Think we have another issue with FDog

[shelldockley]

I've posted a few times now about our foster dog and you've all been so helpful:) Any ideas on this?

He has a bit of a food issue though which I'm struggling to figure out. He has obviously been trained in the past to wait until he is told to eat his food. Sometimes he is there waiting when we dish up his kibble and we'll tell him to go have his dinner, he will keep looking for confirmation, sometimes he will run scared looking back to his bed, sometimes he will go out to his food in the kitchen and run straight back out looking for more confirmation. This might happen a couple of times and eventually he will eat it all up. He won't eat if we are in the kitchen with him.

Other times, he won't even get up from his bed when his food is dished up, maybe he isn't hungry, but if we persevere as above, he will sometimes end up eating it. Or he will wait until we go out and then eat it all.

He is very underweight and when he does eat, he eats the whole bowl full so I don't think it's that he doesn't like the food, or isn't hungry. It's like he's waiting for some kind of cue that we don't know!

Have you tried saying 'take'. Very common release command for feeding.

I've not heard of that, thanks, will give it a go!

I use 'take it' with mine to release them to eat.

What breed is he? I know a few dogs that won't eat if there's someone else in the room, but they're all Salukis or Saluki crosses.

If he's been rescued as a result of a cruelty case it could also be that food was used as a punishment, which would also affect his behaviour around it.

My staffie x was found starving. When we rehomed her she ran and hid every time she saw the food bowl. She wouldn't eat if we were in the same room so we left her with her food and shut the door. She would eat something but continued to have food issues - we found time and changing to raw feeding sorted this out. She now wolfs her food down but we have to watch her weight as she loses condition really easily.

He's a lurcher, could have some saluki in him! He was a poundie so no history but we suspect from his reactions he's been beaten poor boy

Matzi your poor girl I'd love to try raw but as we might not have him for long I think it's easier to stick to the kibble for now, glad you're girl is thriving on it, might be good for FDog in his forever home

The app is playing up and my phone and will only fit short replies! Tried 'take/take it' tonight and no reaction! Brought his food into the living room by his bed and he ate it! Maybe he's just too lazy to get up!

I'm a vet. Don't feed raw food. It can be dangerous. I've recently seen several cases of neosporosis in dogs fed a popular commercial raw food. All bar one died miserably despite treatment and the only survivor went through misery.
www.capcvet.org/capc-recommendations/canine-neosporosis/
I hope your dog gets happier soon. I'm sure he will.

Maybe he's just too lazy to get up!

Well he is a Lurcher! I have two myself, but the really lazy one is highly food motivated - in fact any hint of food and that's when he moves the fastest! I do know quite a few Saluki and Saluki crosses that are very funny around food though.

Well done for fostering him.

villanous the majority of raw feeders don't tend to feed commercially prepared foods and the average raw-fed diet wouldn't include bovine placental tissues or fetal membranes, so statistically, the chances of your average raw-fed dog contracting neosporosis must be very small.

There are lots of considerations to be made when deciding to go raw and it's a decision very few people take lightly. It's useful to hear about things like neosporosis so that people can make a properly informed decision, but given the epidemic levels of obesity and health problems caused by the vast majority of commercially manufactured wet and dry dogs foods, it's hardly fair when vets state outright that dogs should never be fed raw - especially when there are plenty of vets that feed their own dogs raw

Fwiw, mine aren't currently raw fed, but I have fed raw in the past and would again if I had the facilities and felt it were appropriate for the individual dogs I had in my care at the time.