The Finicky Eater

Food is an incredibly important thing to dogs – usually.  A dog that eats well and is “food motivated” is much easier to live with for many reasons.

 In training, food becomes a very good pay check for doing a good job. (Yes, dogs need a pay check just like we do when we do a good job!) Food is not a bribe if the dog works for that tasty morsel. What makes training harder is a dog that doesn’t care much about food.  When we train, a dog’s “pay check” must be something he values and he does not have easy access to.  For we humans, giving food as a pay check becomes a huge advantage. Food is easy for us to control, much easier than toys.

In a dog’s world, food comes from the leader. So, giving a dog a treat for a good job puts us human handlers/owners in a very important position of respect in the dog’s eyes.  A dog that does not respect his owner will not listen. This is one of the chief complaints I hear; “My dog won’t listen to me!”  Or, “My dog won’t come when he is called!”  Usually, the reason for that is that the dog either was not formally taught those behaviors and properly proofed or the dog does not respect his owner. Controlling the dog’s food is one way to gain his respect right away!

Many times, we humans get worried if our dog doesn’t eat when we put his meal down, so we leave it out hoping our dog will eat more, later.  While this seems logical, it is not the best way to get a dog to eat his food. He now becomes a finicky eater and food pay checks become less important to him, making training more difficult.

The solution?  There can be many. First, check to see that your dog is eating a quality food.  Many dog foods contain a plethora of grains which can become moldy in a dog food bag even before you bring it home. Some foods can contain meats that come from questionable sources.  In a nutshell, the food can be rancid so your dog doesn’t WANT to eat it.  

What is most difficult for us, but usually most successful for the dog is to feed your dog regular meals. Once your dog walks away from the dish, you take the dish away until the next meal.  It seems counter intuitive, but in most cases this works.  

When training, sometimes, feeding a dog only when he works for it will increase his motivation.  Each day at mealtime, put his food in a bowl.  Holding the bowl, have him work for his meal handful by handful by doing sits, downs, watch, etc. .  When the food comes from your hand, it can greatly increase your relationship with your dog and teach him better eating habits.

While it may seem mean to us, controlling the things that are important to dogs, especially food, can positively influence the way a dog sees you, increase his motivation to listen to you, and help him have better eating habits.

Caption:  We can influence finicky eaters in a positive way by asking our dog to work for each regular meal.  Here Kalidor works for the food in his bowl: “Down” and “Watch.”Food is an incredibly important thing to dogs – usually.  A dog that eats well and is “food motivated” is much easier to live with for many reasons.

 In training, food becomes a very good pay check for doing a good job. (Yes, dogs need a pay check just like we do when we do a good job!) Food is not a bribe if the dog works for that tasty morsel. What makes training harder is a dog that doesn’t care much about food.  When we train, a dog’s “pay check” must be something he values and he does not have easy access to.  For we humans, giving food as a pay check becomes a huge advantage. Food is easy for us to control, much easier than toys.

In a dog’s world, food comes from the leader. So, giving a dog a treat for a good job puts us human handlers/owners in a very important position of respect in the dog’s eyes.  A dog that does not respect his owner will not listen. This is one of the chief complaints I hear; “My dog won’t listen to me!”  Or, “My dog won’t come when he is called!”  Usually, the reason for that is that the dog either was not formally taught those behaviors and properly proofed or the dog does not respect his owner. Controlling the dog’s food is one way to gain his respect right away!

Many times, we humans get worried if our dog doesn’t eat when we put his meal down, so we leave it out hoping our dog will eat more, later.  While this seems logical, it is not the best way to get a dog to eat his food. He now becomes a finicky eater and food pay checks become less important to him, making training more difficult.

The solution?  There can be many. First, check to see that your dog is eating a quality food.  Many dog foods contain a plethora of grains which can become moldy in a dog food bag even before you bring it home. Some foods can contain meats that come from questionable sources.  In a nutshell, the food can be rancid so your dog doesn’t WANT to eat it.  

What is most difficult for us, but usually most successful for the dog is to feed your dog regular meals. Once your dog walks away from the dish, you take the dish away until the next meal.  It seems counter intuitive, but in most cases this works.  

When training, sometimes, feeding a dog only when he works for it will increase his motivation.  Each day at mealtime, put his food in a bowl.  Holding the bowl, have him work for his meal handful by handful by doing sits, downs, watch, etc. .  When the food comes from your hand, it can greatly increase your relationship with your dog and teach him better eating habits.

While it may seem mean to us, controlling the things that are important to dogs, especially food, can positively influence the way a dog sees you, increase his motivation to listen to you, and help him have better eating habits.

Caption:  We can influence finicky eaters in a positive way by asking our dog to work for each regular meal.  Here Kalidor works for the food in his bowl: “Down” and “Watch.”Food is an incredibly important thing to dogs – usually.  A dog that eats well and is “food motivated” is much easier to live with for many reasons.

 In training, food becomes a very good pay check for doing a good job. (Yes, dogs need a pay check just like we do when we do a good job!) Food is not a bribe if the dog works for that tasty morsel. What makes training harder is a dog that doesn’t care much about food.  When we train, a dog’s “pay check” must be something he values and he does not have easy access to.  For we humans, giving food as a pay check becomes a huge advantage. Food is easy for us to control, much easier than toys.

In a dog’s world, food comes from the leader. So, giving a dog a treat for a good job puts us human handlers/owners in a very important position of respect in the dog’s eyes.  A dog that does not respect his owner will not listen. This is one of the chief complaints I hear; “My dog won’t listen to me!”  Or, “My dog won’t come when he is called!”  Usually, the reason for that is that the dog either was not formally taught those behaviors and properly proofed or the dog does not respect his owner. Controlling the dog’s food is one way to gain his respect right away!

Many times, we humans get worried if our dog doesn’t eat when we put his meal down, so we leave it out hoping our dog will eat more, later.  While this seems logical, it is not the best way to get a dog to eat his food. He now becomes a finicky eater and food pay checks become less important to him, making training more difficult.

The solution?  There can be many. First, check to see that your dog is eating a quality food.  Many dog foods contain a plethora of grains which can become moldy in a dog food bag even before you bring it home. Some foods can contain meats that come from questionable sources.  In a nutshell, the food can be rancid so your dog doesn’t WANT to eat it.  

What is most difficult for us, but usually most successful for the dog is to feed your dog regular meals. Once your dog walks away from the dish, you take the dish away until the next meal.  It seems counter intuitive, but in most cases this works.  

When training, sometimes, feeding a dog only when he works for it will increase his motivation.  Each day at mealtime, put his food in a bowl.  Holding the bowl, have him work for his meal handful by handful by doing sits, downs, watch, etc. .  When the food comes from your hand, it can greatly increase your relationship with your dog and teach him better eating habits.

While it may seem mean to us, controlling the things that are important to dogs, especially food, can positively influence the way a dog sees you, increase his motivation to listen to you, and help him have better eating habits.

Caption:  We can influence finicky eaters in a positive way by asking our dog to work for each regular meal.  Here Kalidor works for the food in his bowl: “Down” and “Watch.”Food is an incredibly important thing to dogs – usually.  A dog that eats well and is “food motivated” is much easier to live with for many reasons.

 In training, food becomes a very good pay check for doing a good job. (Yes, dogs need a pay check just like we do when we do a good job!) Food is not a bribe if the dog works for that tasty morsel. What makes training harder is a dog that doesn’t care much about food.  When we train, a dog’s “pay check” must be something he values and he does not have easy access to.  For we humans, giving food as a pay check becomes a huge advantage. Food is easy for us to control, much easier than toys.

In a dog’s world, food comes from the leader. So, giving a dog a treat for a good job puts us human handlers/owners in a very important position of respect in the dog’s eyes.  A dog that does not respect his owner will not listen. This is one of the chief complaints I hear; “My dog won’t listen to me!”  Or, “My dog won’t come when he is called!”  Usually, the reason for that is that the dog either was not formally taught those behaviors and properly proofed or the dog does not respect his owner. Controlling the dog’s food is one way to gain his respect right away!

Many times, we humans get worried if our dog doesn’t eat when we put his meal down, so we leave it out hoping our dog will eat more, later.  While this seems logical, it is not the best way to get a dog to eat his food. He now becomes a finicky eater and food pay checks become less important to him, making training more difficult.

The solution?  There can be many. First, check to see that your dog is eating a quality food.  Many dog foods contain a plethora of grains which can become moldy in a dog food bag even before you bring it home. Some foods can contain meats that come from questionable sources.  In a nutshell, the food can be rancid so your dog doesn’t WANT to eat it.  

What is most difficult for us, but usually most successful for the dog is to feed your dog regular meals. Once your dog walks away from the dish, you take the dish away until the next meal.  It seems counter intuitive, but in most cases this works.  

When training, sometimes, feeding a dog only when he works for it will increase his motivation.  Each day at mealtime, put his food in a bowl.  Holding the bowl, have him work for his meal handful by handful by doing sits, downs, watch, etc. .  WFood is an incredibly important thing to dogs – usually.  A dog that eats well and is “food motivated” is much easier to live with for many reasons.

 In training, food becomes a very good pay check for doing a good job. (Yes, dogs need a pay check just like we do when we do a good job!) Food is not a bribe if the dog works for that tasty morsel. What makes training harder is a dog that doesn’t care much about food.  When we train, a dog’s “pay check” must be something he values and he does not have easy access to.  For we humans, giving food as a pay check becomes a huge advantage. Food is easy for us to control, much easier than toys.

In a dog’s world, food comes from the leader. So, giving a dog a treat for a good job puts us human handlers/owners in a very important position of respect in the dog’s eyes.  A dog that does not respect his owner will not listen. This is one of the chief complaints I hear; “My dog won’t listen to me!”  Or, “My dog won’t come when he is called!”  Usually, the reason for that is that the dog either was not formally taught those behaviors and properly proofed or the dog does not respect his owner. Controlling the dog’s food is one way to gain his respect right away!

Many times, we humans get worried if our dog doesn’t eat when we put his meal down, so we leave it out hoping our dog will eat more, later.  While this seems logical, it is not the best way to get a dog to eat his food. He now becomes a finicky eater and food pay checks become less important to him, making training more difficult.

The solution?  There can be many. First, check to see that your dog is eating a quality food.  Many dog foods contain a plethora of grains which can become moldy in a dog food bag even before you bring it home. Some foods can contain meats that come from questionable sources.  In a nutshell, the food can be rancid so your dog doesn’t WANT to eat it.  

What is most difficult for us, but usually most successful for the dog is to feed your dog regular meals. Once your dog walks away from the dish, you take the dish away until the next meal.  It seems counter intuitive, but in most cases this works.  

When training, sometimes, feeding a dog only when he works for it will increase his motivation.  Each day at mealtime, put his food in a bowl.  Holding the bowl, have him work for his meal handful by handful by doing sits, downs, watch, etc. .  When the food comes from your hand, it can greatly increase your relationship with your dog and teach him better eating habits.

While it may seem mean to us, controlling the things that are important to dogs, especially food, can positively influence the way a dog sees you, increase his motivation to listen to you, and help him have better eating habits.

Caption:  We can influence finicky eaters in a positive way by asking our dog to work for each regular meal.  Here Kalidor works for the food in his bowl: “Down” and “Watch.”hen the food comes from your hand, it can greatly increase your relationship with your dog and teach him better eating habits.

While it may seem mean to us, controlling the things that are important to dogs, especially food, can positively influence the way a dog sees you, increase his motivation to listen to you, and help him have better eating habits.

Caption:  We can influence finicky eaters in a positive way by asking our dog to work for each regular meal.  Here Kalidor works for the food in his bowl: “Down” and “Watch.”