Not eating from one of us

[whatsthecomingoverthehill]

We recently stopped soaking the kibble for our 11 month cockapoo which threw her a bit. (We were only soaking for about 30 seconds but I think we should have stopped earlier). We hadn't had any issues really with her eating before.

She's been much better when I give her the food, but not when my DW does - she just ignores it or goes all whimpery. DW isn't being angry or anything with her so I'm not sure why, but it's frustrating and DW is getting upset that she can't feed her at the moment.

Is it best to carry on with DW trying to feed her? Or should I do the feeds for a while just to try and get back to it being a regular non-stressful thing? We're just concerned that if we do that we'll end up with her too used to only me doing her food.

You could carry on soaking the kibble?

We tried. Didn't help unfortunately. Only thing that did help was putting a bit of cheese in. But this is all just with DW, she eats fine when I do her food, so we tend to feel we shouldn't be trying to force it too much.

I also wonder why you feel you need to stop soaking the kibble.

Seems a bit odd that she's accepting the food from one person but not another, perhaps she just doesn't like it much and feels more able to show that to you DW.

Dogs do get bored with food sometimes. However, if you want to feed her that particular food put it down for her, if she hasn't eaten it in 20 minutes, pick it up and then don't feed her again until the next scheduled time.

After a couple of days of doing that she's should be happy to eat what she's being offered.

I have a Cockapoo. We mix one third wet with 2/3 dry kibble and lots of fresh water bowls. We feed Barking Heads.
Put the food down on a fresh plate and leave it for 15 mins. Don't make any eye contact with the dog or respond to whimpers. If the meals not been eaten after 15 mins dump it and remove the dish. Try and again and repeat the same process later. Your dog won't starve .....Cockapoos are clever and the pup is using food like a toddler to manipulate you. Don't give cheese or any other goodies for a while until feeds are back on track. Don't make feeds a big event and ideally feed after your own meals if you can.

one of my GSDs was iffy about taking food from other people, and would hungerstrike if I was away. Usually only the one meal though as he was not determined enough to starve himself for a whole day.
Also he went through a phase of not eating if I was not in the room!

We tried all sorts and sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't

We just went with it really, he only ever got his usual food, plus any titbits that might happen to be around but if he wouldn't eat it, then too bad, no extra to entice him

He was definitely worse when we were over feeding, so it might be worth reviewing the amount you are giving vs recommendations?

Does your wife wear perfume?

Thanks everyone.

• No perfume.
• We stopped soaking mainly because we had got down to such a small time anyway and we thought (perhaps wrongly) that you should stop soaking as they got older. There do seem to be a variety of opinions on the benefits or otherwise.
• We're not doing any treats with it any more. That was more to try and get her used to it. Maybe we shouldn't have.

There does seem to be an attention thing with it. When I've been doing the food I've just put it down and said her food is there and she's had it. What we don't know is whether to just do the same when DW has it and if she doesn't eat then so be it. Or for me to do her food for a while and hope she forgets about whatever it is that's making her play up.

DDog wont eat dry kibble, we just add water. Can't see a reason not to tbh.

The problem is that she still plays up with DW even when we did go back to soaking. It doesn't seem to be soaking that's the issue any more even if stopping was the trigger for whatever it was. But we could give it a go again and see if it makes a difference this time.