My dog is a spoilt entitled diva. Help please.

[PooSlave]

I have an extremely fussy 7 year old ShihPoo. She is the fussiest and most stubborn dog I’ve ever owned.

I have tried every food known to man with her and she goes off it within days. I’ve tried raw feeding, she looked at me like I’d slaughtered her favourite stuffy when it was served. She wouldn’t even sniff it.

She’s predominately had a mixed wet and dry diet since being a pup, but in the last few months has rejected wet completely and now she’s turning her nose up at dry food.

I have noticed that removing the wet food has improved her itchy skin and slightly loose stools

She is currently sat ignoring her kibble bowl and sitting by the beef joint in our slow cooker looking sad and longingly. I admit to giving her human food if she refuses to eat because she gets sick and vomits bile if she doesn’t eat.

She likes the kibble on offer as she’s eaten it every morning for years. She just doesn’t want it and won’t eat it for her evening meal. I’ve tried adding toppers, eggs or fish oil to make it more appetising but she refuses.

I’ve tried using toys, games and slow feeders to interest her but to no avail.

She’s been checked out by the vet and she’s fine. Especially so as she’ll eat treats but not dog food. I don’t want to feed a homemade fresh diet as I don’t have time and already have 3 DC to feed.

I’ve tried every brand worth trying. What can I do to get her to eat? I’m at my wits end.

She isn't a madam she is a dog who has learned to get higher value food.
It's just another trained behaviour. You have taught her this is how she gets her high value food.

Why don't you give her a bit of what you are having onto her own food ? Or mix and match the wet you are giving her, my friends dog goes off food so they just change up the wet and keep the kibble, stop giving her your food she's waiting you out and winning, handfeed her some of her food to stop her bringing up bile.

I’ve only just got round to responding. TY for the replies. I agree tough love is needed and I started this yesterday.

I removed the stuffed kong from her breakfast and offered only kibble. She was not too happy and kept going to sit by her treat cupboard whining. I stood my ground and put kibble in her favourite toy. She gave up after a while and ate the kibble from her toy.

She’s now on a treat ban until her second meal of the evening. I did hand feed her some food last night but she only ate a small amount. This was the difference between her being sick though.

It was clear she was waiting for something better to come along as DC got her favourite thing ever (cheese) out of the fridge and she stopped eating to go and sit to wait for cheese (she didn’t get any!) .

That's good going it's so easy to give them a bit of this and that isn't it ? Sometimes I put a bit of water in my dogs dry food if he's being a bit fussy or I've bought the wrong wet he prefers gravy to jelly, the water brings a bit of flavour out, keep going I'm sure madam 😀 will get used to her new routine.

^ This I inherited my mother’s elderly dog who she swore only ate organic bloody meat from Waitrose! I fed her what I fed my dog good quality dried dog food twice a day. She sulked for three days didn’t even get off her chair day 4 she nibbled some, day five she ate all the morning food dat 6 she ate everything. She thenwent on and ate the food till she died. I didn’t need to take the bowl up after 15 mins my other dogs ate it but I would have done this if she’d been an only dog.

I'm amazed at all the DDogs lasting 3/4 days. Fluffy CrabOrange is clearly made of weaker stuff given his hunger strike only lasted a day.

One of my Chihuahuas used to retreat to his bed and pretend to be ill.Then I'd pull out a pack of ham to test him and he'd fly into the kitchen.Theyre not daft.

My girl is fussier than my cats and can easily go 3 days refusing offered food. One of us usually caves on day 3, but when I do its a compromise - she still doesn't get what she's holding out for, I just don't want her getting weak!

Anyway. Wet dog food is a treat or change to mix things up and she has fresh minced beef instead with the best quality kibble she'll eat (she doesn't like kibble). Sometimes I warm the meat just enough to release aromas and get juices oozing to tempt her which works pretty well, and I mix it up every few days with chicken and liver.

I had a Jack Russell as a child and her entire litter were divas. One of her siblings took 4 days to break but did eat dog food after that. Ours? My mum never had heart and that dog lived 16 happy years on a diet of steak mince, beef sausages and lambs liver loving cooked for her every night.

The thing is, a middle aged, small breed, presumably neutered, female is not going to need a lot of calories at all.

If she's getting bits of cheese or chicken, obviously she'll have no appetite for kibble.

And what about training treats, or dental sticks, or food toys? It all adds up.

I 100% agree with PPs that you're doing her no favours by giving in to her demands and offering alternatives to her dog food. Of course she won't eat her dog food in that case!

I can't believe how many dog foods you've tried ! The issue isn't the dog food, it's that you've taught her she gets chicken, cheese, etc. when she doesn't eat the dog food.

Choose a dog food, tell everyone in the house she's not allowed to get anything else, and she'll eat the food.

I honestly think you giving this so much headspace is part of the issue, as the more you focus on her not eating, the more she'll pick up on this, and beg.

As PPs have said, she may go a few days, but she'll be fine.

Obviously the bile vomiting isn't nice, but this should resolve once she's in the habit of a small bowl of dog food am and pm, but this isn't going to happen if you keep giving in to her.

You've got this!

That is some impressive show of stubbornness from a lab! Our girlie had had the same brand and flavour of kibble for over 10 months straight, and is still so excited by the same of stuff that we can even use it as a training reward 🤭 she is incredibly food motivated 😆😆

I can't comprehend fussy dogs, all of mine have been perpetually ravenous.

We cured a friends fussy eater when it came to stay with us, if it didn't eat its dinner then my dog did. It soon wised up. I think you just have to be firm as every one says.

Butchers tripe might be worth a go if you haven’t tried it yet?

My dog (a red setter) has been fussy since she was a little pup. We tried the stern approach - she lost a huge amount of weight, hip bones sticking out etc - we cracked before she did, and in the end she’ll eat 50/50 human food and kibble mixed (cooked chicken / pork / offal etc) or tins of butchers tripe. Nothing else will do.

My dog is a rescued street dog. He was in kennels for 2 months before I got him. The kibble he was fed was only £5 for an enormous bag. I know because the rescue would ask for donations to buy more of it.
I'm sure it was more cardboard than anything else. However he ate it otherwise he would have starved.
I've had him for 8 years and he's happy with Barking Heads. I don't feed him human food but he gets a daily treat of a fish skin which is apparently good for his teeth.
I don't really understand fussy dogs. I'm sure if you persisted s/he would eat it as they're not going to starve themselves.

I stand corrected as some of your dogs do seem to be able to starve themselves. I guess mine is too greedy.

Exactly what I was told to do and it worked! I have a stubborn beagle who I didn't think would back down, but she did!

That sounds similar to our experience, we swapped kibble and she has a little something on top of it everyday (fish/egg/wet food not steak and caviar!) and now she eats reliably. I wish I'd swapped earlier tbh, as her not eating caused me so much stress in the first year.

She still will skip a whole meal occasionally but that's ok. I just have to warn people if they're looking after her that she's not on deaths door as they think a Labrador refusing food is gravely ill. She's also fussy about chews.

Our other lab is a proper foodie.

My first dog starved himself because he didn’t like kibble. I feel awful looking back, but was told a dog won’t starve himself so persisted with the iambs kibble I’d researched was good at the time.
He was very skinny, but was a lurcher so it was expected.
He was a thief and would snatch food off your plate, which we put down to his street days.

I wish I could have my time again and raw feed him, spoil him rotten and feed him til he stole no more!

I think you had some bad advice there and I'm sorry you have regrets. I think we learn so much with our first dogs and often wish we could have our time again with our gained knowledge.

I think there's some mixed advice on this thread too. Bit too much stick and not enough carrot. What's wrong with making your dog's food a bit more tasty for them? Giving what they enjoy eating so long as it's healthy. Mine will eat anything (ex street dog) but I try to buy food that is good for her and she enjoys as I am sure many of us do.

. I think we learn so much with our first dogs and often wish we could have our time again with our gained knowledge

100%

Hunger is the best sauce

(works for fussy children too)

Hunger is the best sauce

That's really depressing

Our dog is similar. We spend good money on good food but you just can't "treat" him with pieces of meat or he'll absolutely starve himself waiting for you to feed him it again. If I give him some of our chicken or beef now - I mix it with his own food. This seems to prevent it happening.

He's extremely fussy but he does like the butternut boxes thank goodness. He'd no time for dog treats at all. Sometimes when we are walking another dog owner will ask can they give him a treat and he'll sniff it and walk away!

I have a shipoo too! She is nowhere near as food oriented as some other breeds but does like her treats.

I second the advice to warm up the food with a little warm water. Someone also recommended to me a dog/puppy milk you can add to the kibble but I haven't tried this as mine is still very young.

Yeah I agree with this completely.

I too found it amusing when OP listed all the dog food brands when that isn’t the problem. She isn’t eating any dog food because you taught her to wait for better options @PooSlave