What can I do to get my dog to eat?

I give any pills that my dogs need to take (vs. regular supplements) seperately as "dessert". I use soft cream cheese and they scarf it down.
 
I don't have a problem with topping foods with different things to give them variety. When Tasha was an only dog she was very picky. Another thing to try is salmon oil. My dogs will eat anything if it has salmon oil on it, and it is very beneficial.

When Max started hurting because of his hip he wasn't as very interested in his food. Here's what I did. Got better food (was on Nutro for LB pups) did a gradual change to SGWolfKing (the vet said to change to adult). I bought a can of good canned food and mixed very thoroughly a tablespoon in (a can lasts a week). I also wet it down it warm water. Whatever pills he may have go in too. Started giving him less to eat.

Dog eats it in seconds. Comes back to the bowl 3 times to lick it clean. Now granted he is a lab and a good eater and never had puking problems.

Works well for Max. I was having a hard to with tough love since he was hurting

/pushover

Bullet finally ate breakfast this morning. Just after his daddy left, he ran down stairs to eat. It was a first in a long time. (He's never been big on eating breakfast).

I use to give Bullet all kinds of different things to eat with his meals. I'd put small amounts of veggies there (he loved that it would be the first thing he would eat) I would drain a can of tuna over his food, and when I made hamburger, he got bits of meat broken up over his food. Of course he became to expect a special treatment so when he didn't get what he wanted, he just wouldn't eat. I've learned now that along with tough love, these special treats should be saved for an after dinner special with exception of maybe tuna water.

We go shopping on Fri, so yes a switch is in order. I think we have agreed to go back to chicken soup for the dog lovers, to see how he does on that.

Until he learns to eat what he is given, we will stick with tough love, then slowly introduce some other food into his diet.

I feed a wide variety of foods and my dogs aren't picky eaters-- they eat what they are served or they starve. I think feeding only dry kibble, particularly only one brand for the life of the dog, is very unhealthy. At the very least rotate among brands of kibble and supplement with fish body oil.

Is your dog a known mix? I apologize because I can't remember the details of your dog or what he looks like. 80 pounds sounds huge for both a heeler and a BC! Anyway, BCs get ulcers - it's somewhat rare so your vet may not have heard of this, but if your dog does have BC in him, please be aware of this possibililty. They tend to occur in the smooth-coated, high-strung, nervy dogs but the symptoms are exactly what you describe. The situation may go away all on its own, as these ulcers (they are not really ulcers like the kind we get, but the effect is similiar) come and go and get better and worse. You may never have a problem again, or you may see this once a year, or every six months, or every three months, or it may turn into a constant problem.

I've known two people who had this confirmed with scopes, but the treatment was simple - the same meds as for ulcers.

I'm normally a tough love advocate, but I don't like not eating combined with barfing when eating is attempted. That tells me something is awry inside. Try changing the food first, but keep the ulcer thing in the back of your mind. If you come back to this, PM me or ping me here and I'll see whether I can track down the real name of this thing.

I am so thankful that in 50 years of owning dogs I have never had a picky eater.  The only exception was the 3 months Buck was on the Science Diet k/d for kidney infection.  he didn't like it and rarely ate it all.   Mine eat their dry kibble in the mornings with the same gusto they eat their kibble & home cooked at night.  I have a grand daughter that is a picky eater and that would drive me bananas fixing two different meals.  My boys (and my dogs) eat/ate what was on the table/in the bowl and that was law.

ah, but Sandra, owners (and parents) create picky eaters. It's not luck.
[Although in this case (the OP) it appears to be a medical issue, not picky eating]

Here is a pic of [linkhttp://www.geocities.com/hosselblotta/7-12-06.JPG]Bullet[/link] last July. He's only gained a couple of pounds since then. We believe he has some lab in him as well, because he is so big. But being a mutt, we don't know what he is for sure.

We will switch foods and hold off on the medicine and see if the new food is the source of the problem. If he continues to get sick, then the vet told us what he has, and what we have to do to control it. So far, it is working. I just have to be more careful with what, or rather, when I feed him certain things. If necessary, I will have to use tough love every few months just to show the dog, he has to eat what is given.

Right now he seems to be doing pretty good, he's not getting sick, and he is eating (or he did this morning and last night) So it's kind of an experiment from now on. With the help of the vet, and new food, I feel confident he will over come this thing.

But I will keep ulcers in the back of my mind

Wow, he's either got a lot of Border collie or that's a wild convergence of random breeding! The black specks are from Border Collie (or could be). If he weren't so big I'd say, oh, yeah, he's purebred. I wonder whether he's from some of those crazy cattle dog breeders out west.

Good luck!

He's super cute!![]

My guy was a picky eater when I had him on kibble---any kibble.  He also had a lot of stomach problems---IBS/Colitis.  My holistic vet and I believe the very nature of the kibble irritated his colon, he knew it, and therefore would not eat.  He also has an intolerance for potatoes, rice and most other grains.  Once we started on canned food he was just fine--the finicky eater was gone.  He is also a self regulator and will only eat when hungry--that includes treats. We have now transitioned to raw with the best possible results.  Good luck.

Which it seems too, when I can get Bullet to eat.

 
This sounds just like how Cherokee used to be. She would sometimes eat, sometimes wouldn't, and threw up bile several times per week. I always was cleaning up some puddle or another (which wasn't a huge deal when we lived in a house with all wood floors, but it got to be a huge PITA when we moved to a carpeted house). That was when she ate Iams, Science Diet, Eukanuba, etc.
 
When I switched to Bil-Jac she was like a new dog. She always ate her food, and never threw up. But her teeth got HORRIBLY dirty and she was HORRIBLY smelly. So I switched to Wellness, and back came the throwing up, every night, and she'd only touch it when she was almost literally starving. She seriously ate maybe 3 or 4 times a week, and not very much each time.
 
Then came the "aha" moment of GOOD (IMO) foods. Switched to Innova, no more pickiness, no more throwing up, no horribly smelly dog nor filthy teeth. That was 2ish years ago, and she didn't actually eat Innova for that long, we've been through a number of other foods, but all about on par with Innova, plus a lot of homecooking and raw, and she's only thrown up maybe 7 or 8 times (which is a ridiculous improvement considering sometimes she threw up that many times in a week!) since we first switched to Innova, and usually that's because I either forgot to feed her, or put something "yucky" like raw beef kidney in her bowl. []
 
I tend to believe that Cherokee knew those foods weren't good for her, but maybe that's a bit crazy. I don't know the reason. All I know is I had her for 5 years on not so great foods, and she threw up all the time, and since switching to better foods in the past 2 years, she doesn't throw up and isn't what I would call picky anymore.

ah, but Sandra, owners (and parents) create picky eaters. It's not luck.

 
Yeah.  I grew up eating what was on my plate or I went hungry.  Our boys few up eating what was on their plate or they went hungry.  My oldest is raising his kids the same way and they eat most everything.  The youngest--well, if they are having home cooked hamburgers and his daughter don't want them, he does those nasty chicken nuggets for her. if they are having Italian food, same thing.  She will be 4 in April and lives on chicken nuggest, fries, macaroni & cheese, corn and melon in season.  I had everyone here for home made broccoli/cheese soup, tossed salad, rolls and chocolate cake like dessert last Friday before we went to the lighting of the community tree (great living in small town) and my son told me to fix chicken nuggets and fries for his daughter.  My kid she would have gone hungry!
 
I actually worried that when I started my dogs on the home cooked mixed with kibble at night they would refuse the dry kibble in the morning, but they never did.  They eat with as much gusto in the mornings as they do at night.

ORIGINAL: brookcove

Wow, he's either got a lot of Border collie or that's a wild convergence of random breeding! The black specks are from Border Collie (or could be). If he weren't so big I'd say, oh, yeah, he's purebred. I wonder whether he's from some of those crazy cattle dog breeders out west.

Good luck!

We know his mom was in fact border collie, and blue healer. He was born in a shelter in NM then shipped with 3 litter mates to CO where we got him. So no telling what he really is. He has a very short tail that he was born with, not really a border collie tail. It looks like it was cut, but the shelter said they don't do that.

An update on Bullet. Last Thursday he went for 38 hours without eating (his choice) but once he started eating, he hasn't missed a meal, and is even starting to look forward to eating. We are slowly switching him to a new food that I believe will be good for him. We got a small bag to see how he does with it before we invest in a larger one.

He is still on meds until he is completely switched over, but he is no longer throwing up. I think one reason he doesn't eat is because of the food. He may just know it makes him sick. When we brought the new bag into the house, he was licking the bag, but we couldn't give him any of the new food, until he ate the old food, or he would have one.

I'm just glad he is doing better, and with a food switch, maybe he will stay that way.