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.

Sometimes when we are walking another dog owner will ask can they give him a treat and he'll sniff it and walk away!

People get quite upset when it's a lab doing it to them! I do warn them that she'll probably either ignore it or take it and spit it out.

Our dog turned his nose up at all dry food and pretty much all wet food. We were mixing in sardines and dh even tried putting gravy on his food. He was quite happy to starve but was always looking for treats (though if you tried to give him some kibble as a treat he'd totally give you the side eye with "who do you think you are Mrs").

Turns out he likes Asda food, it's called Hero. Cheap tins which he wolfs down then sleeps for 3 hours.

Cheaper for us and the vet says he's really healthy on it, a good weight and his teeth are perfect (he's 8). Vet advised just to feed him what he wants, better eating than not eating!

A wee update for anyone interested. I’ve stopped all treats during the day and I’ve put down kibble only.

She was still making herself very sick with hunger and it was concerning as she was not eating at all. So I started off with hand feeding her chicken with bits of kibble (a tiny shred of chicken at the same time as 2 small bits of kibble). She accepted this and it has really helped.

We are still at hand feeding with chicken and kibble as she’s now scared of her food bowl (after she slapped it in disgust and it clattered loudly on the tiles in front of her).

But we’ve made progress in that once the chicken is gone, she will eat more kibble if I spread it on the floor. I’ve ordered her a new bowl.

I'm confused as to why you are feeding her kibble when she doesn't like it and there are almost always better options for dogs than to be kibble-fed.

You need to take her to the vets. My dog started getting fussy with food and it turned out she had kidney failure. Simple blood test, at least you could rule illness out. I even wrote to the manufacturer.

@redboxer321 She does like the kibble. She eats it willingly. I’ve explained in previous posts that there’s been an improvement in her itchiness and other things since removing wet.

@Cadenza12 She’s been vet checked and got a clean bill of health. She’s genuinely just very fussy.

Ah, ok apologies I didn't see that about the wet food.
Have you tried making the kibble warm? Just pour boiling water on it and serve when just warm. If you chuck a few bits of chicken in too and serve it as a 'soup' she'll have to eat some of the kibble soup to get to the chicken. Don't know if that would help.

Mine went off his bowl for a while too. Seemed to think the bowl was guarding the food.

A silicon snuffle mat worked for a while.

I also dropped high value treats into the low value food while he was eating, to encourage him to stay at the bowl. That may be a good next step.

I think we often forget how sensitive dogs sense of smell is.

I read once that dogs can not only smell a meal you are cooking but every separate ingredient in it.

That made me feel sorry for dogs who have to smell our food and then eat their own which probably smells much less.

Can you try to think about the smell as well as the taste of the food you serve. I know I have had success slightly warming the food just before serving - cold food has less smell.

I think feeding dogs some human food might encourage them to hold out for that. However my solution would be to add a small amount of safe, aromatic human food to their food just to give it an appetising smell.

I think you're spot on @Imgoingtobefree
Warming the kibble with water, even more so with some dog-safe homemade chicken or fish stock, a small bit of stinky organ meat mixed in - spleen would be especially good - could fix the issue overnight.

Have you tried things like a snuffle mat or scatter feeding?

As you / vet have ruled out any health problems I agree with this, she may not eat for a day or so but once she realises there is no tasty beef coming she will eat what you want her to.
If you are worried about her been sick because she hasn't eaten offer her a small amount of plain rice , again putting it down for 15 mins then taking it away.
The only other thing I would consider is the shape and depth of her bowl some dogs ( and cats ) don't like their whiskers touching the sides of the bowl so try feeding her on a saucer/ plate

@redboxer321 The dog friendly soup sounds like a great idea. I will definitely give this a try.

I have a Shihtzu-Maltese mix. He's 5 now and only now he's decided to just eat whatever is in his bowl. I tried wet, raw, home cooked, shop bought - all of it. He has has Edgar & Cooper salmon kibble for last year only - I mix a teeny bit of cooked beef heart with some of the bloody juice over his kibble and he eats it. I stop fussing over it and it got so boring. He gave in eventually. Sometimes when I feel posh he gets a bit of cooked salmon with it.

This is exactly what worked for my high and mighty dog. Stinky beef heart with ditto stinky bloody juice over his kibble.