How to make my dog eat when she doesn't want to?

Who would have thought? Of all the dogs in the world, I chose the one who refuses to eat anything I put in front of her. One day she’ll absolutely devour her breakfast, and then the next day she’s suddenly on a hunger strike, refusing to eat unless you spoon feed her. Sound familiar? Probably not… because this is a very rare case! From my experience, most dogs tend to be food motivated. I’ve had to replace my fridge and install child-locks on all my cupboards because my Beagle would absolutely devour everything in the kitchen while I was at work. I’ve had a Labrador eat 24 oatmeal muffins fresh from the oven in the time it took for me to go and put the laundry in the dryer. I’ve had an Airedale tear apart my garbage because he smelled the parchment paper that had been used in some recent baking….So when I got my German Shepherd, I expected it to be the same. Boy was I ever wrong!

Darcy was already 3 months old when I rescued her from a breeder. As a puppy, she had adapted to mass feeding, where the breeder would fill a massive bowl full of puppy-food and let the puppies fight for their dinner. So when I first got her, she would absolutely wolf down her food, to the point where she would finish her dinner in about 15 seconds and then would immediately be sick. This was easily fixed by simply changing out her food dish for a slow-feed dish that would essentially make her work for her food. This worked great! However, as Darcy got older, around the 9-month mark, I realized how unenthusiastic she was about eating. Every morning I would have to coax her over to her food dish and sit next to her to make sure she ate. Sometimes she would go up to 48 hours without eating. And we tried EVERYTHING – new kinds of foods, new bowls, different quantities – You name it, we tried it! Worried about this behaviour, I met with not only my veterinarian but also my trainer to discuss what was wrong with my pup. Shocker: SHE WAS IN PERFECT HEALTH. Both of them told me that some dogs, although a minority, are simply not that interested in food – however it is necessary that they do eat. Relieved to hear that my puppy was in good health, I began to think about ways in which I could encourage my puppy into eating.

If you’re experiencing the same kinds of issues mentioned above, take a look at the following techniques I use to get my pup eating!

Technique 1: Encouragement

Although it may seem silly, you should continuously give positive reinforcement to your pup once they have finished their meal. As time goes on, this associates their action of eating as being a good thing. This is especially important for German Shepherds as they are known as being a kind of dog that strives to please their owners. As such, they tend to act based on what will give them positive rewards and in turn please their owners.  

Technique 2: Supplements

Darcy loves peppers. Yellow peppers, orange peppers and red peppers but not green peppers (green ones are gross so I don’t blame her). A quick and easy way to get your dog eating is by supplementing their kibble with something they love – something they see as a treat. When Darcy is not interested in her meal, I will simply cut up a few peppers and hide them in the bottom of her bowl, covered by her kibble. She not only sees me doing this by she can also smell her treats in the bottom of the bowl and as such she eats her kibble until she reaches her beloved peppers.

Technique 3: Timing

A technique used by my trainer had to do with a “feeding period”. Essentially, your dog has two 15-minute windows to eat, or else they do not get any more food. In this instance, you place your dog’s food bowl on the ground and remove it after 15 minutes, regardless whether or not they have touched it. As time passes, the dog will begin to realize that they have a specific time in which they must eat. This way if your dog sees their food being served they are motivated to eat as they know they won’t have the opportunity to eat until dinner time (which, in dog years, is an eternity). 

Technique 4: Turn it into a Game

German Shepherds are notorious for requiring lots of physical and mental exercise. Darcy absolutely loves mental stimulation. So, we combined what she loved with her eating schedule. On some days when Darcy isn’t interested in eating, we play one of her favorite games: Find-It. Find-it is a kind of hide-go-seek game where we place Darcy in a room and close the door – once the door is closed, we go and hide one of her favourite toys. Once we’ve found a good hiding spot, we let Darcy go and tell her to Find-it. Using her nose (and her ears – she listens to our footsteps when we’re hiding her toy), Darcy searches the house for her toy. Upon finding it she is immediately rewarded with positive reinforcement (some cheering and some belly rubs) as well as a handful of kibbles. Within the excitement, she tends to wolf down the kibble as she sees it as being a reward. By playing games similar to Find-it, it tricks Darcy into believing that what she is consuming is actually a treat! As the game continues, we start using the kibble itself as the object hidden, so that upon finding it, Darcy can immediately consume her “reward”.

What we learned is that Darcy is hungry, but she's just not interested in eating. However, if we can get her to just eat a few kibbles, it flicks the switch in her stomach and she begins eating her meal. We call it: Jump-Starting her stomach. Odds are, your dog is experiencing the same thing - essentially they don't notice how hungry they are until they get a taste of what they're missing out on. 

If you’re interested in learning more tips and tricks or are interested in following my journey with my German Shepherd pup, follow me on my social media and make sure to keep on eye on my latest blog posts!