Why Won’t Your Dog Eat out of the Food Bowl

Dogs have all kinds of strange habits that not even professionals can understand. One common behavior is when they refuse to eat their food out of the bowl. Dogs will take a mouth full of kibble to another location of the room, empty it on the floor and then proceed to eat. This seems absurd to us when we are providing them with a perfectly clean and comfortable place to enjoy a meal. Not to mention the mess of crumbs they leave on your carpet.

Three possible reasons for this:

1. Our four-legged family members come from a long line of dominant canine. In order for their ancestors to savor a meal without any interruption, they had to drag their prey away from their fellow pack. Your dog could just simply be following his instincts.
2. Some dogs cant stand the noise a metal food bowl makes. If your dog has one of those they could the sound could be increasing their anxiety or stressing them out.
3. Your dog may not like being watched while he eats so he moves to a more discrete area of the home. Lets be honest, humans don’t find that comfortable either. This could mean they are shy or because his internal ancestors are telling him that his food needs to be guarded, even from you.

How do you solve this eating habit?

1. Always check with your dog’s veterinarian before attempting to steer them away from a behavioral issue. There could be health reasons behind their actions and its impossible to solve those problems on your own.
2. Before you begin training think back on your pup’s history. If he’s ever had a bad experience with his food bowl he might have some degree of trauma now. Has a loud noise ever scared him while he was eating out of it? For example, an alarm, something falling over, or thunder may have startled him. Something could have happened with his previous owners as well. We recommend moving their food bowl to a different room around the house. This change of scenery should help them cope with their fear.
3. Switch up his food bowl. This may sound silly but certain dogs are just picky, whether it’s the look, shape or the way it scrapes the bottom of the bowl they will refuse it until we make it right.
4. Try adding a few special treats to his bowl every other night. One sniff of grilled chicken and he won’t be able to resist the tasty treat inside.
5. When everyone watches their dog eat they can get easily distracted. They will either be too worried about what their family is up too or they will be over protective of their food and try to run away with it. In this case, move their bowl to a more private area that’s a little more condensed. Now they will only have their food to focus on.

We hope these tips were helpful. If you are still having issues with your dogs eating habits, check out the private training lessons we offer here at Sit Means Sit. Our professional trainers will work with all of your dog’s individual needs. Give us a call today for a free evaluation at (508) 444-8878.