(161) Strange Dog Eating Habits are Hard to Change

Sometimes dogs are so strange and the human mind has a difficult time trying to make sense out of their behaviors. Take dogs eating habits for example. Beeker will chow down on any thing he can get into his mouth. He will not only eat his dinner he looks for sticks, bark and leaves to supplement his diet. When he was younger he would eat all of his chew toys as well. But for the most part he goes directly to his food bowl and eats it all down in a matter of minutes. Not so with Maxie. When Max first came to live with us he ate extremely fast just like Beeker. He was somewhat under weight and he needed to gain in the weight to fit his Newfie profile. However, once he did gain the weight and once he got a little older he started being a fuss budget. We first started noticing that he had strange eating habits when we traveled with him to Montana a few years ago. To be honest it was not the ideal situation for the dogs but like most dogs we figured they would adapt. Beeker did adapt and didn’t miss a meal. Max started refusing to eat, turning away from his food and we let him, then we worried that he wasn’t eating so we tried putting a little something enticing into his food. That worked for a while but soon Brad was hand feeding him just to get him to eat a little something. At some point he just stopped eating every meal and only ate every other meal. When we returned home he started eating again and now whenever we travel he usually only eats if Brad hand feeds him and about every other meal. Tonight Max refused to eat his dinner and we are home. So I’m wondering what’s up with him. At first I thought that he was refusing to eat because it is so hot here today and the garage (where they eat) is even hotter. I know I’m not interested in eating when it is hot outside. Then I thought that maybe Max is not feeling well. Since we got home from out travels to Indiana, he has been a little lethargic. I thought it was because he was extremely exhausted. But yesterday he sneezed a few times and so now I’m thinking he might have a dog cold. He still wrestles with Beeks but doesn’t move around a lot. Okay, he doesn’t move around a lot anyway.

My sister is dog sitting for a King Charles Cavalier dog this week and she called me yesterday to ask about the strange eating behavior of this tiny dog. Turns out that this dog started out eating normally but quickly decided that it could/would not eat unless Juli was standing right next to her while she ate. If Juli walks away the dog will stop eating. If Juli just walks by it will eat a few bites. What’s up with that? It’s true that Max is more likely to start eating if someone stands right next to him while he eats but I just fill his bowl and put green beans in under the food. This sort of primes him and then he will start eating. Except for tonight when he plain refused to eat even with green beans hiding in the bowl. When I took the bowl inside the house into the laundry room he did eat some of his food but not all. So what’s going on?

Here’s my best guess, and it is a guess because I have no idea how a dog thinks. Temple Grandin (Hallelujah) suggests that dogs are action and vision specific. This means that they see things differently in every direction. For instance, remember my issue with Beeker and the “bed up” command? He did fine if I stood next to him and gave him the command but wouldn’t follow my verbal command if I was sitting on the bed. Dogs can’t generalize from one behavior to the next. Long story short, if a dog gets something in its mind it is difficult to undo that behavior. Overriding a behavior is easier than undoing it. It might be as specific as feeding Max his dinner in a different bowl in a different location to get him to eat. Who knows why Maxie or Trudy(Juli’s dog guest) have strange eating behaviors but I would wager that there once was something that made it feel uncomfortable (strange environment, a thunderstorm, another dog) and the only way it feels comfortable in some instances is to have someone around when it’s time to eat, or to eat in a certain way. I’m sure we humans behave strangely to the dog world too.