) gained from you. If you start making him work for his meal (more than just a sit stay or down stay) he might feel more inclined to eat. More excited about getting his resource as a reward for working for you. Try giving him his meals in parts after doing some obedience, sits, downs, stays, come--all fast and with high expectiations. Reward with a protion of his kibble. Use the time to train him new stuff, even parlor tricks is training and might make his food seem more "special".

Do you understand what i am saying? I have had to do this with dogs in my home for training before and it works wonders.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:

Grit, Foenix is about 87-90 pounds. He is tall at 27.5 inches at the shoulder. He *sounds* like he should weigh 100+ pounds but his weight is ideal. He is an athletic dog, with high energy. So is Jax. Don't compare Kane and Jax, you have similar but also quite different genetics working. Also Kane looks so much bigger, partially, because he has more coat. Dogs gain 2/3 (at least) of their adult weight by the time they are 6 months old. So Kane being so large as compared to Jax isn't an issue at all.

Here is what I would do to stimulate Jax's appetite. It has little to do with what he actually eats but *how* he sees the food (aka resource) gained from you. If you start making him work for his meal (more than just a sit stay or down stay) he might feel more inclined to eat. More excited about getting his resource as a reward for working for you. Try giving him his meals in parts after doing some obedience, sits, downs, stays, come--all fast and with high expectiations. Reward with a protion of his kibble. Use the time to train him new stuff, even parlor tricks is training and might make his food seem more "special".

Do you understand what i am saying? I have had to do this with dogs in my home for training before and it works wonders.

Thanks. We'll try this.
Funny thing just happened. I took my DH his evening meds. and a small glass of water to take them with. For some reason Jax was very interested in that little glass of water, so after DH was done we let Jax smell the glass; which got him all the more excited. So I took the small amount of water remaining in the glass and with Jax watching me, poured it into his water dish (which was just filled with fresh cool water. Jax drank like he has never drank water before.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Red, we always make the dogs wait until we eat before giving them their meals. Maybe you need to eat first or eat a little bit of Daisy's food before she will.

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

Sounds to me like a dog used to getting a lot of interaction with feeding and likes it a lot. Him thinking the water was so special is funny but shows he loves the attention. LOL try more obedience, difficult stuff and only leaving food down for about five mins.

 

[redhen]

Quote:
Red, we always make the dogs wait until we eat before giving them their meals. Maybe you need to eat first or eat a little bit of Daisy's food before she will.

num..num... kibble...

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

Most of my GSDs only seem to eat one meal a day starting at or around their first birthday. Some start it earlier and some a bit later. It just sounds to me like Jax is ready to give up one of those meals. Feeding once a day, most of my GSDs only ate about 3-4 cups of kibble a day. Jax sounds normal to me.

HTH


Rusty

 

[MetalSmitten]

Quote:
sorry if you already know this, but a lot of people don't so i thought i'd mention it: it's preferable to try to give them two meals if they'll eat it, especially big active dogs because they can develop bloat (which is deadly for dogs). it's caused by eating a single large meal once a day, which raises the chances of the full stomach twisting on itself. if your pup chooses to only eat once a day, just be careful with him and don't let him jump or run around for the hour or so right after he eats, since that's what can cause the stomach to twist.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Ive read for picky eaters, put the bowl down, leave it down for 15 or so min. then take it away. If you feed 2x a day, do that for both meals. If he doesnt eat, he doesnt get anything till tomorrow. Usually by day 3 the dog starts eating all of his meals.