Jerry 🦙💝🦙TIL I can get my dog to eat when she doesn’t want to by offering the food to her stuffed animals.
It’s becoming a regular occurrence that my dog doesn’t want to eat. I’ve been using my son’s cats as motivation by pretending to offer it to them - she gets super motivated to eat it before they can, but I will be catless this weekend when my son moves out. So I’ve been trying to find alternatives.
Martin Seeger@jerry Threaten to eat it yourself 😃
@jerry This really works, but a side effect will be, that the dog will beg more at the table.
gary
Nonya Bidniss@jerry Do you know what's going on? Is your dog elderly? Possibly have pancreatitis or something like that?
@Nonya_Bidniss she’s 12 and on a lot of pain meds. We are in the “keep her comfortable until it’s time” phase of life, sadly. She still seems happy and playful, though.
@jerry Oh, sorry to hear that. Having gone through the end with two dogs I've sworn off having pets again. Can't take it. Glad yours has you though.
Fabrice Roux 
@jerry do you know the concept of « dog fooding » ? 😬
Aaron Sawdey, Ph.D.@jerry I think you’re on the right track though. I’ve had a lot of dogs because of fostering dogs and there have been a couple who just weren’t interested in eating. Make meal prep a whole event. Narrate it like Mr. Rogers. The anticipation helps get them ready I think, like 1000 Pavlovian bells.
pfriedma@jerry
Some things we've tried after Beefy has had surgery and didn't want to eat that had decent results:
Foods:
* The water from a can of tuna or chicken (beefy liked the chicken and once he had some water was more willing to eat the pieces)
* Gerber ham baby food
Methods:
* Hand feeding pieces
* Pretending to (or actually) eating some ourselves
Some things we've tried after Beefy has had surgery and didn't want to eat that had decent results:
Foods:
* The water from a can of tuna or chicken (beefy liked the chicken and once he had some water was more willing to eat the pieces)
* Gerber ham baby food
Methods:
* Hand feeding pieces
* Pretending to (or actually) eating some ourselves
JimHudson
[nate@social0 ~]$ 
@jerry It could be the the dog isnt getting something she needs from the food anymore, and is instinctively rejecting it. I would check with your vet before parading a new line of dogfoods to the pooch, but its a possibilty.
Could also be that she's just not hungry. Our dogs kinda graze on their food all day, and dont eat it all at once, We've resigned outselves to the fact that they eat when theyre ready.
sigi714
T2R@jerry We have a dog like that too. Sometime's we've mixed wet dog food with his kibble, but once we had to switch to a prescribed wet diet he wanted nothing to do with it. It was just cold wet slop. So we nuked it for 25 seconds (covered) in the microwave and now he snarfs it down. You can somtimes nuke a scrambled egg (no milk, 45 seconds), mash it up with a fork and mix it in with their kibble too. Doggos like hot meals too.
James
Paul_IPv6when i had shared custody of a pug who got moody and didn't always eat, i discovered that purina kitten chow is like crack to dogs. 3-4 pieces put on top of his food usually worked.
i will warn you. he did decide that those were mandatory and would wait, just staring at me until i put them on his food if i hadn't already. ;)
@paul_ipv6 yeah, I can get her to eat if I give her treats or wet cat food no problem. It’s the green beans and dry dog food she is turning down. Both used to be an absolute treat for her. She has horrible hip dysplasia and arthritis in her back legs, so keeping her weight down is really important to maintain any bit of mobility.
TomSeppertI had the same problem with at previous dog and solved it by sometimes "seasoning" his kibble with just a little bit of crumbles of dry bread. Most dogs I know love dry bread.
Later I ended up with a rather funny routine:
After he was done: "come on, let's have a look!" and either in a very playful way "O that's a good boy!" and gave him a small treat, or in a very sad voice "oh no... it's not finished..." and then he would finish it most of the time, just to get the treat.
Matt Hardy 3.11 for Workgroups@jerry weirdly my dog will occasionally ignore her food but there's one thing that makes her guaranteed to rush to her bowl and chomp away: taking the rubbish out. I've no idea why.