Help - dog won’t eat!

[DanceItOut]

Ok, I am currently dogsitting my mums jack Russell and she won’t eat her dinner. This is day 3 now and all she’s eaten is a small amount of chicken that fell out of my sandwich at lunchtime today. I obviously don’t want to go feeding her things that will make her even less likely to eat her dinner but I also don’t know how long I should leave her not eating. She seems otherwise well in herself and I would think maybe she was just a bit down about being away from her home and owners but this has never happened before. She’s known me my husband and my son all of her life and we have had her at ours to dogsit a four times a year for the past two years. This will be year 3. This has never happened before and nothing is different. Any suggestions?

[SolitudeAtAltitude]

I'd feed her bits of chicken

Seriously, as well as leaving her normal kibble out.

I once dogsat a friend's dog, who would not eat the kibble. I tore my hair out! After a week, friend confessed dog was spoilt and only likes human.food, and she hoped that dog going "cold turkey" at mine would "reset" her....

Maybe your dog has had lots more treat food at home than you know?

[DanceItOut]

She’s normally allowed treats but only after humans are done eating. Usually it’s a corner of toast at breakfast but that’s about it. So we do similar. I allow the kids to share a tiny piece of their toast with her in the morning but only once they’re finished eating as that’s how my parents have always raised their dogs to prevent food theft and jumping up at us when we were kids. Part of me is wondering if maybe she’s bored of the food. She has been eating the same brand of meat and biscuits for the past several years so maybe changing it might help? I mean I’m find feeding her chicken or leftover meat and veg if that’s fine for her but I don’t want to end up wrecking her diet if she’s just having a sulk or pushing her luck because she knows that she gets more attention here (because A: there’s more people to cuddle up too and B: I’m home nearly all day so she isn’t left alone for more than an hour at a time).

[ineedaholidaynow]

Is she drinking?

[SolitudeAtAltitude]

Poor doggo, imagine eating the same factory produced junk every day

[DanceItOut]

Yes she’s still drinking and acting fine.

And it’s not really my decision what the dog gets fed as it’s not my dog. It’s not cheap supermarket dog food she has. It’s pretty pricey and reasonable quality sealed tubs not just cheap tins. She may well be bored of eating the same food I don’t know and I can try a different brand while she is here and see if it’ll help but the reason she’s had the same brand for so long is because the vet told my mum that it have upset dogs tummies to change their food around unless you do it gradually mixing the old with the new.

[Spanneroo]

Our (65kg) Great Dane X stopped eating all of a sudden because one time the (3.5kg) cat told him to sod off as she walked past his food bowl (because he got too close, not because she was guarding his food). He misinterpreted this to mean he was no longer allowed food. You don't have a cat do you?

We moved the bowl, and all was fine again. Could try putting it somewhere else?

[MissShapesMissStakes]

Can you make it more interesting by ‘hiding’ the food in a kong, box of some other toy? Then you aren’t actually giving her the food. She’s finding it for herself.